Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of
England from 6 July 1189 to 6
April 1199. He was known as Richard the Lionheart, or Cœur de Lion even before
his accession because of his military reputation.[1]
Richard was a central Christian commander during the Third
Crusade and remains one of the very few Kings of England remembered by reputation, not number.[2]
Family
The third legitimate son of King Henry II of England, Richard was never expected
to ascend the throne. He is often depicted as having been the favorite son of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard was a younger maternal half-brother of Marie de Champagne and Alix
of France. He was a younger brother of William, Count of Poitiers,
Henry the Young King and Matilda of
England. He was also an older brother of Geoffrey II, Duke of
Brittany, Leonora of England, Joan Plantagenet and John, Count of Mortain,
who succeeded him as king.
Life
Although born at Beaumont Palace, Oxford,
England, like most of the Royal Family at the time Richard was essentially French. When his
parents separated, he remained with Eleanor, and was invested with her duchy of Aquitaine in
1168, and county of Poitiers in 1172. Meanwhile, his eldest surviving brother, Henry the Young
King, was simultaneously crowned as his father's successor.
Richard was an educated man who composed poetry, writing in French and
Lemosin. He was said to be very attractive; his hair between red and blond,
light-eyed, with a pale complexion. He was apparently of above average height, but since his bones have been lost since at least
the French Revolution, his exact height is unknown. From an early age he appeared to
have significant political and military abilities, became noted for his chivalry and courage, and fought hard to control the
rebellious nobles of his own territory. Like his brothers, Richard frequently challenged his father's authority, and his sense of
responsibility was open to question.
Eleanor's alleged favouritism of Richard was claimed by Matthew Paris to have been
predicted by Merlin: "The eagle of the broken covenant shall rejoice in Eleanor's third nesting."
Paris only counted Eleanor's male children in these "nestings", ignoring Richard's older sisters Marie and Alix of France, and
Matilda of England.
Revolt against Henry II
In 1170, his elder brother Henry the Young King was crowned king of England as
Henry III. Historians know him as Henry "the Young King" so as not to confuse him with the later king of the same name who was his nephew. In spring 1173, Richard joined his brothers, Henry and
Geoffrey, in a revolt against their father. They were planning to dethrone their father and leave the Young King as the only king
of England. In the revolt that followed, only Normandy remained
faithful to Henry II at first; by August 1174, however, Henry had largely crushed the rebellion in his own lands. After having
unloaded in Normandy, he moved on to invade Poitou and Aquitaine, domains of Richard's mother, Eleanor, who was captured and
imprisoned towards the end of the year by her husband.[3]
At the age of seventeen, Richard was the last of the brothers to hold out against Henry though, in the end, he refused to fight
him face to face and humbly begged his pardon. In 1174, after the end of the failed revolt, Richard gave a new oath of
subservience to his father.
Though placated by titles such as Count of Poitou, Richard wanted more. Henry seemed unwilling
to entrust any of his sons with resources that could be used against him. Second, it was suspected that Henry had appropriated
Princess Alys Richard's betrothed, the daughter of Louis VII of France by his second wife, as his mistress. This made a marriage between Richard and
Alys technically impossible in the eyes of the church, but Henry prevaricated: Alys's dowry, the Vexin, was valuable. Richard himself was discouraged from renouncing Alys because she was the sister of King
Philip II of France, a close ally.
After his failure to overthrow his father, Richard concentrated on putting down internal revolts by the nobles of Aquitaine,
especially the territory of Gascony. The increasing cruelty of his reign led to a major revolt
there in 1179. The rebels hoped to dethrone Richard and asked his brothers Henry and Geoffrey to help them succeed. The turning
point came in the Charente Valley in spring 1179. The fortress of Taillebourg was extremely well defended and considered impregnable. The castle was surrounded by a cliff on
three sides and a town on the fourth side with a three-layer wall. Richard first destroyed and looted the farms and lands
surrounding the fortress, leaving its defenders no reinforcements or lines of retreat. The inhabitants of the fortress were so
afraid of Richard at this point, that they left the safety of their castle and attacked Richard outside its walls. Richard was
able to subdue the army and then followed the defenders inside the open gates, where he easily took over the castle in two days.
Richard’s victory at Taillebourg deterred many barons thinking of rebelling and forced them to declare their loyalty. It also won
Richard a reputation as a skilled military commander.
