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means an ill choice as far as Sicily went, but he had little sympathy with the Crusade and was not at all pleased at the arrival of two huge armies subject to men who might oppose his seizure of the throne. Thinking that Philip might be more sympathetic than Joanna's brother, Tancred welcomed the French King into his palace, leaving Richard to find quarters as best he might outside the walls of Messina. |
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Richard accepted the slight with deceptive meeknessmost of his army had not yet arrived owing to his fleet having been delayed at Gibraltar. He asked only for his sister, whom Tancred had nervously been keeping in gentle custody. Although he had not yet taken the full measure of the English King, Tancred was afraid to deny so reasonable a request. Joanna was escorted out of the city with her bed and bed furnishings and £2,200 in gold in lieu of her dower property. Richard received with open arms the sister he had not seen since he, himself, had escorted her to William's Court when she was eleven years old. He said nothing about her dower property but hastened to take her across the straits to Bognara and to garrison a priory so that, whatever happened, no one could seize and hold her. |
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Up to this point Simon's letters and those Richard's scribes wrote could have been duplicates. The sections that described Joanna, however, were more like a duet, two different melodies blending into a perfect harmony. Richard enlarged upon his sister's beauty, so like her mother's, upon her queenly grace, upon the elegance of her manners. Simon expatiated at length upon the sweetness of her disposition, her elevated mind, the pious resignation with which she bore her sorrows and disappointments. When Alinor first read the passage she was a little annoyed. Simon seemed entirely too enthusiastic about virtues that were exact complements of her own failings. Then it seemed to her that he had been suspiciously silent on Joanna's beauty and grace. |
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