"Winter 1191. The armies of two mighty Christian kings jostled for space in their encampment on the island of Sicily, en route to the Crusades. Months had passed, and both monarchs and soldiers had grown restless. Everyone awaited the coming spring and conditions safe enough to sail on to the Holy Land. None were more eager to depart than their commanders: the English King Richard; the French King Philip Augustus; and their reluctant host, the diminutive King Tancred of Sicily. Once so close that they had shared bed and board, Richard and Philip's relationship had become uneasy during their time in Sicily. Rumours had reached Philip that Richard planned to betray a decades-old alliance between their families – a union that would have seen him marry Philip's sister Alice. Now there were reports that a princess of Navarre was on her way with Richard's mother, the indomitable Eleanor of Aquitaine, to claim the English king's hand instead. Philip was incensed. ‘If he does put (Alice) aside and marry another woman,' he declared, ‘I will be the enemy of him and his so long as I live.'
Characteristically, Philip chose to force the issue by manipulative diplomatic means rather than open conflict. He went to Tancred, accusing Richard of plotting to seize Sicily for his own family. When Richard learnt of this he – equally characteristically – forced a confrontation, in which the French king demanded, in a refrain that had become a standard of Anglo-French bargaining over the past ten years, that Richard finally fulfill his promise and marry his sister. It was then that Richard made a shocking accusation.
‘He could never take Philip's sister as wife,' he said, ‘for the king of England, his father, had known her, and got a son from her, and to this end Richard could produce witnesses.'…"
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