In 1181-1182, Richard faced a revolt over the succession to the county of Angoulême. His
opponents turned to Philip II of France for support, and the fighting spread through
the Limousin and Périgord. Richard was accused of
numerous cruelties against his subjects, including rape: "He carried off by force the wives, daughters and female relatives of
his free men, and made them his concubines; and after he had extinguished the ardour of his lust on them, he handed them over to
his soldiers for whoring."[4] However, with support
from his father and from the Young King, Richard succeeded in bringing the Viscount Aimar V of
Limoges and Count Elie of Périgord to terms.
After Richard subdued his rebellious barons, he again challenged his father for the throne. From 1180 to 1183 the tension
between Henry and Richard grew, as King Henry commanded Richard to pay homage to Henry the Young King, but Richard refused.
Finally, in 1183, Henry the Young King and Geoffrey, Duke of Brittany invaded Aquitaine in an attempt to subdue Richard.
Richard’s barons joined in the fray and turned against their Duke. However, Richard and his army
were able to hold back the invading armies and executed any prisoners. The conflict took a brief pause in June of 1183 when the
Young King died. However, Henry II soon gave his youngest son John permission to invade
Aquitaine. With the death of Henry the Young King, Richard was now the eldest son and heir to the English crown, but still he
continued to fight his father.
To strengthen his position, in 1187 Richard allied himself with Philip II, who was the son of Eleanor's ex-husband
Louis VII by his third wife, Adele of
Champagne. Roger of Hoveden wrote:
- "The King of England was struck with great astonishment, and wondered what [this alliance] could mean, and, taking
precautions for the future, frequently sent messengers into France for the purpose of recalling his son Richard; who, pretending
that he was peaceably inclined and ready to come to his father, made his way to Chinon, and, in spite of the person who had the
custody thereof, carried off the greater part of his father's treasures, and fortified his castles in Poitou with the same,
refusing to go to his father."[5]
Hoveden mentions how Richard and King Philip "ate from the same dish and at night slept in one bed" and had a
"passionate love between them", which some historians have taken to imply homosexual intimacy. In addition, there are allusions to the book of Samuel's depiction of Jonathan and David in this passage,
though overall, Hoveden is chiefly concerned with the politics of the relationship.
In exchange for Philip's help against his father, Richard promised to concede to him his rights to both Normandy and Anjou.
Richard did homage to Philip in November of the same year. With news arriving of the battle of
Hattin, he took the cross at Tours, in the company of a number of other French nobles.
In 1188 Henry II planned to concede Aquitaine to his youngest son John. The following year, 1189 Richard attempted to take the
throne of England for himself by joining Philip's expedition against his father. On 4 July
1189, Richard and Philip’s forces defeated Henry's army at Ballans. Henry, with John's consent,
agreed to name Richard his heir. Two days later Henry II died in Chinon, and Richard I succeeded
him as King of England, Duke of Normandy, and Count of Anjou. Roger of Hoveden claimed that Henry's corpse bled from the nose in Richard's
presence, which was taken as a sign that Richard had caused his death. He was officially crowned duke on 20 July 1189 and king in Westminster on
3 September 1189.
Anti-Semitic violence
When Richard I was crowned King of England, he barred all Jews and
women from the ceremony (apparently a concession to the fact that his coronation was not merely one of a king but of a
crusader), but some Jewish leaders arrived to present gifts for the new king. According to
Ralph of Diceto, Richard's courtiers stripped and flogged the Jews, then flung them out
of court. When a rumour spread that Richard had ordered all Jews to be killed, the people of London began a massacre. Many Jews
were beaten to death, robbed, and burnt alive. Many Jewish homes were burned down
and several Jews were forcibly baptised. Some sought sanctuary in the Tower of London,
and others managed to escape. Among those killed was Jacob of Orléans, widely regarded
as one of the most learned of the age. Roger of Howeden, in his Gesta Regis Ricardi,
claimed that the rioting was started by the jealous and bigoted citizens, and that Richard punished the perpetrators, allowing a
forcibly converted Jew to return to Judaism. Archbishop of Canterbury
Baldwin of Exeter reacted by remarking, "If the King is not God's man, he had better
be the devil's," a reference to the supposedly infernal blood in the Angevin line.
Realising that the assaults could destabilize his realm on the eve of his departure on crusade, Richard ordered the execution
of those responsible for the most egregious murders and persecutions. (Most of those hanged were rioters who had accidentally burnt down Christian homes.) He distributed a royal writ demanding that the
Jews be left alone. However, the edict was loosely enforced, as the following March there was further violence, including a
massacre at York.
