Richard I of England

gigatos | January 20, 2022

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Summary

Richard the Lionheart († April 6, 1199 at Châlus) was King of England from 1189 until his death as Richard I.

Richard”s years until his accession to the throne were overshadowed by conflicts with his father Henry II and with his brothers over the inheritance. Only through the death of his elder brother Henry and an alliance with the French king Philip II was he able to secure the English royal throne. His inherited ruling complex, the “Angevin Empire,” included Normandy and large parts of western France in addition to England. As ruler, Richard had to hold together an economically and culturally very heterogeneous conglomerate of different territories. During his reign, he spent a total of only six months in England.

On a crusade undertaken jointly with Philip, now counted as the Third Crusade, Richard conquered Cyprus in 1191. He then crossed over to the Holy Land, where he successfully ended the siege of Acre, which had already lasted two years. However, the real goal of the enterprise, the reconquest of Jerusalem, could not be achieved. While still on the crusade, Richard and the French king fell out. During his return by land, Richard was arrested in 1192 by the Austrian Duke Leopold V, with whom he had also fallen out, and handed over to Emperor Henry VI. This was Leopold”s revenge for a violation of honor inflicted on him by the English king during the Crusade. Richard spent about 14 months in captivity in the region on the Upper Rhine. The French king took advantage of this and conquered a number of castles and territories. For Richard”s release, the enormous sum of 100,000 marks of silver had to be raised from all over the Angevin Empire through the sale of possessions and special taxation. Henry VI used the proceeds primarily to finance the conquest of Sicily. After his release, Richard tried to reconquer the territories occupied by Philip II. He died childless as early as April 6, 1199, during the siege of Cabrol near Limoges.

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Origin and youth

Richard the Lionheart was descended from the noble Plantagenet dynasty. However, this name was not used as a dynasty designation until the 15th century, first by Duke Richard of York in 1460. It goes back to King Richard”s grandfather Gottfried V, who was Count of Anjou, Tours and Maine. According to legend, he wore a broom bush (planta genista) as a helmet ornament or planted broom bushes in his estates for privacy when hunting.

After Stephen”s death in October 1154, Henry was elected English king two months later. He had himself crowned with Eleanor in Westminster. The marriage produced five sons (William, Henry, Richard, Gottfried and John) and three daughters (Eleanor, Joan and Matilda). As the third-born son, Richard was not initially intended for succession to the throne. Henry II entrusted the education of his sons to his chancellor, Thomas Becket, at whose court the children were taught by various cultured clergymen. Thus Richard was thoroughly educated in the Latin language. Henry attempted to influence the southern French region through marriage alliances. In 1159, Richard was betrothed to the daughter of Raimund Berengar IV, Count of Barcelona. In this way, Henry wanted to gain an alliance partner against the county of Toulouse. However, the planned marriage did not materialize, as Raimund died unexpectedly in 1162. Richard stayed in the vicinity of his mother. He traveled with her to Normandy in May 1165. About his further education and also about his whereabouts no information is handed down until 1170. In 1171 he was traveling with his mother in the south of France. There he got to know the language and music of Aquitaine. His father granted him the county of Poitou at an early age and entrusted him with the administration of the Duchy of Aquitaine.

Struggle for the succession to the throne and coronation

Henry II decided to pass on the Angevin kingdom as an undivided inheritance. He envisaged his eldest surviving son Henry – William had already died in 1156 – as his successor in the kingship. In January 1169, he met in Montmirail for peace negotiations with the French king Louis VII. There, on January 6, 1169, he renewed the feudal homage for the mainland possessions and at the same time had his sons Henry and Richard recognized as heirs to Louis” French fiefs. The eldest son Henry administered the oath of fealty to Louis for Normandy, Anjou and Maine, Richard for Aquitaine. Gottfried was confirmed as Duke of Brittany and received the County of Mortain. John initially remained without endowment. At the age of 14, Richard came of age.

As early as June 1170, Henry had his son of the same name crowned as co-king. In June 1172, Richard was solemnly invested as Duke of Aquitaine at the age of 14 in the Abbey of St. Hilaire in Poitiers. Henry promised the castles of Chinon, Loudun and Mirebeau in Normandy to his youngest son John in the spring of 1173. Henry the Younger took this as an encroachment on his rights. This was the cause of a revolt of the king”s sons against their father. Because of the youthful age of Princes Richard and Gottfried, it can be assumed that they acted under the influence of their mother Eleonore. As their own motives, a pronounced will to power and the restriction of their rights in the Duchy of Aquitaine come into consideration. In the spring and summer of 1174, Richard besieged cities loyal to the king, such as La Rochelle, but in September 1174 he was forced to capitulate to his father. On September 29, 1174, a settlement was reached at Montlouis near Tours. Richard received half of the revenues of Aquitaine and two residences. The sons had their own income and lands, but continued to have no influence on their royal father”s policies. Also in 1174, Richard”s marriage to Alice, the sister of Philip II of France, probably born in 1170, was arranged. She was sent to Henry II”s court to be prepared for her role as Richard”s future wife. The king wanted to provide his youngest son John with Aquitaine, but Richard refused to give the duchy to his brother.

As Duke of Aquitaine, it fell to him to take action against the opposing nobles there. The focus was on the siege and destruction of a large number of castles. In the only field battle, he defeated Vulgrin of Aimar at the end of May 1176. By the end of 1176, he was able to capture Aixe and Molineuf, among others. In January 1177 he conquered Dax and Bayonne. However, new revolts broke out as early as 1178. In May 1179, Richard took the fortress of Taillebourg, which was considered impregnable. Above all, this earned him a reputation as a brilliant warlord. With the capture of the fortress of Taillebourg, Richard achieved that the opponents temporarily stopped their resistance. According to Dieter Berg, Richard limited himself to military actions against rebellious barons and refrained from seeking a political solution. The sources give no indication that Richard built up a clientele of followers loyal to the dukes among the grandees of his territories. Likewise, he did not undertake any reforms in the administrative and legal spheres. From summer 1179 to summer 1181 nothing is known about Richard”s stays. In May 1182, negotiations took place in the presence of Henry II at Grandmont in La Marche. Among the counts in Aquitaine, Richard was hated as a duke because of his brutal actions and his constant violations of the law. Richard”s personal transgressions were also picked up by English chroniclers. According to Roger of Howden, Richard made the wives, daughters and relatives of the subjects his concubines. After satisfying his lust, he then gave them to his soldiers. The military conflicts continued in the following period.

After the death of the eldest son Henry in June 1183, the succession to the throne was again completely open. When Henry II reached an agreement with Richard in 1185, John was still left “without a country”. A year later, Gottfried died at a tournament in Paris. Henry II, however, refused to recognize Richard as sole heir and continued to demand that he give up Aquitaine for John Ohneland.

