Richard of Cornwall
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Emperor of Germany; second son of John, King of England; born Jan. 5, 1209. In 1225-1226 he and his uncle, William of Salisbury, commanded an expedition which recovered Gascony, and the next year he received Cornwall as the result of a rising of the earls to compel the king, Henry III., to make provision for him. He managed his money matters well, and his wealth, as well as his prudence, saved Henry in many an impending crisis. For some years he acted with the English barons, barons, to many of whom he was closely related by by his marriage with Isabel, Countess of Gloucester, daughter of the Earl of Pembroke. In 1232 he was one of the leaders in the opposition to Hubert de Burgh; and in 1238 he headed an armed rising provoked by the king's secret marriage of his sister to Simon de Montfort. But Richard was still heir to the throne, and the articles which Henry was prepared to sign, and which dismissed his foreign advisers, appeared to the earl to bind the king's hands too closely, and he drew back. In 1240-1241 Richard was away on a crusade, and the next year he was with his Calculations" brother in Gascony; and in 1243 he Metals" (1908), etc. married Sancha of Provence, sister of Queen Eleanor, and this second second marriage ma drew him away from the baronage. In 1252 he refused the Pope's 's offer to sell him the crown of Sicily; but in 1257 Boston, he was elected by a majority titular king of the Romans, and was soon afterward crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle; and he was skilful enough to maintain a certain hold on Germany, lavishing his wealth to maintain his own position and the dignity of the empire. In the great struggle which took place between Henry III. and his nobles Richard at first acted ever as a, he peacemaker sided with. his Subsequently, how- Noble Lives " Simon de Montfort; and brother he was against Howe " ( 1915) taken Howe Elliott). prisoner at Lewes, and imprisoned for a year, till the battle of Evesham (1265) set him free. In 1267 he was a third time married, to Beatrice, niece of the Elector of Cologne. Richard died at Kirkham, April 2, 1272, broken-hearted at the loss of his eldest son, Henry, who was murdered at Viterbo by the Montforts, and immortalized by Dante. Two other sons died also without issue.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare narrative Collier's gave in 1921 still stands, but modern historians would not head the entry "Emperor of Germany": Richard was elected king of the Romans in 1257 in a disputed double election against Alfonso X of Castile, and was never crowned emperor in Rome. Two details in the Collier's text are also now given differently: his first wife was Isabel Marshal, daughter of William Marshal earl of Pembroke and widow of the earl of Gloucester (hence the confusing "Isabel, Countess of Gloucester"), and he died at Berkhamsted Castle in 1272. What has grown most since 1921 is interest in his money rather than his crown — the Cornish tin revenues, the 1247 recoinage he financed, and his purchase of the custody of England's Jewish community, which historians now treat as the real basis of the wealth Collier's mentions only in passing; N. Denholm-Young's 1947 life remains the standard biography.
Written for this edition, 2026.