Crusade plans
Richard had already taken the cross as Count of Poitou in 1187. His father Henry II of
England and Philip II of France had done so at Gisors on 21 January 1188, after receiving news
of the fall of Jerusalem to Saladin. Having
become king, Richard and Philip agreed to go on the Third Crusade together, since each
feared that, during his absence, the other might usurp his territories.
Richard swore an oath to renounce his past wickedness in order to show himself worthy to take the cross. He started to raise
and equip a new crusader army. He spent most of his father's treasury (filled with money raised by the Saladin tithe), raised taxes, and even agreed to free King William
I of Scotland from his oath of subservience to Richard in exchange for 10,000 marks. To raise even more money he sold
official positions, rights, and lands to those interested in them. Even those already appointed were forced to pay huge sums to
retain their posts. Even William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely and the King's Chancellor,
made a show of bidding £3,000 to remain as Chancellor. He was apparently outbid by a certain Reginald the Italian, but his bid
was refused.
Richard made some final arrangements on the continent. He reconfirmed his father's appointment of William Fitz Ralph to the important post of seneschal of Normandy. In
Anjou, Stephen of Tours was replaced as seneschal and temporarily imprisoned for fiscal
mismanagement. Payn de Rochefort, an Angevin knight was elevated to the post of seneschal of Anjou. In Poitou, the ex-provost of
Benon, Peter Bertin was made seneschal, and finally in Gascony, the household official Helie de La Celle was picked for the
seneschalship there. After repositioning the part of his army he left behind to guard his French possessions, Richard finally set
out on the crusade in summer 1190. (His delay was criticised by troubadours such as
Bertran de Born). He appointed as regents, Hugh, Bishop of Durham, and William de Mandeville, 3rd Earl of Essex, who soon died and was replaced by
Richard's chancellor William Longchamp. Richard's brother John was not satisfied by this decision and started scheming against William.
Some writers have criticised Richard for spending only six months of his reign in England and siphoning the kingdom's
resources to support his Crusade. According to William
Stubbs (The Constitutional History of England, vol. 1, p. 550-1):
| “ |
He was a bad king: his great exploits, his military skill, his splendour and
extravagance, his poetical tastes, his adventurous spirit, do not serve to cloak his entire want of sympathy, or even
consideration, for his people. He was no Englishman, but it does not follow that he gave to Normandy, Anjou, or Aquitaine the
love or care that he denied to his kingdom. His ambition was that of a mere warrior: he would fight for anything whatever, but he
would sell everything that was worth fighting for. The glory that he sought was that of victory rather than conquest. |
” |
Richard claimed that England was "cold and always raining," and when he was raising funds for his Crusade, was said to
declare, "I would have sold London if I could find a buyer." However, although
England was a major part of his territories, particularly important in that it gave him a royal
title with which to approach other kings as an equal,it faced no major internal or external threats during his reign,unlike his
continental territories,and so did not require his constant presence there. Like most of the Plantagenet kings before the 14th century, he had no need to
learn the English language. Leaving the country in the hands of various officials he
designated (including his mother, at times), Richard was far more concerned with his more extensive French lands. After all his
preparations, he had an army of 8,000 men (4,000 men-at-arms and 4,000 foot-soldiers), and a fleet of 100 ships.
Occupation of Sicily
In September 1190 both Richard and Philip arrived in Sicily. After the death of King
William II of Sicily, his cousin Tancred of Lecce had seized power and been crowned
early in 1190 as King Tancred I of Sicily, although the legal heir was William's aunt
Constance, wife of the new Emperor Henry VI. Tancred had imprisoned William's widow, Queen Joan, who was Richard's sister, and did not give her the money she had inherited in
William's will. When Richard arrived, he demanded that his sister be released and given her inheritance. The presence of foreign
troops also caused unrest: in October, the people of Messina revolted, demanding that the
foreigners leave. Richard attacked Messina, capturing it on 4 October 1190. After looting and burning the city Richard established his base there. He remained there until Tancred
finally agreed to sign a treaty on 4 March 1191. The treaty was
signed by Richard, Philip and Tancred. Its main terms were:
- Joan was to be released, receiving her inheritance and the dowry her father had given to her late husband.
- Richard and Philip recognized Tancred as King of Sicily and vowed to keep the peace between all three of their kingdoms.