To avert disinheritance in favor of his brother John, Richard allied himself with the French king and visited Philip II in Paris in June 1187. The Capetian not only dined with Richard from the same bowl, but both also shared the bed. Eating and sleeping together in the same bed were common rituals in the culture of high medieval nobility, visualizing friendship and trust. The demonstratively staged closeness was interpreted in the 20th century as a sign of homosexuality. Such behaviors, however, have been interpreted in recent scholarship as demonstrative gestures of bonding and trust. With the alliance, Richard tried to build up pressure on his father to recognize him as heir. He could realize his hopes for the Angevin inheritance less through his father than through the Capetian. On November 18, 1188, Richard demonstratively made the homagium for Normandy and Aquitaine. The French king demanded that Henry cause the greats of England, as well as those of the mainland possessions, to swear an oath of fealty to Richard as heir. Henry refused to finally recognize Richard as heir to his kingdom. Open conflict ensued. On July 4, 1189, in the Treaty of Azay-le-Rideau, Henry had to perform the homagium for his mainland possessions, give a firm commitment for the marriage between Richard and Alice after the crusade to which he had committed himself at the end of 1187, and recognize Richard as sole heir. He also had to pay 20,000 marks in compensation. Two days later, Richard”s father died in Chinon. On July 20, 1189, Richard was able to officially assume the rule of Normandy in Rouen. At a meeting with the French king between Chaumont-en-Vexin and Trier, he recognized the peace treaty of Colombières of July 4, 1189. He also agreed to additional war reparations and to marry Alice soon.

Richard assured himself of the loyalty of important barons, including the knight Maurice of Craon and William Marshal. For his coronation he came to England for four months. On August 13, he arrived in Portsmouth. He first tried to improve his reputation by a great triumphal procession through England. On September 3, Richard was anointed at Westminster in an elaborate ceremony by Archbishop Balduin of Canterbury and subsequently crowned. At the banquet that followed, the earls and barons assumed duties corresponding to their court offices. Citizens of London and Winchester served in the cellar and kitchen. Nearly all the greats of the Angevin Empire were present for the coronation. In connection with the coronation there were persecutions of Jews, which later escalated into pogroms due to inadequate punitive measures after the king left for the Holy Land.

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Third crusade

After the defeat of Guido of Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, by Saladin at the Battle of Hattin on July 4, 1187, and the capture of Jerusalem on October 2, 1187, Pope Gregory VIII called for a crusade on October 29, 1187. Richard pledged to participate in the crusade in November 1187. He was personally moved by the crusade movement. His mother had participated in the Second Crusade from 1147 to 1149. In addition, Guido of Lusignan was a fief of Richard for his Angevin possessions. The first army had set out in May 1187 under the leadership of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. While crossing the Göksu River, Frederick drowned on June 10, 1190, and most of his army then returned home. The remaining crusaders were led by the son of the late emperor, Frederick of Swabia. However, the latter succumbed to illness on January 20, 1191. From then on, the highest-ranking crusader was the Austrian Duke Leopold V. The other two main armies were then to be led by King Philip II of France and Richard the Lionheart. Long before the arrival of the two Western European monarchs, Leopold was involved in the siege of Acre. However, he had few resources at his disposal and was thus hardly able to enforce anything.

After Richard”s coronation as English king, the crusade had top priority. Securing his rule during his absence and financing the enterprise were crucial for its implementation. Contemporary chroniclers complained that everything was for sale for the king – offices, baronies, counties, sheriff”s districts, castles, towns, lands. According to Dieter Berg, Richard prioritized continuity in the allocation of offices. When filling the top offices, mainly experienced functionaries of his father were considered. In addition to Wilhelm Longchamp, a confidant of Richard, Hugo du Puiset, an experienced henchman of Henry, was appointed chief justiciar. Richard Fitz Neal retained his office of treasurer. The continuity also continued in the area of the earldoms. The only new appointments were the king”s brother John for Gloucester, Roger Bigod for Norfolk and Hugo du Puiset for Northumberland, and King William of Scotland for Huntingdon.

Within a few months, Richard was able to raise enormous sums of money and transport ships for the crusade in the English regnum. In the accounting year 1190, the year of preparation for the crusade, a significant increase in treasury revenues was noted. Important barons were able to release themselves from their crusading vows in exchange for fees. In addition, there were one-time payments from barons upon marriage or inheritance and special payments from the English Jewry for royal protection of Jews. According to the chronicler Richard of Devizes, Richard would even have sold London for the crusade if he could have found a buyer for it. He was able to expand the fleet to 45 ships initially through activities at Cinque Ports, Shoreham and Southampton, and then to over 200 through purchase or lease.

In parallel with the crusade preparations, Richard pursued a marital union with Berengaria of Navarre. The intended marriage alliance was part of his Aquitanian policy. He had probably already established contacts with the royal court of Navarre in 1188. The marriage with Berengaria corresponded better to his foreign policy goals than the union with the Capetian princess Alice. The intended marriage to Berengaria was perhaps also to provide for an offspring and thus ensure the regulation of the succession in view of the dangerous crusading enterprise. With Berengaria”s father Sancho VI of Navarre, the last Iberian monarch whose territories bordered the Angevin possessions was also tied to Richard. With Alfonso II of Aragon, Richard had already established good contacts for some time, and with the Castilian court he had kinship ties through the marriage of his sister Eleanor to Alfonso VIII. By maintaining relations with the Iberian rulers, Richard also wanted to prevent possible attacks from their side on the Aquitaine duchy.

On December 30, 1189, and March 16, 1190, Richard met for talks with the French king at Nonancourt and Dreux, respectively. The two rulers swore an oath that they would not wage war until they had spent forty days peacefully in their realms after returning from the crusade. If one of them should perish during the enterprise, it was planned that the other would take over the war chest and troops of the deceased. On July 4, 1190, the kings set out together in Vézelay because neither trusted the other enough to leave before him. However, due to the supply situation, the two armies could not move together.

Richard arrived in Sicily on September 23, 1190. He staged his entry into the port of Messina as a solemn event, while hardly anyone had paid much attention to the arrival of the French king a week earlier. He wintered in Sicily. There, after King William II of Sicily, a brother-in-law of Richard, had died childless, succession struggles had broken out. The greats had elevated Tankred of Lecce, who was descended from the lineage of the Norman kings of Sicily but was of illegitimate birth. On January 18, 1190, he was crowned king by Archbishop Walter of Palermo. Tankred had imprisoned Richard”s sister Joan, the widow of William II, and denied her the dowry. Conflicts arose between the English and French crusaders and the local population. Richard then conquered Messina. Under the impression of this event, Tankred immediately released Joan and proposed 20,000 ounces of gold to the English king as compensation for the dowry. He also offered to marry one of his daughters to Richard”s nephew Arthur of Brittany and pay a dowry of 20,000 ounces of gold. Richard probably agreed to support Tankred”s kingship in October 1190.

In the event of his own childlessness, Richard appointed his nephew Arthur of Brittany as his heir in Messina in October 1190. The three-year-old Arthur was thus also designated as a potential heir to the throne of England. The loser in this arrangement was Richard”s brother John, who considered himself the sole heir and thus heir to the throne of England if Richard were childless. After these arrangements became known, John used Richard”s absence to try to assert his own claims to the throne on the island.

