But Richard then disappeared, much to Eleanor’s alarm. Throughout England, prayers were offered and candles were lit for his safety. Many people must have suspected that he had been drowned at sea in some storm. It was known that his sister and his wife had reached Brindisi safely and were on their way to Rome. All that was known of the king’s ship, the Franche-Nef - which had sailed unescorted – was that it had put in at Cyprus and Corfu and had then apparently made for Marseilles, although another vessel that met it en route thought it was bound for Brindisi. In fact the royal ship was blown back by a storm towards Corfu. No news of the king had reached England by Christmas; then, on 28 December, a messenger arrived from the archbishop of Rouen with the amazing news that the duke of Austria had arrested Richard somewhere near Vienna.
What had happened was a veritable Odyssey. After being blown off course, Richard hired two Greek pirate ships as an escort and sailed up the Adriatic. He put in at Ragusa but when he continued his voyage he was caught in another storm and, after being driven past Pola, was wrecked on the coast of Fruili.
He decided to continue overland, although he was in the territory of Mainard, count of Gortz, who was a vassal of the duke of Austria. Leopold of Austria was the sworn enemy of Richard, who had insulted him during the siege of Acre; when the duke had disobeyed the king’s orders, Richard had had the banner of Austria thrown down and trodden into the mud.
The English king disguised himself as ‘Hugo, a merchant’, and despite being recognized managed to evade capture for a while, but was eventually caught at the village of Ganina on the river Danube near Vienna; here he was arrested on 21 December in a common tavern, dressed as a cook and pretending to turn the spit. Duke Leopold imprisoned him in the hill-top castle of Dürnstein.
[…]
In the meantime the two abbots had found Richard, in mid-March 1193, as he was being taken under escort to a new place of imprisonment on the Rhine. He cannot have been an easy prisoner: his chief relaxations were playing unpleasant practical jokes on his goalers and trying to make them drunk.
Source:
Seward, Desmond. “The Regent.” Eleanor of Aquitaine. New York: Times , 1979. 169-70, 174. Print.
Further Reading:
Richard I of England / Richard Cœur de Lion (Richard the Lionheart) / Oc e No (Yes and No)
Aliénor d'Aquitaine / Alienora (Eleanor of Aquitaine)
Leopold V, Duke of Austria / Leopold der Tugendhafte (Leopold the Virtuous)
What a dick eh? :D