of the cheat, began to
think of breaking off the agreement, and of resigning into the pope's
hands that crown, which it was not intended by Alexander, that he or
his family should ever enjoy [g].
[FN [c] M. Paris, p. 612, 628. Chron. T. Wykes, p. 54. [d] M. Paris,
p. 614. [e] Ibid. p. 619. [f] Rymer, vol. i. p. 624. M. Paris, p.
648. [g] Rymer, vol. i. p. 630.]

[MN Earl of Cornwall elected King of the Romans.]
The Earl of Cornwall had now reason to value himself on his foresight,
in refusing the fraudulent bargain with Rome, and in preferring the
solid honours of an opulent and powerful prince of the blood of
England, to the empty and precarious glory of a foreign dignity. But
he had not always firmness sufficient to adhere to this resolution:
his vanity and ambition prevailed at last over his prudence and his
avarice; and he was engaged in an enterprise no less extensive and
vexatious than that of his brother, and not attended with much greater
probability of success. The immense opulence of Richard having made
the German princes cast their eye on him as a candidate for the
empire, he was tempted to expend vast sums of money on his election;
and he succeeded so far as to be chosen King of the Romans, which
seemed to render his succession infallible to the imperial throne. He
went over to Germany, and carried out of the kingdom no less a sum
than seven hundred thousand marks, if we may credit the account given
by some ancient authors [h], which is probably much exaggerated [i].
His money, while it lasted, procured him friends and partisans; but it
was soon drained from him by the avidity of the German princes; and
having no personal or family connexions in that country, and no solid
foundation of power, he found at last that he had lavished away the
frugality of a whole life in order to procure a splendid title; and
that his absence from England, joined to the weakness of his brother's
government, gave reins to the factious and turbulent dispositions of
the English barons, and involved his own country and family in great
calamities.
[FN [h] M. Paris, p. 638. The same author, a few pages before, makes
Richard's treasures amount to little more than half the sum, p. 634.
The king's dissipations and expenses, throughout his whole reign,
according to the same author, had amounted only to about nine hundred
and forty thousand marks, p. 638. [i] The sums mentioned by ancient
authors, who were almost all monks, ar