r, neither of them dared to infringe the
privileges he had so solemnly granted or confirmed to the municipality
of Rouen. The accession of the Lionheart was signalised in the
Cathedral chapterhouse by the characteristic gift of three hundred
barrels of wine, which the canons and the archbishops were to claim
from the Vicomte de l'Eau, and this privilege the good ecclesiastics
thoroughly enjoyed until the middle of the sixteenth century. The
jurisdiction of the Vicomte de l'Eau itself, and of the new "Baillage"
and the "Maire," was further developed and established in 1192; and
the quarrels that are so persistent throughout the history of Rouen,
between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, found their
expression two years later in a renewed and fiercely contested
struggle about the rights over the Parvis of the Cathedral. The
canons, as usual, held their own, and in the same year asserted their
still more extraordinary right of releasing a prisoner by virtue of
the Privilege of the Fierte of St. Romain, by giving their freedom to
two men, on the return of Richard from the Holy Land, because the
privilege had not been exercised during his imprisonment abroad. There
is an extremely fine impression in wax of one of Richard Coeur de
Lion's seals in the archives of Rouen, which is one of the few still
existing in which he is represented on one side as the King sitting
upon the throne of England, and on the other as the Duke of Normandy
riding in full armour against his foes. His is a character that gains
from the mystery of romance cast over it. His career in France shows
little that is creditable either to his head or heart.

In 1197 the same spirit of assertive independence was evidenced in the
building of stone crosses in all parts of the city, which lasted until
1562, and recorded that their Duke, Richard had bought the manor of
Andelys and the rock for his Chateau Gaillard from the Archbishop of
Rouen, at the price of two of the town's public mills, the manor of
Louviers, the towns of Dieppe and Bouteilles, and the forest of
Aliermont. The bargain had not been struck without great agitation,
interdicts on the town, and outcries from laymen and ecclesiastics
alike. But it was well worth any trouble and treasure, and the
Lionheart's "saucy castle" became the key of Normandy. His miserable
brother John would never have lost the Duchy had he kept the fort. But
his reign was ever destined to failure and discredit, and af