Richard, in parallel with his crusade preparations, had sent his mother Eleanor to the kingdom of Navarre to further his marriage project. He explained to the French king that he could not marry Alice. His father Henry II was known for his extramarital affairs. Alice had been Henry”s mistress and had a son by him. Canon law did not allow him to marry a woman who had had intercourse with his own father. This accusation was a great humiliation for the Capetian. Richard paid Philip 10,000 marks of silver for the dissolution of the marriage vows. Hastily, the French king left Messina on March 30 for Outremer, only a few hours before Eleonore and Berengaria arrived – otherwise he might have had to attend the wedding. He arrived in Acre on April 20. However, Lent prevented him from marrying in Sicily. On April 10, 1191, Richard left Messina with a fleet of more than 200 ships. Some ships were blown off course by a violent storm and stranded on the coast of Cyprus, including the ship of Joan and Berengaria. There they were disarmed by the Cypriots and placed under guard.

In Limassol, Richard married his fiancée Berengaria of Navarre on May 12, 1191. As queen, Berengaria had no particular significance for Richard”s further reign. At the beginning of June 1191, Richard left Cyprus. He left only a very small contingent on the island. With Richard of Camville and Robert of Turnham, he had appointed two of his commanders as governors there. A few weeks later, Cyprus was sold to the Knights Templar for 100,000 gold dinars. Richard”s conquest was momentous, for Cyprus remained under Latin rule for almost four centuries.

Richard used the booty from Cyprus to extend his campaign in the Holy Land. On June 8, 1191, his fleet arrived in front of the city of Acre, which was besieged by the Crusaders. Although Philip had already arrived there in April 1191, he had not been able to achieve any military success. The siege of the city had already lasted almost two years, but significant progress was not achieved until after Richard”s arrival. On July 12, 1191, about five weeks after the arrival of his fleet, Acre surrendered.

When Richard entered the conquered city, however, he made a permanent enemy of the Austrian duke due to a violation of honor. Honor was of the utmost importance in the dealings of the protagonists; honor and a sense of honor played a central role in the ethos and mentality of the nobility, and it was imperative that they be taken into account. Honor was not understood as a moral category; what was meant was the respect that a person could expect on the basis of his or her rank and social position. According to consistent sources, Leopold placed his flag in a prominent place in the conquered city, with which he wanted to demonstrate his claim to booty and his rank. However, this flag was torn down by Richard, or at least with his acquiescence, and trampled into the dirt. According to another tradition, Leopold had erected his tent too close to that of the king, whereupon Richard arbitrarily brought down the duke”s tent. With the proximity to the highest-ranking person, Leopold had wanted to publicly demonstrate and assert his rank in the political balance of power. In any case, the disgruntlement was so massive that Leopold and Richard no longer communicated with each other personally, but only through intermediaries. Richard did not give Leopold any satisfaction. The Austrian duke departed to his homeland humiliated and without booty. According to John Gillingham, however, Leopold”s claim to booty was out of proportion to his actual share in the conquest of Acre. Gillingham thus follows an assessment that Heinrich Fichtenau had already made in 1966.

For the implementation of the surrender agreement, a thousand defenders of Acre were imprisoned. Philip II returned to his homeland at the end of July 1191. As a reason for his departure, the French king cited the climate, which was not conducive to his health. After the childless death of Philip I of Alsace, he also had to take care of the succession in his county of Flanders. In research, however, it is rather assumed that he left because of the conflicts with the English king. From then on, Richard was the unrestricted leader of the crusader contingents. When the payment of the ransom for the approximately 3,000 Muslim prisoners was delayed after the conquest of Acre, Richard had them executed on August 20, 1191. He was described as ruthless and brutal by later historians because of this. In more recent research, however, greater consideration is given to the fact that this action was in keeping with the customs of the Occident at the time.

Continuing his advance along the coast, Richard won a victory over Saladin”s army at the Battle of Arsuf on September 7, 1191, but was unable to destroy it. His advances on Jerusalem in January and June 1192 were therefore in vain. In parallel, there was always diplomatic contact with Saladin. Richard proposed a marriage alliance between Saladin”s brother Malik al Adil and his sister Johanna. As a dowry, the coastal cities between Acre and Ascalon were under discussion. However, because of the difference in religion, both Johanna and al Adil rejected a union. In April 1192, Conrad of Montferrat, a claimant to the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and an opponent of King Guido of Lusignan, was murdered by Assassins. Richard, who had supported Guido, then agreed to a compromise: Guido was given the rule of Cyprus and Count Henry of Champagne, a nephew of Richard, was elected the new king of Jerusalem.

At the end of July 1192, Saladin captured Jaffa after a brief siege. However, Richard, who rushed in quickly, was able to recapture the city in a coup d”état in early August 1192 and drive Saladin from Jaffa in the ensuing battle. In the meantime, Richard had fallen ill. Given the limitations of available military forces and the local balance of power, he decided to end the crusade with a truce. He also wanted to return home out of concern for territorial losses in northern France. On September 2, 1192, Richard and Saladin concluded the truce for three years and eight months with the Treaty of Ramla. Ascalon, Darum and Gaza were returned to the Muslims. The coastal cities from Jaffa to Tyre remained with the Christians. Jerusalem remained under Saladin”s sole control, but Christian pilgrims were allowed access to the city. Since the Christians had to renounce the reconquest of the Holy City, the Crusade had failed in its real objective. According to Dieter Berg, Richard was primarily responsible for the failure. Due to the withdrawal of the French king because of the conflicts with Richard, the army was weakened. Berg finds it incomprehensible that Richard nevertheless led the army twice before the walls of Jerusalem without being able to dare an attack. John Gillingham is of a different opinion, who counters the unfavorable judgments of later historians with the fact that Richard was appreciated by his contemporaries as an important crusader.

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Imprisonment by Emperor Henry VI.

On his return journey after a shipwreck, Richard was forced to take the overland route via the Roman-German Empire. Fearing retribution from his intimate enemy Duke Leopold V of Austria, he traveled in disguise with only a few companions, including Balduin of Béthune, Philip of Poitiers, William de l”Etang, and the chaplain Anselm. His destination was Bavaria, Henry the Lion”s sphere of influence. The very compulsion to disguise was shameful in a medieval society ordered by rank, where honor and status were publicly demonstrated. Dieter Berg judges Richard”s disguise as an “alienating and at the same time amateurish game of hide-and-seek”. It is unclear why Richard did not openly ask for safe conduct as a crusader. Count Meinhard of Gorizia became aware of the traveling party in early December 1192 and recognized the king, but at first he managed to escape. His escape ended a few days before Christmas 1192 in the dominion of Duke Leopold. The contradictory statements of the sources do not shed light on the concrete circumstances of the following capture. However, all sources agree that it was Leopold”s revenge for the honor violation he had suffered. The most detailed account is offered by the chronicle of Otto of Freising with the continuation of Otto of St. Blasien. It is full of malice about the events. According to their account, Richard was disguised as a simple pilgrim and was laughed at loudly by Leopold when the latter was able to capture him in Erdberg near Vienna while roasting chicken in a shabby dwelling, which was not befitting his status. His need for representation was his undoing. As a simple servant, he roasted a chicken, but forgot to remove a valuable ring from his finger. The English chroniclers, on the other hand, were guided by the model of chivalric action. They emphasized that Richard had behaved with dignity even in this difficult situation as king. He had been surprised in his sleep, had only wanted to hand over his sword to the duke, had not allowed himself to be intimidated by the duke”s superior force, or had allowed himself to be captured by the duke himself. Many clergymen in Europe considered the capture of a crusader a grave sin. For chroniclers close to the Austrian duke, it was justified revenge for the honor violation suffered in Acre.

