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Page 317
Why should he not mention what Richard praised so highly? Simon had a keen eye for feminine beauty. Could her fresh complexion have taken on such a hue, Alinor would have literally turned green with jealousy.
Absorbed by personal considerations, Alinor hardly noted what to the Queen was most important. Philip had overreached himself by inciting suspicion in Tancred, and the Sicilian King had failed to smooth over his subjects' resentments of the actions of Richard's men. The original faults may have been equal, but minor incidents were allowed to develop to the point that, by the time Richard's fleet arrived, the people of Messina closed the gates of their city, hurled not only insults but missiles at Richard's men, and prepared for war. At first, Richard tried to keep the peace. He was furious with Tancred's behavior in retaining most of Joanna's dowery, but he had been willing to try diplomatic means of solving that problem. When the quarters of one of his major barons were attacked and his men slaughtered, however, Richard's limited patience gave out and he flew into a true Angevin rage.
Raging or calm, Richard was a remarkable tactician. His own letter merely reported that they had taken Messina by the evening of the same day the insult was offered and that Tancred had capitulated on all points. Simon, however, became lyrical in his description of the battle, detailing how Richard's forces had been ordered to hold their bolts until those of the overeager Sicilians were exhausted, how they had then driven the defenders from the walls with a fusillade of arrows so that the battering rams could burst in the gates. Then they had reduced every fortified building in the city in a series of lightning attacks, sparing only King Philip's quarters and Tancred's own palace.
Simon was far less enthusiastic about the settlement that had been made. Having finally realized what sort of man he had to deal with, Tancred brought to the negotiations letters signed and sealed by Philip that

 
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