- Richard officially proclaimed his nephew, Arthur of Brittany, son of
Geoffrey, as his heir, and Tancred promised to marry one of his daughters to Arthur when he came of age.
- Richard and Tancred exchanged gifts; Richard gave Tancred a sword which he claimed was Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur.
After signing the treaty Richard and Philip left Sicily. The treaty undermined England's relationships with the
Holy Roman Empire and caused the revolt of Richard's brother John, who hoped to be
proclaimed heir instead of their nephew. Although his revolt failed, John continued to scheme against his brother.
Conquest of Cyprus
In April 1191, while on route to the Third Crusade, Richard stopped on the
Byzantine island of Rhodes to avoid the stormy weather.
It seems that Richard had previously met his fiancée Berengaria only once, years
before their wedding. He had assigned his mother to represent him and convince her father, Sancho VI of Navarre, and her other relatives to agree to the wedding, and to bring the bride to
him. Richard came to their rescue when they were shipwrecked on the coast of Cyprus. He left
Rhodes in May but a new storm drove Richard's fleet to Cyprus.
On 6 May 1191, Richard's fleet arrived in the port of
Lemesos (now Limassol) on Cyprus, and he captured the city.
The island's despot Isaac Komnenos arrived too late to stop the Crusaders, and
retired to Kolossi. Richard called Isaac to negotiations but Isaac demanded his departure.
Richard and his cavalry met Isaac's army in battle at Tremetusia. The few Cypriot Roman Catholics
and those nobles who opposed Isaac's rule joined Richard's army. Though Isaac and his men fought bravely, Richard's army was
bigger and better equipped, assuring his victory. He also received military assistance from the King of Jerusalem and Guy of Lusignan. Isaac resisted from
the castles of Pentadactylos but after the siege of Kantara Castle, he finally surrendered. It was claimed that, once Isaac had been captured Richard had him
confined with silver chains, because he had promised that he would not place him in irons. Isaac's young daughter
was kept in the household of Berengaria and Joan. Richard looted the island and massacred those trying to resist him. He and most
of his army left Cyprus for the Holy Land in early June, having gained for the Crusade a supply base that was not under immediate
threat from the Turks as was Tyre. In his absence Cyprus was governed by Richard Camville.
Richard's marriage
Before leaving Cyprus, Richard married Berengaria, first-born daughter of King Sancho VI of
Navarre. The wedding was held in Limassol on 12 May 1191 at
the Chapel of St. George. It was attended by his sister Joan, whom Richard had brought from Sicily. It should be noted that when
Richard married Berengaria he was still officially betrothed to Alys and that Richard pushed for the match, in order to obtain
Navarre as a fief like Aquitaine for his father.
Further, Eleanor championed the match, as Navarre bordered on Aquitaine, thereby securing her ancestral lands' borders to the
south. Richard took his new wife with him briefly on this episode of the crusade. However, they returned separately. Berengaria
had almost as much difficulty in making the journey home as her husband did, and did not see England until after his death.
Although after his release from German captivity, Richard showed some degree of regret for his earlier conduct, he was not joined
by his wife.
Richard had to be ordered to reunite with and show fidelity to Berengaria in the future, being told to "remember the
destruction of Sodom and abstain from illicit acts." This may be further evidence that Richard
engaged in homosexual activities, although it is argued that "the
sin of Sodom" could be interpreted more broadly: the Biblical story concerns attempted male rape; Richard had already been
accused of raping women. Some modern writers[citation needed], elaborating on the theory, have alleged that Berengaria's own brother, the
future Sancho VII, was one of Richard's early lovers. Nevertheless, when Richard
died in 1199, Berengaria was greatly distressed, apparently having loved her husband very much (although that does not imply
mutuality on Richard's part). The picture is further muddied by the fact that she had to sue the Church to be recognised as his
widow. Historians remain divided on the issue of Richard's sexuality.
Richard in Outremer
King Richard landed at Acre on 8 June 1191. He gave his
support to his Poitevin vassal Guy of Lusignan, who had brought troops to help him in
Cyprus. Guy was the widower of his father's cousin Sibylla of Jerusalem, and was
trying to retain the kingship of Jerusalem, despite his wife's death during the
siege of Acre the previous year. Guy's claim was challenged by Conrad of Montferrat, second husband of Sibylla's half-sister, Isabella: Conrad, whose defence of Tyre had saved the kingdom in 1187, was supported by Philip of
France, son of his first cousin Louis VII of France, and by another cousin, Duke
Leopold V of Austria. Richard also allied with Humphrey IV of Toron, Isabella's first husband, from whom she had been forcibly divorced in 1190.