English tradition close to the court gives a fairly detailed account of the events between imprisonment and release, but the German sources are almost completely silent. John Gillingham interprets the silence as a sign that the captivity of a crusader under the protection of the church was considered unworthy and detrimental to Leopold”s honor. According to Knut Görich, however, the silence is also due to the fact that there were no historians close to the court among the German chroniclers.

Richard was handed over to Hadmar II of Kuenring, one of the most powerful ministerials of the Babenberg duke, and imprisoned at Dürnstein Castle near Krems on the Danube. Already on December 28, 1192, the emperor informed the French king Philip II about Richard”s capture. He informed him that he had now apprehended the “enemy of ours and the troublemaker of your empire” (inimicus imperii nostri, et turbator regni tui). Richard”s capture caused indignation among the papal curia. Pope Coelestine III demanded his release and threatened excommunication, since Richard, as a crusader, was under the protection of the Church and had the right to return freely. Leopold was excommunicated by Pope Coelestine III in June 1194.

Richard remained capable of acting to a limited extent despite his imprisonment. Thus, legal documents could also be drawn up during this period. At first, only letters and writs (royal decrees) were written. After successful release negotiations, the chancellor William of Longchamp belonged to Richard”s personal entourage from the summer of 1193. From this time at the latest, royal charters were again drafted. From his imprisonment Richard operated the election of Hubert Walter as Archbishop of Canterbury. As justiciar, Walter ensured the rule during the king”s absence.

When John Ohneland learned of his brother Richard”s imprisonment, he immediately sought the support of Philip II in Paris. In January 1193, he went to his court. In this way he wanted to secure his inheritance. The French king enfeoffed him with Normandy. Philip supported John”s ambitions for the English throne, and the latter took an oath of fealty to him. In addition, Philip offered his protection to discontented nobles in the English mainland possessions.

Henry and Leopold sealed an agreement in Würzburg on the terms of release. In the Treaty of Wuerzburg of February 14, 1193, 100,000 marks of pure silver were stipulated as a ransom, half to Leopold and half to Henry VI. In addition, Richard was to pledge his support for the emperor”s next Sicilian campaign. In March 1193, at the Court Day in Speyer, Henry accused the English king of numerous crimes before the imperial princes, including the murder of Conrad of Montferrat, a liegeman of the empire, which he had instigated. Richard had imprisoned Isaac of Cyprus, a relative of the emperor, and had alienated his land. He had reviled the banner of Henry”s kinsman Duke Leopold. Moreover, with the support of King Tankred, he had wanted to deprive the emperor of the Sicilian kingdom, the inheritance of his wife Constance. He had also disregarded his fealty obligations to King Philip. He had made a shameful peace with Saladin. The charges were intended to show that Henry was not arbitrarily holding the English king in captivity without just cause. Richard was given the opportunity to refute the individual charges in free speech before the princely court. He also offered a judicial duel, which, however, none of those present wanted to carry out against the ruler. Richard made a lasting impression on the imperial assembly with his admission that he had made mistakes and with his demonstrative gesture of throwing himself to the ground before the emperor and begging for mercy. Henry granted him this by pulling the kneeling king to him and giving him the kiss of peace. John Gillingham explains Henry”s behavior by the hostile atmosphere at the court day, which moved him to receive Richard in mercy. Roger of Howden relates eager negotiations on this subject on the previous day, in which “the emperor demanded many things which Richard was not prepared to concede even at the risk of death.” However, nothing is known about the subject of the negotiations. According to Klaus van Eickels, the Staufer demanded a particularly humiliating form of submission, which Richard was not prepared to make. Gerd Althoff was able to show on the basis of numerous comparative examples that genuflection and the kiss of peace did not express spontaneous emotions; rather, such scenes were staged in the Middle Ages. Dieter Berg evaluates the outcome of the court day as an important prestige success for Richard. However, the latter remained in custody and was detained at Trifels Castle until mid-April. After that, he stayed in the emperor”s entourage, initially in the Alsatian palace of Hagenau.

On March 25, 1193, at a court meeting in Speyer, Richard accepted the sum fixed in Würzburg. He had to pay 100,000 marks of silver. In addition, he had to provide 50 ships and 200 knights for one year. The demand for personal participation in the emperor”s Sicilian campaign was dropped. The details were settled in the Treaty of Worms of June 29, 1193. The agreement of Worms is handed down by Roger of Howden. The ransom was increased to 150,000 silver marks. For the release 100,000 marks of pure silver according to Cologne weight were to be paid. This corresponded to about 23.4 tons of silver. Hostages were to be provided for the other 50,000 marks, sixty of them for the emperor and seven for the duke of Austria. The ransom was to be handed over to imperial envoys in London, examined by them and then sealed in transport containers.

Providing the ransom, which was equivalent to three times the crown”s annual revenue, was an immense challenge. A special department, the scaccarium redemptionis, was set up in the royal treasury, the Exchequer, which was charged with collecting the ransom taxes. The high clergy had to surrender liturgical equipment and the fourth part of their annual revenues. A special tax of 25 percent had to be imposed and royal property sold. The profits from wool production, which were actually intended for the Cistercians and normally exempt from royal taxes, were confiscated. The Red Book of the Exchequer, compiled in the 13th century, records that every holder of a knight”s fief had to hand over 20 shillings.

At Christmas 1193, Henry VI set January 17, 1194, as the date for Richard”s release. A considerable part of the ransom had been procured in the meantime and brought into the realm. Richard, meanwhile, had spent Christmas 1193 in Speyer. Philip II and John Ohneland tried to prevent the emperor”s already promised release by making far-reaching financial promises. Philip agreed to pay 100,000 marks and Johann 50,000 marks for Richard”s extradition. Alternatively, they offered 1,000 marks for each additional month of Richard”s imprisonment. Henry had become undecided about the further treatment of the prisoner in view of the new offer and therefore put the release up for discussion to the princes present at the Mainz Court Day in February 1194. The great ones, however, insisted on the agreed release of the English king. Richard thus profited from his already existing personal connections with the greats, which he had built up in the previous months. Henry, however, succeeded in forcing Richard to take the English regnum in fief from the emperor and to pay an annual tribute of 5000 pounds. In this connection, only Roger of Howden reports that Richard was to be crowned king of Burgundy. This dominion was nominally part of the empire, but the emperor did not exercise any actual rule there. According to Knut Görich, it could have been a demonstrative honor to make the feudal transfer of his own realm more bearable for the English king.

On February 4, 1194, Richard was released from prison at the Court Day in Mainz. He performed the feudal homage for his entire dominions. 100,000 marks of silver had been paid to Henry and hostages had been provided for the further 50,000 marks, including Henry the Lion”s two sons, Otto and William. The archbishops of Cologne and Mainz handed Richard over to his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. After his release, he spent a few days in the woods of Nottingham. However, the linking of the legend of Robin Hood, who lived with his followers in the forests of Sherwood Forest, with the story of Richard the Lionheart did not take place until the 16th century.

