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capitulate: as a final measure of contempt, he was bound in chains made from his own silver.
The upshot was that Richard had won a kingdom, an island fortress that was to prove an essential supply base for the kingdom of Jerusalem during the coming decades of struggle, and without which the fall of the kingdom would have come a century earlier.
During the campaign, there was time for Richard and Berengaria to at last marry, the joyous and long awaited event coming on May 12, during a lull in the fighting.
Richard rode on his captured Spanish charger to the chapel of St George in Limassol, dressed in finery provided for him by his mother: on his head a bright red cap, his tunic rose coloured and decorated with silver half moons, and over all a cloak of striped silk. His sword hung at his side in a scabbard woven with silver: on his feet were golden shoes, bound with golden spurs.
Berengaria, in contrast, was dressed as simply as it was possible for her to be, and out of all keeping with the traditions of her country, where brides were normally decked in the most elaborate of costumes.
She was not be the star of the moment: it belonged to her husband. The anonymous chronicler rather half heartedly describes Berengaria at her marriage as a damsel of the greatest prudence and most accomplished manners, and says that there she was crowned queen.
Richard, on the other hand, he describes as in his glory on this happy occasion, cheerful to all, showing himself very jocose and affable.25
This was in no way a traditional wedding: the chapel was small, there were few women present. Rather, the church was full of the susurration of metal links of chain mail, the drone of men's voices, and the sight of the scarred faces of grizzled survivors of the Second Crusade, and the lean, suntanned faces of Richard's knights, warriors who had come momentarily from trading blows with the Greeks.
In other ways, also, it was not traditional: Richard was unmarried at 33, unusual for a man with his responsibilities. After all, his father had married at 19, to a woman a decade his senior. Berengaria was 26. She was practically middle aged by the standards of the time, although no doubt capable of playing the expected role of the wife for some years yet.
Richard was in genial mood, as well he should be. The war was going well, he was surrounded by admirers, he was in one of the loveliest places in the Mediterranean, which was now his own, and he had taken a new bride.
As well, there are some suggestions that Richard had a new love, who was not his consort.
One of the prizes of war was a girl whom Lionheart took prisoner at just about the time of the Limassol marriage. She was the unnamed daughter of Isaac, sent to Richard as a hostage, or possibly captured by Guy of Lusignan in Kyrenia, one of the emperor's forts.
Richard de Templo says Guy found the girl and her mother, an Armenian princess, along with a great deal of loot. Richard had the girl placed in a strong castle to protect her against recapture, as the emperor was nearly mad with grief at her loss. It was at this time that Richard was ill, confined to his bed according to the chronicler, and unable to take part in the siege of another of the emperor's forts. Richard rose from his sick bed to complete the taking of this last fort, at which point the emperor surrendered. It was because his daughter had been captured, says the chronicler, that the emperor decided to surrender. When he came to beg mercy from Richard, the Coeur de Lion had pity on his fellow monarch, and had him sat on the bench beside him. Then the little girl was brought in and the overjoyed emperor covered her with kisses, as the tears poured from his eyes.
The emperor was given into the care of King Guy, while the girl was delivered to Berengaria to be brought up and educated.
The chronicler Ernoul says that the girl was brought back to Europe in the company of Richard. After his death, she tried to return to Cyprus. She was seized at Marseilles and forced to marry Raymond of Toulouse. After he repudiated her for a more desirable marriage to Joanna, she married a second time to a Flemish knight who tried to claim the throne of Cyprus through her. They sailed together to Cyprus, but their claim was unsuccessful, and soon afterwards they disappeared, nameless and unmourned, from the pages of history.26
This girl became Richard's constant companion, going on to the Holy Land in Richard's suite, even though she is described as a very young child - juvenula parvula - causing some outraged mutterings amongst the chroniclers, and possibly explaining why Richard may not have consummated his marriage with Berengaria at that time.27
In fact, there is no proof that Richard's marriage was ever taken to its completion: Berengaria's tomb enigmatically shows her dressed as a virgin bride. Was this because she had never slept with Richard, or was it because she wished to face her Maker in a state of purity? Are we to believe Richard of Devizes' ambiguous statement that she was "probably still a virgin" when she sailed from Messina aboard the dromond?
Again, the curtains of time are drawn. Three days of feasting followed the wedding ceremony, during which Richard showed all the liberality becoming his station and the occasion: "there was joy and love enough."
Berengaria's biographer, Mairin Mitchell, comments that after eight hundred years we will probably never know, but adds that it was also a fact that Richard found time to begin a castle he named Berengaria, and that a short distance north of Limassol is a village traditionally known as Berengaria Village, described as an ideal place for a honeymoon.28
Richard also took the opportunity of the marriage to officially confirm the dower of lands that he had promised Berengaria in Messina.
Non consummation of the marriage may also have had to do with the fact that Richard was showing the first signs of the debilitating illnesses that were to plague him throughout his journey to the East. Soon after his arrival at Acre, his hair and nails were to fall out, and his skin was to peel in strips.
The wedding completed, last stage of the great journey east was about to begin: the royal army sailed from Famagusta to Acre.
On the way, Berengaria was able to watch her new husband's ships pound a massive Saracen vessel into matchsticks and slaughter its crew as they tried to swim to safety, Richard all the time urging his men to succeed, or he would have them crucified.
Hers was a most unusual honeymoon.
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