Richard I

King of England (r. 1189-1199)

• Born: September 8, 1157
• Birthplace: Beaumont Palace, Oxford, England
• Died: April 6, 1199
• Place of death: Châlus, the Limousin, duchy of Aquitaine, France

Although Richard has not gone down in history as a particularly good king, he was the epitome of the literary medieval knight brave, skilled, and chivalrous.

Early Life

Richard I was the third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, two historical giants of the era. Tall, with blue eyes and golden hair, he inherited from his mother a sensitivity for music and poetry that made him very popular with the troubadours. His real interest, however, was warfare, and it was because of his great valor that he was called “the Lion-Hearted.” He was plunged into the game of international politics very early, when at the age of three he was betrothed to Louis VII’s daughter Alice. When he was eleven, he rendered homage to Louis for his mother’s duchy of Aquitaine, and in 1172, he was formally installed as duke at Poitiers. A year later, he joined his brothers, the younger Henry and Geoffrey of Brittany, in a revolt against their father, which ended only after Henry II had invaded Aquitaine twice to subdue his rebellious son. Richard was soon forgiven, however, and reinstated in his duchy.

From 1175 to 1181, Richard’s reputation as a warrior grew steadily as he was forced to crush a series of rebellions in Aquitaine. He skillfully razed castles and drove some nobles from the land while forcing others such as the count of Toulouse to render homage. Richard’s growing power and influence and the prospect of an independent Aquitaine alarmed his brother Henry. When Richard refused to acknowledge Henry’s claim to Aquitaine, another family war ensued. Henry invaded Aquitaine and enjoyed some success before the king came to Richard’s aid. The war ended abruptly with the younger Henry’s untimely death in 1183.

Richard was now heir to England and Normandy, but his father wanted him to give up Aquitaine to his younger brother John. Once again, Richard refused to accede to this request and a new civil war was begun. Although a temporary compromise was arranged on November 18, 1188, at Bonmoulins, France, in the presence of Henry and the French king Philip II, Richard threw his support to Philip and acknowledged him as overlord for all of his Continental possessions. In the struggle that followed, Henry was chased from Le Mans to Chinon, where the father, who had reigned for thirty-five years, was forced to recognize the son as his successor on July 4, 1189. Henry II died two days later.

Life’s Work

Two years before Richard assumed the English crown came the news that Saladin had decisively defeated the Christians at the Battle of Hattin. This proved to be the turning point in Richard’s life. He took the Cross almost immediately and, since a crusade was an expensive undertaking, he began to raise money in various ways. He sold castles, manors, earldoms, and archbishoprics, and he declared that he would even have sold London itself if he had been able to find an acceptable buyer.

Richard embarked on the Third Crusade with Philip II in the summer of 1190. Although the two kings had once been close friends, they spent most of the trip quarreling. They parted company in Sicily in the spring of 1191. Philip sailed directly to Palestine, but Richard took a more circuitous route and conquered Cyprus, whose ruler had abducted his fiancé after her ship had been wrecked along the coast. After matters had been settled on Cyprus, Richard went on to the Holy Land, arriving in the summer of 1191 in time to join Philip in the siege of Acre. Once again, however, the two kings quarreled, which made the conduct of war difficult. Eventually, the city surrendered and Philip went home, but Richard remained and was able to work out a truce with Saladin that allowed Christians access to Jerusalem. The Third Crusade would prove to be the crowning achievement of Richard’s reign and would contribute greatly to his image as a chivalrous knight.

In the meantime, news of John’ intrigues in Normandy and England had reached Richard, who resolved to return home as quickly as possible. He left in October of 1192, but a storm wrecked his ship and forced him to take a more dangerous route through Germany, where he had many enemies. Although traveling incognito, he was recognized and captured by the duke of Austria’s men, who turned him over to the emperor to be held for ransom. It was difficult, but Richard’s faithful ministers set about the task of raising the astronomical sum of 150,000 marks, approximately five times the annual income of the English government. By March of 1194, Richard was back in England.