For Leopold, the ransom payment meant the restoration of his honor, which had been injured by Richard during the crusade. He used it to finance the expansion of his residential city and the foundations of Wiener Neustadt and Friedberg. His sudden death on December 31, 1194, from a fall from his horse was regarded by contemporaries as God”s judgment on Richard”s capture. Henry used his share to conquer the Norman kingdom of Sicily. The ransom payment is said to have been the first time that sterlings circulated on a large scale on the European continent. In London, the king”s constant demands for money led to an uprising under William Fitz Osbert in 1196, which was put down.

Restoration of the rule in England

After his release, Richard once again set foot on English soil for two months on March 13, 1194. Despite the long captivity, according to John Gillingham, the Angevin administrative structures functioned well. On the island, he took measures to stabilize his rule and sought to raise as much money as possible for the planned military campaigns against the French king. Richard convened a court day at Nottingham in late March and early April 1194. At the well-attended court day, which was also attended by the queen mother and the brother of the Scottish king, numerous punitive measures against rebels and personnel changes in the administration were decided. A few days later, on April 17, Richard showed himself in the presence of his mother Eleanor in Winchester Cathedral. His festive coronation was to erase the shame of his imprisonment and restore his honor. William of Newburgh noted that at the coronation in Winchester, Richard appeared like a new king and washed away the disgrace of his imprisonment by the splendor of the crown of his realm.

In 1195, Richard agreed with King William I of Scotland on the marriage between his nephew Otto, later Roman-German Emperor Otto IV, and William”s daughter Margaret of Scotland, who was expected to become the heir to the Scottish throne. In this way Richard wanted to extend his influence to Scotland, and for Otto”s dynasty, the Guelphs, the marriage project held out the prospect of a new power base. However, William withdrew from the agreement after learning that his wife was pregnant. Pressure from the Scottish nobility may also have been decisive for his withdrawal.

The financial and administrative apparatus played an important role in raising new funds. Officials and functionaries who had already paid large sums of money for their offices when Richard came to power had to pay again. In the spring of 1194, the tax and army systems were comprehensively reformed. Feudal levies such as the scutagium accounted for 41.1 percent of total revenues in 1194 and 42.7 percent in 1198. After the introduction of a new seal in 1198, all recipients of privileges had to have their documents resealed for a fee. An inventory was made of all Jews on the island in 1194. They had to document all their monetary and credit transactions in writing and deposit the evidence in document boxes called archae. These boxes were established in 27 towns. In addition, the Exchequer of the Jews, a separate treasury for the Jews, was created in 1194. With these measures, the crown wanted to better assess their economic and financial activity as well as the financial strength of the Jews under royal protection. The aim was to prevent Jewish IOUs from being destroyed in future pogroms, which would have caused material damage to the kingdom.

Also read, biographies – Jacobus Henricus van ‘t Hoff

Courtly culture and ruling practice

The court developed into a central institution of royal and princely power from the 12th century onward. Even a contemporary connoisseur of the court such as Walter Map mentioned in his De nugis curialium the difficulty of a clear definition of the high medieval court. Martin Aurell, one of the best experts on the continental history of the Plantagenets, defined the court as a focal point that was both a residence and a central court. From the court, the Plantagenets sought to dominate their “mosaic of kingdoms, principalities, and dominions.” But the court had also been a cultural center. It had provided the Plantagenets with a link to the Norman ruling house and the Arthurian circle and ensured the spread of their fame through minstrels.

Until well into the 14th century, medieval rule was exercised through ambulatory governance practices. For the Anglo-Norman kings and the Anglo-Angevin rulers, this applied not only to their insular realm but also to their continental possessions. Since 1154, the Angevin Empire consisted of the French duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine and the counties of Maine and Anjou, in addition to England. For their possessions on the mainland, the English kings were vassals of the French king. For the last Anglo-Norman ruler, Henry I, Rouen had been the preferred residence. Under Richard”s father Henry II, the focus of the itinerary had shifted to Chinon on the Loire and thus even further south. Richard was in England only twice during his entire reign: four months at his coronation on September 3 and two months after his release from captivity in 1194. During the second half of his reign, Richard stayed throughout in his French possessions. His wife Berengaria never set foot in England either during her husband”s lifetime or after his death. She is thus the only English queen who never visited the island. Richard”s itinerary did not overlap with that of Berengaria, who had her sojourns mainly in the Loire Valley at Beaufort-en-Vallée, Chinon and Saumur. Apparently, Richard hardly tried to produce a descendant with Berengaria. In the 20th century, historians have viewed this behavior as an expression of presumed homosexuality. Klaus van Eickels, on the other hand, assumes that Richard was incapable of procreation and knew this after his numerous premarital affairs failed to produce any offspring.

As a king who was constantly traveling, Richard moved in a multilingual environment. He certainly spoke Anglonormannic, could understand and read Latin. English he probably spoke rather rarely. Provençal was the language of his mother and was spoken in Aquitaine. He probably also communicated with his wife Berengaria in this language.

During the crusade and the period of captivity, the court was severely restricted. The affairs of state were taken over by high officials appointed by Richard in the most important provinces. To control this system, the court had to travel constantly. Administrative structures were most developed in England and Normandy. Already under Henry I, an incipient and above all separate administration of monetary revenues and expenditures had formed as a separate “treasury” with the so-called exchequer. In the absence of the ruler, the affairs of government were conducted by capable official administrators such as Hubert Walter and royal institutions such as the aforementioned treasury. Hubert Walter was one of the most important office holders in the king”s entourage. Upon Richard”s accession to power, he was elevated to the vacant bishop”s see of Salisbury for his services. There, however, he is only once traceable in the cathedral. He accompanied Richard on the Third Crusade and led negotiations with Saladin during the king”s illness. Back in England he was elected Archbishop of Canterbury. He also handled the ransom and from Christmas 1193 exercised the regency in England as justiciar during the king”s absence. Since he also became papal legate for England in March 1195, he held not only viceregal power but also spiritual leadership in England as the king”s representative. Since the spring of 1194, mainly secular barons and simple knights stayed around the king. They gained more and more importance due to the battles against the French king. On the other hand, the influence of the ecclesiastical group declined. It included the bishops of London, Richard Fitz Neal and William de Sainte-Mère-Église, of Durham, Hugh de Puiset, and of Rochester, Gilbert de Glanville. Recent research also highlights the importance of Richard”s mother to the order and security of the realm during her son”s absence. According to Jane Martindale, Eleanor exercised royal power after 1189, first in England and then in Aquitaine. According to Ralph V. Turner, Eleanor”s main concern during the last fifteen years of her life was to preserve the Angevin Empire intact.

For the English kings, King Arthur became the central figure of identification. Shortly after his coronation, Richard had an excavation carried out at Glastonbury Monastery. The monastery was considered one of the oldest Christian places of worship and had been identified with the legendary Avalon since the second half of the 12th century. During the excavation, according to contemporary belief, the tombs of King Arthur and his wife Guinevere were discovered. The alleged Arthurian tomb is considered a fake; its purpose is judged differently in research.