Humphrey was loyal to Guy, and spoke Arabic fluently, so Richard used him as a translator and negotiator.
Richard and his forces aided in the capture of Acre, despite the king's serious illness. At one point, while sick from
scurvy, Richard is said to have picked off guards on the walls with a crossbow, while being
carried on a stretcher. Eventually, Conrad of Montferrat concluded the surrender negotiations with Saladin, and raised the banners of the kings in the city. Richard quarrelled with Leopold V of Austria over the
deposition of Isaac Komnenos (related to Leopold's Byzantine mother) and his position
within the Crusade. Leopold's banner had been raised alongside the English and French
standards. This was interpreted as arrogance by both Richard and Philip, as Leopold was a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor (although he was now the highest-ranking surviving leader of the imperial forces).
Richard's men tore the flag down and threw it in the moat of Acre. Leopold left the Crusade immediately. Philip also left soon
afterwards, in poor health and after further disputes with Richard over the status of Cyprus (Philip demanded half the island)
and the kingship of Jerusalem. Richard suddenly found himself without allies.
Richard had kept 2700 Muslim prisoners as hostages against Saladin fulfilling all the terms of
the surrender of the lands around Acre. Philip, before leaving, had entrusted his prisoners to Conrad, but Richard forced him to hand them over to him. Richard feared his forces being
bottled up in Acre, as he believed his campaign could not advance with the prisoners in train. He therefore ordered all the
prisoners killed. He then moved south, defeating Saladin's forces at the battle of Arsuf
on September 7 1191. He attempted to negotiate with Saladin,
offering his widowed sister, Joan of Sicily, as a bride for Saladin's brother Al-Adil, but this was unsuccessful. In the first half of 1192, he and his troops refortified Ascalon.
An election forced Richard to accept Conrad of Montferrat as King of Jerusalem,
and he sold Cyprus to his defeated protégé, Guy. However, only days later, on April 28 1192, Conrad was stabbed to death by Hashshashin (Assassins) before he could be crowned. Eight days later, Richard's own nephew, Henry II of Champagne was married to the widowed Isabella, although she was carrying Conrad's child. The murder has never been conclusively solved,
and Richard's contemporaries widely suspected his involvement.
Realising that he had no hope of holding Jerusalem even if he took it,
Richard ordered a retreat. There then commenced a period of minor skirmishes with Saladin's forces while Richard and Saladin
negotiated a settlement to the conflict, as both realized that their respective positions were growing untenable. Richard knew
that both Philip and his own brother John were starting to plot against him. However, Saladin insisted on the razing of Ascalon's
fortifications, which Richard's men had rebuilt, and a few other points. Richard made one last attempt to strengthen his
bargaining position by attempting to invade Egypt — Saladin's chief supply-base — but failed. In
the end, time ran out for Richard. He realised that his return could be postponed no longer, since both Philip and John were
taking advantage of his absence. He and Saladin finally came to a settlement on September 2
1192 — this included the provisions demanding the destruction of Ascalon's wall as well as an
agreement allowing Christian access to and presence in Jerusalem. It also included a three-year truce.
Captivity and return
Castle ruins at Durnstein
Bad weather forced Richard's ship to put in at Corfu, in the lands of the Byzantine Emperor
Isaac II Angelos, who objected to Richard's annexation of Cyprus, formerly Byzantine
territory. Disguised as a Knight Templar, Richard sailed from Corfu with four attendants, but his ship was wrecked near
Aquileia, forcing Richard and his party into a dangerous land route through central Europe. On
his way to the territory of Henry of Saxony, his brother-in-law, Richard was captured shortly before Christmas 1192, near
Vienna, by Leopold V of Austria, who accused
Richard of arranging the murder of his cousin Conrad of Montferrat. Richard and his retainers had been travelling in disguise as
low-ranking pilgrims, but he was identified either because he was wearing an expensive ring, or because of his insistence on
eating roast chicken, an aristocratic delicacy. The Duke handed him over as a prisoner to Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor after being held captive at Dürnstein. It was here that he wrote Ja nus hons pris or Ja nuls om pres, a song in
French and Occitan versions, expressing his feelings of abandonment by his people.
