Hello and welcome to the History of England, episode 15, Richard and the Defence of the Empire.

So this is formally my 50th episode, actually it's the 54th, but it does have the number

50th. So I thought I'd have some kind of special episode, a coruscating and

scintillating episode full of wit and light and insight. But then I decided to do this

instead. This week's book Recommendation is Medieval Lives by Terry Jones, you know

the ex-Python bloke. The great thing about this, and there's also a DVD of the BBC

program by the way, is his enormous enthusiasm. Terry simply loves everything

Medieval, as you'll have seen, if you followed up the YouTube links to the crusade last week.

Medieval Lives is a really good way to find out about how medieval men and women really lived,

and of course it's funny at the same time. So our job now is to look at the rest

of Richard's reign, 1194 to 1199, and this week we'll look at Richard's administration

and start off looking at his defence of the empire against Philip, and then plot spoiler

alert, next week he's going to die. Between March and May 1194 then, Richard

spent his second and last visit in England. After he'd cleared up the last bits who revolved

against his authority by John, Richard had some admin to carry out. So he called a

four-day great council, or Magnum Consilium. Interestingly, the council was held in Nottingham,

and before it started, Richard took a day trip to admire the local Sherwood forest. Was

this the time when he turned into Sean Connery and attended Kevin's wedding?

More importantly, the council looked at the not unrelated problem of the best possible

administration of the realm, and raising money of course. Not unrelated, because Richard

hit on the happy expedient of replacing all the sheriffs, and in normal manner, charging

the new men for their officers. If you were a sheriff, this would have been a little

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