It is highly likely that most of us missed this in European history classes, but Medievalists familiar with the Third Crusade and Richard the Lionheart may recall that today is the anniversary of the collapse of a bridge near Lyon in the year 1190. Last year, I’d mentioned that the chronicler of the Itinerarium (that is, Chronicle of the third crusade : A translation of the itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis ricardi) does not provide much detail, except to describe the aftermath of what could have been a major disaster for the crusading armies. (What if the Lionheart had died?) The Itinerarium states that Richard ordered boats tied together across the river to get his army to the opposite bank. (What a sight that would have been!) In The Annals of Roger de Hoveden, the chronicler writes, “the bridge, being thronged with men and women, broke down, not without doing injury…