of Britanny, to the English crown at once recalled John to the realm, and peace between him and Longchamp was only preserved by the influence of the queen-mother Eleanor.  Richard met this news by sending Walter of Coutances, the Archbishop of Rouen, with full but secret powers to England.  On his landing in the summer of 1191 Walter found the country already in arms.  No battle had been fought, but John had seized many of the royal castles, and the indignation stirred by Longchamp’s arrest of Archbishop Geoffry of York, a bastard son of Henry the Second, called the whole baronage to the field.  The nobles swore fealty to John as Richard’s successor, and Walter of Coutances saw himself forced to show his commission as Justiciar, and to assent to Longchamp’s exile from the realm.

[Sidenote:  Richard]

The tidings of this revolution reached Richard in the Holy Land.  He had landed at Acre in the summer and joined with the French king in its siege.  But on the surrender of the town Philip at once sailed home, while Richard, marching from Acre to Joppa, pushed inland to Jerusalem.  The city however was saved by false news of its strength, and through the following winter and the spring of 1192 the king limited his activity to securing the fortresses of southern Palestine.  In June he again advanced on Jerusalem, but the revolt of his army forced him a second time to fall back, and news of Philip’s intrigues with John drove him to abandon further efforts.  There was need to hasten home.  Sailing for speed’s sake in a merchant vessel, he was driven by a storm on the Adriatic coast, and while journeying in disguise overland arrested in December at Vienna by his personal enemy, Duke Leopold of Austria.  Through the whole year John, in disgust at his displacement by Walter of Coutances, had been plotting fruitlessly with Philip.  But the news of this capture at once roused both to activity.  John secured his castles and seized Windsor, giving out that the king would never return; while Philip strove to induce the Emperor, Henry the Sixth, to whom the Duke of Austria had given Richard up, to retain his captive.  But a new influence now appeared on the scene.  The see of Canterbury was vacant, and Richard from his prison bestowed it on Hubert Walter, the Bishop of Salisbury, a nephew of Ranulf de Glanvill, and who had acted as secretary to Bishop Longchamp.  Hubert’s ability was seen in the skill with which he held John at bay and raised the enormous ransom which Henry demanded, the whole people, clergy as well as lay, paying a fourth of their moveable goods.  To gain his release however Richard was forced besides this payment of ransom to do homage to the Emperor, not only for the kingdom of Arles with which Henry invested him but for England itself, whose crown he resigned into the Emperor’s hands and received back as a fief.  But John’s open revolt made even these terms welcome, and Richard hurried to England in the spring of 1194.  He found the rising already quelled by the decision with which the Primate led an army against John’s castles, and his landing was followed by his brother’s complete submission.