However, the conditions of his captivity were not severe. Richard declared to the emperor, "I am born of a rank which
recognizes no superior but God".
His mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, worked to raise the ransom of 150,000 marks
(2-3 times the annual income for the English Crown under Richard) demanded by Henry. Both clergy and laymen were taxed for a
quarter of the value of their property, the gold and silver treasures of the churches were confiscated, and money was raised from
the scutage and the carucage taxes. The emperor demanded that
100,000 marks be delivered to him before he would release the king, the same amount raised by the Saladin tithe only a few years earlier. At the same time, John, Richard's brother, and King Philip of
France offered 80,000 marks for the Emperor to hold Richard prisoner until Michaelmas 1194.
The emperor turned down the offer. The money to rescue the King was transferred to Germany by the emperor's ambassadors, but "at
the king's peril" (had it been lost along the way, Richard would have been held responsible), and finally, on 4 February 1194 Richard was released. Philip sent a message to John: "Look to yourself; the devil is loose."
Later years and death
During his absence, John had come close to seizing the throne. Richard forgave him when they met again, and, bowing to
political necessity, named him as his heir in place of Arthur, whose mother Constance of Brittany was perhaps already open to the overtures of Philip II. Richard
came into conflict with Philip. When the latter attacked Richard's fortress, Chateau-Gaillard ('The Saucy Castle'), he boasted that "if its walls were iron, yet would I take
it," to which Richard replied, "If these walls were butter, yet would I hold them!"
Determined to resist Philip's designs on contested Angevin lands such as the Vexin and Berry, Richard poured all his military
expertise and vast resources into war on the French King. He constructed an alliance against Philip, including Baldwin IX of Flanders, Renaud, Count of Boulogne, and his father-in-law King
Sancho VI of Navarre, who raided Philip's lands from the south. Most importantly,
he managed to secure the Welf inheritance in Saxony for his nephew, Henry the Lion's son Otto of Poitou, who was elected Otto
IV of Germany in 1198.
Partly as a result of these and other intrigues, Richard won several victories over Philip. At Freteval in 1194, just after
Richard's return from captivity and money-raising in England to France, Philip fled, leaving his entire archive of financial
audits and documents to be captured by Richard. At the battle of Gisors (sometimes
called Courcelles) in 1198 Richard took "Dieu et mon Droit" "God and my Right" as his motto, (still used by the British monarchy today) echoing his earlier boast to the Emperor Henry that his rank acknowledged no
superior but God.
In March 1199, Richard was in the Limousin, suppressing a revolt by Viscount Aimar V of Limoges. Although it was Lent, he
"devastated the Viscount's land with fire and sword".[6] He besieged the puny, virtually unarmed castle of Chalus-Chabrol. Some chroniclers claimed that this was because a local peasant had uncovered a
treasure trove of Roman gold, which Richard claimed from Aimar in his position of feudal
overlord: however, modern historians‹The template Weasel-inline is being considered for
deletion.›
[weasel words] are skeptical of the story, which has the flavour of an exemplum,
or moralising fable.[citation needed]
In the early evening of the March 25 1199, Richard was walking
around the castle perimeter without his chainmail, investigating the progress of sappers on the castle walls. Arrows were
occasionally shot from the castle walls, but these were given little attention. One defender in particular was of great amusement
to the King - a man standing on the walls, crossbow in one hand, the other clutching a frying pan which he had been using all day
as a shield to beat off missiles. He deliberately aimed an arrow at the King, which the King applauded. However, another arrow
then struck him in the left shoulder near the neck. He tried to pull this out in the privacy of his tent, but failed; a surgeon,
called a 'butcher' by Hoveden, removed it, 'carelessly mangling' the King's arm in the process. However, the wound swiftly became
gangrenous. Accordingly, Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; called alternatively Peter Basile, John Sabroz, Dudo[7]
and Bertran de Gurdun by chroniclers, the man proved a boy. This boy claimed that Richard had slain the boy's father and two
brothers, and that he had slain Richard in vengeance. The boy expected to be slain; Richard, as a last act of mercy, forgave the
boy his crime, saying, "Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day," before ordering the boy to be freed and sent away
with 100 shillings. Richard then set his affairs in order, bequeathing all his territory to his brother John and his jewels to
his nephew Otto.
