The Crescent-shaped Royal Ransom Revenge across the Centuries

 

The Crescent-shaped Royal Ransom

      Revenge across the Centuries

Wikipedia

The Lionheart King Richard won and lost

The Holy Land but on his way back to

Misgoverned England he was caught and tossed

Inside a donjon by a kangaroo

Middle European greedy duke

Demanding a staggering ransom

From Eleanor of Aquitaine.  The fluke

Came centuries later.  The hugely handsome

Amount paid out for Richard built a wall

Around Vienna.  When the Turk attack

Came later, Muslim fighters had to fall

Away.  Islamic victory went slack.

The Turks slunk back to their defeated hole . . .

And this inspired Vienna’s croissant roll.

[Well, it’s a tasty legend at the very least, Ja?]