THEY REACHED SPEYER three days later as dusk was falling. It was Palm Sunday and the great cathedral of St Mary and St Stephen was packed with worshippers, reminding Richard of how long it had been since he was shriven of his sins. He was expecting to be taken to the royal palace or perhaps to the bishop’s palace, wherever Heinrich had been able to gather the largest audience for the spectacle of surrender. When Hadmar escorted him into the cathedral precincts and then to the chapter house north of the great church, he concluded that once again he was to be held offstage until Heinrich was ready for the circus to begin. But as soon as he crossed the threshold, he saw that he was wrong. It would seem that the emperor had chosen not to make their first meeting a public one.
Heinrich was seated in the ornate bishop’s chair, flanked by Leopold and a stout, richly dressed man whom Richard assumed to be the Bishop of Speyer. There were others in the chapter house, but he was given no introductions to any of them. After Hadmar had gone to kneel before the emperor, Heinrich gestured for Richard’s guards to bring him forward. Richard’s first thought as he gazed upon his enemy was that Berenguela was right. There was nothing regal about Heinrich von Hohenstaufen. He was only of moderate height and slightly built, with a thin face, his pallor accentuated by blond hair and a sparse beard. But Berenguela was also right about his eyes. They were so pale they seemed colorless and Richard thought it was like looking into the flat, dead eyes of a snake.
Heinrich was holding a magnificent golden goblet studded with rubies. He drank, then set it down without haste upon the arm of his chair. “I expect men to kneel when they come into my presence.” His voice was without inflexion, his Latin excellent.
“Well, we do not always get what we expect, do we?”
A faint smile touched those thin lips. “I could make you kneel.”
Richard returned the smile. “No,” he said, “you could not,” giving the pronoun just enough emphasis so that there could be no mistaking his meaning. Such an insult would have sent angry blood into Philippe’s face. Heinrich did not react at all and Richard suddenly remembered his mother’s caustic comment: that he had ice flowing through his veins.
It was Leopold who spoke up. “Can we get on with this?” That he would show such impatience told Richard that he was not happy to be here. It also showed he was confident that he had leverage with Heinrich, and Richard decided the Austrian duke was more of a fool than he’d first thought.
“Of course, Cousin.” Heinrich smiled again, one of the most chilling smiles Richard had ever seen. “You may be the one to read the terms to the English king.”
Leopold did not like that at all. When one of the emperor’s scribes held out a parchment scroll, he took it with reluctance. Unrolling it, he glanced at it briefly and then back to Richard. “The Holy Roman Emperor and I agreed at Würzburg on the ides of February that I will deliver you, the king of the English, into his custody. You will be held at the emperor’s pleasure until payment is paid of one hundred thousand silver marks. Half is to—”
“You cannot possibly be serious!” Richard was stunned. Even in his worst moments, he’d not expected a demand like this. One hundred thousand silver marks was twice the annual revenues of England and Normandy.
Leopold frowned. “If I may continue? As I said, you are to pay the sum of one hundred thousand marks. Half of this amount is to be the marriage portion of your niece, the Duchess of Brittany’s daughter, who will wed my son Friedrich this coming Michaelmas. The remaining fifty thousand marks shall be paid at the beginning of Lent next year, and it is to be divided between the emperor and me.”
He raised his eyes from the document to glare defiantly at Richard. “You will also give the emperor two hundred highborn hostages as surety that you will fulfill the terms of this agreement. The emperor is to provide me with two hundred hostages of his own as surety that if he dies before these terms are met, you will be returned to my custody. If I should die, my son is to act in my stead. If you die whilst in the emperor’s power, your two hundred hostages will be released.”
Thinking that Richard meant to protest, he raised his hand. “There is more. You must free my cousin, Isaac Comnenus, and return his daughter, Anna, to him. You must also provide the emperor with fifty war galleys and one hundred knights, and you must go in person with another one hundred knights to fight at the emperor’s side in his war to overthrow the man who usurped the Sicilian throne.”