Richard died on Tuesday, April 6 1199 in the arms of his
mother; it was later said that "As the day was closing, he ended his earthly day." His death was later referred to as 'the Lion
[that] by the Ant was slain'. His last act of chivalry proved pointless. In an orgy of medieval brutality, the infamous mercenary
captain Mercadier had the crossbowman skinned alive and
hanged as soon as Richard died.
Richard's brain was buried at the abbey of Charroux in Poitou (for the land's perfidy towards
him), his heart was buried at Rouen in Normandy, while the rest of his body was buried at the feet
of his father at Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou.
Legacy
Richard produced no legitimate heirs, and acknowledged only one illegitimate son,
Philip of Cognac. As a result, he was succeeded by his brother John as King of England. However, his French territories initially rejected John as a successor,
preferring his nephew Arthur of Brittany, the son of their late brother
Geoffrey, whose claim is by modern standards better than John's.
Significantly, the lack of any direct heirs from Richard was the first step in the dissolution of the Angevin Empire. While Kings of England continued to press claims to properties on the continent, they
would never again command the territories Richard I inherited.
Richard's legacy comprised several parts. First, he captured Cyprus, which proved immensely valuable in keeping the Frankish
kingdoms in the Holy Land viable for another century. Second, his absence from the English political landscape meant that the
highly efficient government created by his father was allowed to entrench itself, though King John would later abuse it to the
breaking point. The last part of Richard's legacy was romantic and literary. No matter the facts of his reign, he left an
indelible imprint on the imagination extending to the present, in large part because of his military exploits. This is reflected
in Steven Runciman's final verdict of Richard I: "he was a bad son, a bad husband and
a bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier."
Medieval folklore
By 1260 a legend had developed that, after Richard's capture, his minstrel Blondel
travelled Europe from castle to castle, loudly singing a song known only to the two of them (they had composed it together).
Eventually, he came to the place where Richard was being held, and heard the song answered with the appropriate refrain, thus
revealing where the king was incarcerated. The story was the basis of André Ernest
Modeste Grétry's opera Richard Coeur-de-Lion (1784) and seems to be the inspiration
for the opening to Richard Thorpe's film version of Ivanhoe (1952). It seems
unconnected to the real Jean 'Blondel' de Nesle, an aristocratic trouvère.
In the Arabic world, Richard became something of a bogeyman after his death. The
mid-thirteenth-century Old French Continuation of William of Tyre claimed that
Arab mothers would occasionally threaten unruly children with the admonition "King Richard [or "Melech Ric", as called by some
Muslims][citation needed] will get you".
Later literature
Richard has appeared frequently in fiction, as a result of the 'chivalric revival' of the Romantic era. In 1822, he was the subject of Eleanor Anne Porden's epic poem, Cœur de Lion. After Ivanhoe, where he is depicted as initially adopting the pseudonym of Le Noir Fainéant ("The
Black Sluggard"), Sir Walter Scott portrayed Richard in The Talisman, a
highly fictionalised treatment of the Third Crusade. He is also a major character in James
Goldman's play The Lion in Winter (1966,) which depicts him as
homosexual. He features in Graham Shelby's The Kings of Vain Intent and, more
centrally, in The Devil is Loose, Norah Lofts' The Lute-Player, and
Jean Plaidy (Eleanor Hibbert)'s The Heart of
the Lion. He is portrayed as a merciless Muslim killer in a novel that follows Arn
Magnusson in his Crusade Trilogy written by Swedish author Jan Guillou. He is seen as
the reluctant husband of Berengaria of Navarre, and as Crusader, in Rachel Bard's Queen
Without a Country. He is generally represented in a heroic role in children's fiction, such as Ronald Welch's Knight Crusader. Jennifer Roberson also
makes reference to Richard in her novels Lady of the Forest and Lady of Sherwood.
Popular culture references
Film
Richard has been portrayed on film by:
He also appears in many filmic versions of the Robin Hood legend (see below).
Television
On television, Richard was the subject of a 1962 television series, Richard the Lionheart, in which he was played by
Dermot Walsh. The 1965 Doctor Who television serial
The Crusade is set during Richard's conflict with Saladin; Richard is played by Julian Glover, who portrayed him again in a
television film of Ivanhoe in 1982; Rory Edwards played him in the 1997 TV miniseries
Ivanhoe. Andrew Howard appeared as Richard in a 2003 television adaptation of The Lion in Winter. He is also
portrayed in television versions of the Robin Hood legend.
Robin Hood
The Scots philosopher and chronicler John Mair was the
first to associate Richard with the
