By WILLIAM E. AYTOUN, _Author of “Bothwell,” a Poem_.
None of our monarchs has achieved a wider fame than Cœur-de-Lion, yet
his personal history is of all others least studied or understood.
All men know that he rebelled against his father, but comparatively
few are aware of the cause. All know that he conducted a crusade, and
encountered Saladin; but few are acquainted with the extent of his
conquests, or the causes which drove him back a fugitive to Europe. No
period of the romantic ages is more interesting, or better entitled to
a close examination.