This was only Richard’s second appearance in the country he supposedly ruled and, like the first, his stay was very brief. After raising the requisite capital, Richard was off to new military enterprises on the Continent. He would devote the last five years of his life to a meaningless war with Philip II. Although the war accomplished little, it was during this period that Richard’s interest in military engineering peaked, as attested by the construction of the magnificent fortress of Château Gaillard. Richard could not content himself, however, with building castles. In 1199, his adventurous spirit involved him in an insignificant battle for a treasure trove with one of his own vassals. He was wounded by an arrow, and a few days later, he died. At his own request, he was buried in the Church of Fontevrault next to his father.

Significance

Richard the Lion-Hearted was an enigmatic figure, a curious mixture of bad and good. In his own day, he was hailed as a great warrior and a Christian prince. Recent scholarship, however, depicts him as a rebellious son and brother, a neglectful husband, and a bad king. To some degree, both characterizations are correct. It was a violent age and Richard was probably justified in resisting his father and brothers’ attempts to take his inheritance, especially the Aquitaine. Relations with his father never improved significantly, but Richard later repented of his behavior, and he was quick to forgive John for his machinations of 1193-1194. He was always on good terms with his mother, from whom he acquired an interest in poetry and music. Richard was a romantic figure, but he was not a romantic man. He contrived a flimsy political excuse to break off his engagement with Alice, and although he later married Berengaria of Navarre, he spent little time with her.

If the measure of a good king is time spent in the kingdom, then Richard was, indeed, a very bad king. He reigned ten years and spent only about six months in England. It is also true that he exploited the country’s resources to finance his many wars. Richard’s behavior might be explained by the fact that he was not thoroughly English. Also, he knew that his father had created an efficient administrative machine that would function capably in his absence. Richard’s chief problem was his obsession with battle and adventure, which left him precious little time for anything else. Yet it was this same obsession that would enable him to become one of the most romantic and chivalrous figures in history.

Plantagenet Kings of England, 1154-1399

Reign

• Monarch

1154-1189

• Henry II (with Eleanor of Aquitaine, r. 1154-1189)

1189-1199

• Richard I the Lion-Hearted

1199-1216

• John I Lackland

1216-1272

• Henry III

1272-1307

• Edward I Longshanks

1307-1327

• Edward II (with Isabella of France, r. 1308-1330)

1327-1377

• Edward III (with Philippa of Hainaut, r. 1327-1369)

1377-1399

• Richard II

Bibliography

Appleby, John. England Without Richard. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1965. A good chronological survey of England minus its ruler during this period. The author makes excellent use of original materials.

Brundage, James. Richard Lion Heart. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Primarily concerned with Richard’s participation in the Third Crusade, which was probably the greatest event of his reign. A critical study that portrays Richard as a vain, arrogant, and rapacious warrior.

Gillingham, John. Richard I. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002. Richard is seen in a sympathetic light, as more than a warrior; he was also the capable ruler of the duchy of Aquitaine. The author also attempts to refute the notion that Richard was homosexual.

Kelly, Amy. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1950. This is an interesting study of Richard’s mother and her relationships with four of the great figures of the twelfth century, taking a novelistic approach.

Norgate, Kate. England Under the Angevin Kings. 2 vols. 1887. Reprint. New York: Haskell House, 1969. Concerned with the rise of the Angevin house in ninth century Anjou through the early years of John’s reign. Two chapters are devoted exclusively to Richard’s reign.

Norgate, Kate. Richard the Lion Heart. New York: Russell and Russell, 1924. This older biographical study has many enduring qualities. Approximately half the book is devoted to the Third Crusade.

Reston, James, Jr. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. New York: Knopf, 2002. This history of the Third Crusade presents Richard as a complex and at times brutal figure, and it discusses his homosexuality. Saladin, by contrast, is depicted as a sophisticated political leader.

Trindade, Ann. Berengaria: In Search of Richard the Lionheart’s Queen. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1999. Based on medieval chronicles and administrative records, the story of the lonely life of the woman whom Richard married on the way to the Third Crusade. A fascinating look at women and the role of the Papacy during Richard’s time.

Turner, Ralph V., and Richard R. Heiser. The Reign of Richard Lionheart: Ruler of the Angevin Empire, 1189-1199. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education, 2000. Two academics view Richard’s achievements as a military leader and administrator from the geopolitical perspective of the Angevin Empire, using original French and English sources.

Warren, W. L. Henry II. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. This biography of Richard’s father treats the youth’s life up to his father’s death in 1189.