rs (especially the extravagant
William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely) were no less lavish in their
expenditure for festive entertainments at home. And the old romance of
"Richard Coeur de Lion" assures us that--

"Christmas is a time full honest;
Kyng Richard it honoured with gret feste.
All his clerks and barouns
Were set in their pavylouns,
And seryed with grete plente
Of mete and drink and each dainte."

There is no doubt that the Crusades had a vast influence upon our
literary tastes, as well as upon the national manners and the
festivities of Christmastide. On their return from the Holy Land the
pilgrims and Crusaders brought with them new subjects for theatrical
representation, founded on the objects of their devotion and the
incidents in their wars, and these found expression in the early
mysteries and other plays of Christmastide--that of St. George and the
Dragon, which survived to modern times, probably owing its origin to
this period. It is to Richard Coeur de Lion that we are indebted for
the rise of chivalry in England. It was he who developed tilts and
tournaments, and under his auspices these diversions assumed a
military air, the genius of poetry flourished, and the fair sex was
exalted in admiration. How delightful was it then, beneath the
inspiring gaze of the fair--

"Sternly to strike the quintin down;
Or fiercely storm some turf-formed town;
To rush with valour's doughty sway,
Against a Babylon of clay;
A Memphis shake with furious shock,
Or raze some flower-built Antioch!"[18]

On the death of Richard, in 1199, his brother

JOHN WAS CROWNED KING OF ENGLAND.

The youngest and favourite son of Henry II., John, was humoured in
childhood and grew to be an arrogant and petulant man, and was one of
the worst of English kings. He possessed ability, but not discipline.
He could neither govern himself nor his kingdom. He was tyrannical and
passionate, and spent a good deal of time in the gratification of his
animal appetites. He was fond of display and good living, and
extravagant in his Christmas entertainments. When, in 1201, he kept
Christmas at Guildford he taxed his purse and ingenuity in providing
all his servitors with costly apparel, and he was greatly annoyed
because the Archbishop of Canterbury, in a similar fit of sumptuary
extravagance, sought to outdo his sovereign. John, however, cunningly
concealed his displeasure at the time, but punished the prelate by a
cost