Writing gained increasing importance as a means of ruling in the late 12th century, including in administration. Written forms of procedure established themselves at the courts of Europe, such as the Pipe Rolls, on which the annual revenues of the crown were recorded. The Pipe Rolls not only offer insights into the social fabric of England, but are also an important prosopographical source. The accounts also reveal events from everyday political life. For example, entries show that Richard had parts of the regal regalia taken into captivity. In the chancery, the most important part of the court, outgoing correspondence as well as deeds were archived and registered from 1199. On his seal Richard is shown on a steed, with a raised sword in his right hand. The seals served the English kings for representation and to illustrate their own legitimacy, pursuing different strategies than the Roman-German rulers. The English kings held a sword extended upwards in their right hand, while the Roman-German kings preferred the imperial orb and scepter instead.

Richard”s imprisonment was the occasion for the creation of the Arthurian novel Lanzelet from the pen of Ulrich of Zatzikhoven. For a long time, Richard provided sustenance to a singer named Blondel at his court. The most famous troubadours of that time, such as Peire Vidal, Arnaut Daniel, Guiraut de Borneil or Bertram de Born (the Elder) stayed in the surroundings of Richard the Lionheart. From the English monarch himself only two songs are preserved. Both are counted among the Sirventes. In research, however, it is assumed that his poetic oeuvre must have been more extensive. The first song, Ja nus hons pris ne dira, consists of six stanzas and has survived in two languages, Old French and Occitan. The theme of the song is the experience of captivity and the breach of faith. The origin of the song is assumed to be around the turn of the year 1193.

Last stage of life

On May 12, 1194, Richard landed in Barfleur. He renounced severe punishment of his brother John Ohneland and received him back into grace. After reconciling with John, he devoted himself to preparations for battle against the French king. During Richard”s surprising attack on July 5, 1194, the French king could only save himself by fleeing. In the process, he lost not only men and equipment, but also his seal and the royal archives. On July 23, 1194, an armistice was concluded at Tillières near Verneuil with the support of a papal legate until November 1, 1195. Richard made major concessions in this agreement. He probably wanted to use the following months to build up further financial resources and new military forces. Under this agreement, the Capetian could command large territories in Normandy, but Richard was only allowed to rebuild four Norman castles and was not allowed to pursue further recuperation plans. Richard used the time gained to replenish the war chest. In 1194, a general tax of 10 percent was imposed on all export goods. For the struggle against Philip, John Gillingham was able to show that Richard, as a ruler, also sought to influence public opinion in Europe in part with embellished or forged letters.

Since the fall of 1194, preparations for new battles were underway on both sides. However, the truce was observed until July 1195. In November

The powerful Duke Henry the Lion was overthrown in 1180 by Frederick Barbarossa at the instigation of several princes and had to go into exile in England for several years. His children Henry of Brunswick, Otto of Brunswick, William of Lüneburg and Richenza had lived mainly at the Angevin court since 1182 and were educated there. The childless Richard apparently temporarily considered Henry”s son Otto for his own succession. Richard”s brother Gottfried had died at an early age. Otto was knighted by Richard in February 1196 and enfeoffed with the county of Poitou in late summer 1196. Otto thus effectively became the king”s deputy in Aquitaine. However, Richard did not succeed in imposing Otto as his successor.

The death of Henry VI in 1197 created a power vacuum in the empire north of the Alps, for Henry”s son Frederick was still a young child and staying far away in Sicily. In an empire without a written constitution, this led to two royal elections in 1198 and to the “German” dispute for the throne between the Staufer Philip of Swabia and the Guelph Otto. This gave the Anglo-French antagonism another field of action. Richard supported Otto, because he wanted to have a reliable partner in the empire north of the Alps for his dispute with the French king. According to John Gillingham, Richard invested heavily in diplomatic efforts and money for the anti-Staufer candidate because of his humiliating imprisonment with the late Staufer. The imprisonment had impaired Richard”s honor (honor), to which – as Knut Görich points out – he had to react by taking revenge on the offending party, because honor had central importance as an obligatory norm. The Capetians, on the other hand, allied themselves with the Staufer Philip of Swabia on June 29, 1198.

On June 9, 1198, Otto was elected king primarily because of the support of his rich uncle Richard. Prior to this, Philip of Swabia had been elected king in Mulhouse on March 8. The dispute over the throne did not end until several years after Richard”s death with the assassination of Philip.

Richard went to Limousin in March 1199. There, a revolt had broken out by Count Ademar of Angoulême and Vice Count Aimar of Limoges and his son Guido. When Richard, who was not sufficiently protected, approached the walls of Châlus-Chabrol Castle on March 26, 1199, he was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt. A doctor was only able to cut out the bolt. Ten days later, the king succumbed to his injury: on the evening of April 6, 1199, he died of gangrene outside the walls of Châlus-Chabrol Castle. Richard is one of the few medieval rulers who, as a recognized king, lost his life in battle. The circumstances of his death inspired the creation of legends. He is said to have forgiven the crossbowman who hit him on his deathbed. He had besieged the castle because of the prospect of a great treasure guarded in it. However, this explanation was based on a contemporary legend. In a source-critical study, John Gillingham was able to show that the siege was part of Richard”s Aquitanian policy and must be understood as a preventive measure against the plans of the French king.

Richard”s brain and entrails were buried at Charroux in Poitou, the heart in Rouen Cathedral, the center of English rule in Normandy. The remaining body was buried with the royal regalia at Fontevraud Abbey next to his father on April 11, 1199. Richard was the first king of England to be buried with his coronation regalia. Richard”s grave depiction as a reclining dead man with a resting pillow and footrest is unusual for the period. Besides Richard”s tomb, only the tombs of his sister Matilda, his mother Eleanor, his father Henry II and Henry the Lion are decorated in this form. Eleonore donated an annual memorial to him on April 21, 1199.

Within a short time, Richard”s brother John Ohneland, with the support of Eleanor, was able to prevail over his rival and nephew Arthur I as king”s successor. On May 27, 1199, he was crowned English king by Archbishop Hubert Walter of Canterbury. John maintained the high demands for tribute. In 1200, he initially ended the conflict with Philip II through the Treaty of Le Goulet. As early as 1202, however, there was another war with France, which led to the loss of Normandy and other territories on the mainland in 1204. After the defeat of Otto, a Guelph allied with John, at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 against the French king, John had to accept the losses in France and was now politically weakened. The barons of England were no longer willing to accept John”s arbitrariness and his financial demands. This was an essential prerequisite for the enforcement of the Magna Carta Libertatum in 1215.

Richard is the only English ruler whose lion attribute has remained permanently anchored in historiography and legend. There are numerous contemporary records of his epithet. Even before the accession to power and the crusade, the Lionheart became the customary distinction in the chansons de geste of a new type of hero, the Christian knight who proved himself in the battle of the heathen. Even before his accession to power in 1188, Gerald of Wales spoke of Richard as a “lionhearted prince.” The chronicler Richard of Devizes explained how the English ruler came by his lion name even outside his realm. Richard had immediately after his arrival in Messina, unlike the French king Philip II. Augustus, punished crimes committed by his men against the local population. The Sicilians then referred to Philip as a lamb, while Richard was given the lion name. A similar juxtaposition is also found in Bertran de Born. On Richard”s arrival before Acre in June 1191, Ambroise wrote in his chronicle of the Third Crusade (L”estoire de la guerre sainte), which ended in 1195, that “the excellent king, the heart of the lion” (le preuz reis, le quor de lion) had arrived.

