Note 736 — Chapter V · JOHN AND THE POPE 1210–1214

Cf. R. Howden, vol. iv. pp. 83 and 116. The account of Richard’s testamentary dispositions in the former place is open to two interpretations. Richard, says Roger, “divisit Johanni fratri suo regnum Angliae ... et praecepit ut traderentur ei castella sua, et tres partes” [in p. 116 Otto claims only “duas partes”] “thesauri sui, et omnia baubella sua divisit Othoni nepoti suo regi Alamannorum; et quartam partem thesauri sui praecepit servientibus suis et pauperibus distribui.” Grammatically, there is nothing to show whether “tres partes thesauri sui” is meant to be connected with “praecepit ut traderentur ei [Johanni]” or with “divisit Othoni,” but common sense strongly supports the former interpretation; however anxious Richard may have been to help his nephew, he could not possibly mean deliberately to leave his own chosen successor literally without a penny. The actual wording of Richard’s will may, indeed, have been as ambiguous as Roger’s summary of it, and Otto may have tried to take advantage of its ambiguity. His claim to the earldoms seems somewhat unreasonable; he had never really held the earldom of York, and it was for that very reason that Richard had granted him Poitou; but it was clearly preposterous to expect John to renew this latter grant after Otto had accepted the German Crown.