In historiographical and fiction literature and among the general public, Richard the Lionheart appeared as the ideal of the monarch and crusader. A completely different development appeared in the scientific literature. In modern research he has been judged partly as egocentric and his reign as failed.

According to Dieter Berg, at least four strands of development can be distinguished for the reception history of the image of the Lionheart. The first strand concerned the depiction of Richard”s activities on the crusade in comparison with those of his adversary Saladin. The depiction of Saladin”s military qualities and personal bravery made it possible to glorify Richard”s victories and glory all the more intensely. In the second strand, material was transferred from Latin chronicles to vernacular literature. Legendary elements intensified and led to a “popularization” of the ruler”s image. The third strand was the Blondel motif, which appeared in 1260 and was enriched with other narrative material. In the fourth strand of development, the life story of the king was interwoven with narrative material about the ballad hero Robin Hood.

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High and late Middle Ages

For the written culture, the 12th and 13th centuries were a heyday. In England in particular, there were a large number of historians. Ecclesiastical chroniclers such as Richard of Devizes, William of Newburgh and Gervasius of Canterbury and secular writers such as Radulfus of Diceto and Roger of Howden described in detail the actions of the rulers. The contemporary chronicle of Roger of Howden is one of the most important historical works about the time of Richard. Roger wanted to portray the history of England from Beda Venerabilis in the 8th century to his own time. For him, Richard became the beacon of hope after the years of crisis at the end of Henry II”s reign. As a historian close to the court, Roger was well informed about what was happening. With Richard”s death, the whole world ended at the same time in his eyes: “In his death the ant destroys the lion. Oh pain, in such a downfall the world perishes” (In hujus morte perimit formica leonem.

Permanently, the tendency to glorify the monarch was fostered by the Crusade. Members of the English army contingents described the events in the Holy Land as eyewitnesses in their historiographical accounts. In the works of Ambroise (L”estoire de la guerre sainte) and an anonymous chaplain of the Templars (Itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis Ricardi), Richard was stylized as a crusading hero who was far superior to the French king in particular. Critical judgments from the Capetian side, such as those of Rigord and William the Breton, who portrayed Richard as devious and unscrupulous, only increased the glorification of the English king on the Angevin side. A comparison of contemporary European historiography with Arabic chronicles and poetry on the Third Crusade shows that Richard”s chivalry was generally singled out for special praise even during his lifetime.

A further increase in heroization began with the sudden death of the monarch. He was glorified especially in the dirges of various troubadours. The troubadour Gaucelm Faidit was one of his companions on the crusade. He described in detail the heroic deeds in the Holy Land and sang exuberantly in his dirge that neither Charles nor Arthur had come close to Richard. Critical voices are rare. For Gerald of Wales, the monarch”s sudden death was divine punishment for having diminished the freedoms of the church by imposing heavy material burdens and thus exercising a tyranny on the island. However, the supposed neglect of the island kingdom due to Richard”s constant absence was not criticized by contemporaries, but only censured by the historians of the 19th century.

The Angevin rulers had no myths and ideologies of their own for the legitimation of their dynasty. Since their origin goes back to William the Conqueror, they could refer neither to the old English kings nor to the Carolingians. As an alternative, they emphasized chivalric ideals above all. Even during his lifetime, Richard promoted the creation of legends around his life and deeds. Unlike his father, however, Richard was less concerned with glorifying the dynasty than with glorifying himself. In doing so, he consciously placed himself in the tradition of the legendary King Arthur. According to his biographer Roger of Howden, the legendary sword of this king, Excalibur, was in Richard”s possession. Richard picked up a myth about his ancestor Fulko Nerra and had it spread at court as early as 1174. Fulko”s wife was of unknown origin. During a forced visit to a church service, she turned out to be a devilish being. With this legend, Richard emphasized the sinister and threatening nature of his family”s history to his own subjects.

In the German-language literature of the High Middle Ages, Richard also had an outstanding reputation. Walther von der Vogelweide criticized the lack of the ruler”s virtue of generosity (milte) in the Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia. He considered Saladin and Richard the Lionheart (the one from Engellant) as models for proper ruler behavior. In the Carmina Burana, a collection of songs probably written around 1230 in the southern German-speaking area, a verse sung by a woman raves about the chunich of Engellant. For him she would renounce all possessions, if the chunich of Engellant would be in her arms. Behind the chunich of Engellant, Richard the Lionheart is suspected in the research. Already the first medieval corrector changed the passage in the 14th century and overwrote it with the chunegien, which probably alludes to Richard”s mother Eleonore.

Even his enemies admired Richard. Despite the massacre at Acre, he was praised by the Muslims. John Gillingham was able to show, on the basis of three Arab chroniclers from Saladin”s immediate circle, that they honored Richard with esteem and respect. According to the historian Ibn al-Athīr, Richard was the most outstanding personality of his time in terms of bravery, cunning, steadfastness, and resilience. William the Breton said that England would never have had a better ruler if Richard had shown proper respect to the French king.

Soon after his death, Richard the Lionheart was considered a benchmark for other kings and was called the “wonder of the world” (stupor mundi). In an anonymous panegyric, Edward I, who became English king in 1272, was praised as the new Richard (novus Ricardus). According to Ranulf Higden, the 14th century English chronicler, Richard meant to the English what Alexander meant to the Greeks, Augustus to the Romans, and Charlemagne to the French. Matthew Paris, a monk at the monastery of St. Albans, was the author of a great chronicle (Chronica majora). He attributes magnanimity as a quality to Richard the Lionheart. Margaret Greaves was able to show that the example of the magnanimous Richard the Lionheart remained a topos in English literature until the 17th century.

Around 1260, the Blondel motif first appeared. According to the legend, Blondel went in search of the imprisoned ruler during Richard”s imprisonment. He wandered the countryside singing and spent an entire winter as a singer in a castle. At Easter, he found the ruler”s attention by singing the first verse of a song he had composed together with Richard. Richard revealed himself by singing the second stanza. Blondel then traveled to England. According to one version, he arranged for the English barons to begin negotiations there for the king”s release; according to another version, he initiated them himself. There are no personal relations to the historically verifiable person Blondel de Nesle. The Blondel motif was used in a variety of literary works until well into the 19th century.

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Early modern times

The Scottish chronicler John Major placed the stories about Robin Hood in Richard”s time in his Latin history of Britain (Historia majoris Britanniae) published in 1521. Tales about Robin Hood had circulated since the 13th century. John Major”s classification of Robin Hood as a contemporary of Richard the Lionheart was as speculative as those of his predecessors, but prevailed in the long run. In the 1598 drama The Downfall of Robert Earle of Huntington by Anthony Munday, the noble robber was forced to take to the woods as an outlaw during the tyranny of John Ohneland. After returning from the Crusade, Richard the Lionheart restored order as a shining hero.

Until the 17th century, the image of Richard as the ideal of the occidental king and exemplary crusader remained dominant. According to Raphael Holinshed (1578), Richard was “a notable example to all princes”. For John Speed (1611), Richard was “this triumphant and bright shining star of chivalry”.

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Modern

German poets played a major role in ensuring that the myth of Richard the Lionheart continued into modern times. Georg Friedrich Händel (1727) and Georg Philipp Telemann (1729) composed operas on this theme. In German Romanticism, Richard the Lionheart was transfigured into a symbol of freedom. Heinrich Heine”s poem in Romanzero (1851) and Johann Gabriel Seidl”s text (Blondel”s Song) in the setting by Robert Schumann (1842) also achieved greater fame. Significantly, the image of Robin Hood and the English king shaped Sir Walter Scott”s Ivanhoe (1819) for decades to come. Ivanhoe was translated into twelve languages in the 19th century, and 30 theatrical versions exist. In Ivanhoe, Robin Hood fights on the Anglo-Saxon side against the Norman occupiers and their king, Richard the Lionheart. In his novel Tales of the Crusaders, published in 1825, Scott put the English king at the center of the action. Eleanor Anne Porden, Benjamin Disraeli, William Wordsworth, and Francis Turner Palgrave continued the glorification in their works.

The story of the singer Blondel found a variety of adaptations in the 19th century, including operas such as Il Blondello (Il suddito essemplaro), Il Blondello (Riccardo cuor di Leone), Richard and Blondel, Il Blondello or Blondel. In the later reception of the Blondel motif, the person of Richard took a back seat to elements such as unbreakable loyalty and friendship.

The onset of industrialization in England brought not only burdens on the environment but also social upheaval. In literature and art, the Middle Ages were idealized as a form of society and life. In the painting Robin Hood and his Merry Men by Daniel Maclise, crusaders and robbers settle down for food and drink under chestnuts and oaks.

The idealization also continued in art and architecture. The Italian sculptor Baron Carlo Marochetti created a large equestrian statue. The statue was originally intended for the London World”s Fair of 1851 and was erected in front of the Houses of Parliament in 1860. However, the ruler”s heroization already met with harsh criticism from contemporaries. During World War II, the statue was damaged in a German bombing raid in 1940. The sword raised into the air was bent, but did not break. Radio broadcasts took this as an opportunity to use the figure of Richard to keep up morale. Richard became a symbol of the strength of democracy. It was only when the tide of war turned in favor of the Allies that, in October 1943, a member of Parliament moved that the sword be put to the test. In the judgment of Winston Churchill in 1956, Richard was worthy to take a place at the Round Table with King Arthur and the other venerable knights.

In the 20th century, the material of Richard”s life was also adapted in comics and film, as in Cecil B. DeMille”s Crusader – Richard the Lionheart (1935), but his character took a back seat to that of Robin Hood. In the films, Richard is received as a multifaceted figure: as a war hero, war criminal, savior of England, fighter for justice, or loving son. Richard the Lionheart appears in the film Robin Hood (1922) as a drinking, overweight and always laughing king. In the films Robin Hood – King of Thieves (1991) and Heroes in Tights (1993), Richard is portrayed as a kind father figure. In both films, he plays only a minor role. Richard also makes a brief appearance in Ridley Scott”s successful blockbuster Kingdom of Heaven (2005). The film The Lion in Winter (directed by Anthony Harvey, GB

In recent decades, as Dieter Berg notes, a “trivialization and commercialization” of Richard the Lionheart has taken place in the public sphere. The medieval ruler has been used in computer games, as the eponym for Camembert cheese (Coeur de Lion) or for a Calvados in Normandy (Coeur de Lion). Here, the historical personality of the English king takes a back seat to contemporary marketing. In Annweiler, 800 years after the king”s capture, a small Lionheart exhibition was organized in 1993. A special bottling with Riesling Spätlese was named after the English king.

Since the 17th century, historiography has predominantly seen Richard as the “bad king. This negative view initially spread in more general accounts of the history of England. Richard”s neglect of the English realm was criticized, for example, by Samuel Daniel, who in 1621 emphasized Richard”s great financial burdens on the realm, and by Winston Churchill the Elder, who described Richard as an egocentric personality. From the 18th century onward, in Protestant circles in England, condemnation of the medieval Crusades was accompanied by vigorous criticism of the Catholic Church. In 1786, David Hume criticized the Crusades and the military atrocities Richard was responsible for as a crusader.

The critical view in historiography has been decisively influenced since the end of the 19th century, especially by William Stubbs. For him, Richard was “a bad son, a bad husband, a selfish ruler, and a vicious man”. He was only concerned with warfare and the glorification of his own person. The tyranny of his brother John was the consequence of Richard”s rule. This dismissive position remained prevalent throughout the scholarly literature in the 19th century. In James Henry Ramsay”s 1903 account, Richard was a “simple Frenchman.” He criticized the disregard for England in Richard”s political activity. The ruthless exploitation and neglect of the island kingdom and the monarch”s egocentrism were also highlighted by subsequent historians such as Kate Norgate (1924).

Even after World War II, the assessment of Richard as an irresponsible and egotistical monarch remained prevalent, as the influential handbook accounts since the 1950s by Frederick Maurice Powicke and Austin Lane Poole show. He was even widely regarded as one of England”s worst rulers ever. The influential crusade history researcher Steven Runciman praised his military prowess (“gallant and splendid soldier”), but Richard was also for him “a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king.” After World War II, he was also accused of homosexuality and a homoerotic relationship with the singer Blondel. Richard”s homosexuality was championed in 1948 by John Harvey, the first historian to do so, in his widely read work The Plantagenets. A few years later, this motif was processed in popular literature and feature films, for example, by Gore Vidal or Norah Lofts.

In the 1980s, there was a revision of the negative assessment. Above all, the fundamental work of John Gillingham played a decisive role in this. His biography, published in 1999, is considered a standard work. According to this work, Richard became a legend through his warlike qualities. For Gillingham, Richard the Lionheart was an ideal monarch by medieval standards. He declared him to be one of the best monarchs of England ever. A multitude of detailed studies and further biographies continued the tendency towards a more positive view (“lionizing Lionheart”). According to the biography by Ulrike Kessler (1995), the English king was not a politically irresponsible ruler, but a master of political tactics. On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of the death of Richard the Lionheart, an international conference on court and court life in the time of Henry II and his sons was held in 1999 in Thouars, Aquitaine. The proceedings of the conference were published by Martin Aurell in 2000. Jean Flori presented a biography of Richard in 1999. He examined the extent to which Richard corresponded to the ideal of a chivalrous king for his contemporaries.

Dieter Berg presented the fundamental account in German in 2007. In his biography, he again took up the negative judgments of older research. Berg deliberately chose “not an exclusively biographical approach” for his account, but intended an appreciation of Richard “in a pan-European context”. For him, Richard was mainly responsible for the “failure of the Third Crusade”. He had been incapable of solving the structural deficits of the Angevin Empire “as a result of the lack of unified ruling and administrative institutions in the disparate parts of the empire.” In addition, his financial policies had had devastating effects. The very different judgments in research can probably be explained by the diversity of perspectives and the assessment of contemporary sources.

From September 2017 to April 2018, the Historical Museum of the Palatinate hosted its first national exhibition in 25 years, Richard the Lionheart: King – Knight – Captive. Until then, no museum in mainland Europe had honored Richard with a special exhibition.

Representations

Biographies

Sources