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Richard I

Page 10

by Thomas Asbridge


  4. THE WARRIOR KING

  1. Roger of Howden, Chronica, vol. 3, p. 195; Richard of Devizes, Chronicon, pp. 46–7.

  2. William the Breton, Philippide de Guillaume le Breton, in Oeuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton, historiens de Philippe-Auguste, ed. H.-F. Delaborde, 2 vols (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1882–5), vol. 2, p. 112.

  3. J. O. Prestwich, ‘Richard Coeur de Lion: Rex Bellicosus’, in Riccardo Cuor di Leone nella storia et nella legenda (Rome: Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1981), pp. 3–15; J. Gillingham, ‘Richard I and the Science of War’, in War and Government: Essays in Honour of J. O. Prestwich, ed. J. B. Gillingham and J. C. Holt (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1984), pp. 78–91.

  4. William of Newburgh, p. 407.

  5. History of William Marshal, ll. 10268–9.

  6. Roger of Howden, Chronica, vol. 3, p. 240.

  7. Ibid., p. 251.

  8. Quoted in D. M. Stenton, English Justice Between the Norman Conquest and the Great Charter (London: Allen & Unwin, 1965), pp. 176–8.

  9. History of William Marshal, ll. 10409–11.

  10. Roger of Howden, Chronica, vol. 3, pp. 255–6; History of William Marshal, ll. 10581–676.

  11. History of William Marshal, ll. 10993–4; Roger of Howden, Chronica, vol. 4, pp. 58–9.

  12. History of William Marshal, l. 11768; Gillingham, Richard I, p. 321.

  5. THE LEGENDARY KING

  1. Ambroise, l. 2306.

  2. Ibid., ll. 11140, 6467, 11502–11.

  3. Itinerarium Peregrinorum, p. 143.

  4. Baha al-Din Ibn Shaddad, p. 146; Ibn al-Athir, p. 387.

  5. Der mittelenglische Versroman über Richard Löwenherz, ed. K. Brunner (Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumüller, 1913), ll. 880–1100.

  6. Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims au treizième siècle, ed. N. de Wailly (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1876), pp. 41–4.

  7. S. Lloyd, ‘King Henry III, the Crusade and the Mediterranean’, in England and Her Neighbours (1066–1453), ed. M. Jones and M. Vale (London: Hambledon, 1989), p. 107; Political Songs of England, ed. T. Wright (London: Camden Society, 1839), p. 128.

  8. John of Joinville, Vie de Saint Louis, ed. J. Monfrin (Paris: Dunod, 1995), p. 276.

  9. E. Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 6 (London: Strahan and Cadell, 1788), p. 104; Itinerarium Peregrinorum, p. xvii.

  Further Reading

  Richard I’s reputation was rejuvenated in the late twentieth century through the inestimable scholarship of Professor John Gillingham, and his Richard I (New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 1999) remains the most authoritative and readable biography of Richard. J. Flori, Richard the Lionheart: Knight and King, translated by J. Birrell (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006), places more emphasis on the role of chivalry in Richard’s career, while R. V. Turner and R. Heiser, The Reign of Richard the Lionheart: Ruler of the Angevin Empire (London: Routledge, 2000), is particularly concerned with details of governance and administration.

  Those wishing to place Richard’s reign in the broader context of medieval British history might usefully begin by reading D. Carpenter, The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066–1284 (London: Penguin, 2004), while the Angevin perspective can be approached through J. Gillingham, The Angevin Empire, 2nd edn (London: Arnold, 2001), and M. Aurell, The Plantagenet Empire, 1154–1224, translated by D. Crouch (Harlow: Longman, 2007).

  Richard’s preparations for, and absence during, the Third Crusade are examined in J. T. Appleby, England Without Richard, 1189–99 (London: G. Bell & Sons, 1965), and C. J. Tyerman, England and the Crusades (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988). No one has yet been brave enough to publish a modern research monograph on the Third Crusade, but there are substantial chapters on the expedition in a number of recent general histories of the crusades, including C. J. Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades (London: Allen Lane, 2006), and T. Asbridge, The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land (London: Simon & Schuster, 2010). The most valuable (if not always the most approachable) study of Richard’s opponent Saladin remains M. C. Lyons and D. E. P. Jackson, Saladin: The Politics of the Holy War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).

  Richard’s protracted campaigns on the continent after his return from crusade and release from captivity are chronicled in M. Powicke, The Loss of Normandy, 1189–1204 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1913), while two seminal articles considering Richard’s martial reputation are J. O. Prestwich, ‘Richard Coeur de Lion: Rex Bellicosus’, in Riccardo Cuor di Leone nella storia et nella legenda (Rome: Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1981), pp. 3–15, and J. Gillingham, ‘Richard I and the Science of War’, in War and Government: Essays in Honour of J. O. Prestwich, edited by J. Gillingham and J. C. Holt (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1984), pp. 78–91.

  A selection of valuable essays exploring the memorialization of Richard’s career are presented in Richard Coeur de Lion in History and Myth, edited by J. L. Nelson (London: Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, King’s College, 1992), and those wishing to trace further the development of the various legends associated with the Lionheart should consult B. B. Broughton, The Legends of King Richard I Coeur de Lion: A Study of Sources and Variations to the Year 1600 (The Hague: Mouton & Co., 1966), and M. Jubb, The Legend of Saladin in Western Literature and Historiography (Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000).

  A number of the most significant primary sources for Richard’s career are available in English translation. These include Ambroise, The History of the Holy War: Ambroise’s Estoire de la Guerre Sainte, edited and translated by M. Ailes and M. Barber, 2 vols (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2003), The Chronicle of the Third Crusade: A Translation of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, translated by H. Nicholson (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1997), and The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes, edited and translated by J. T. Appleby (London: Thomas Nelson & Son, 1963).

  Picture Credits

  1. Richard I, detail from The Kings of England by Matthew Paris, c.1250–59. British Library, London, Cotton Claudius D VI, fol. 9v (© British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/Hirarchivum Press/Alamy)

  2. Reverse of Richard’s second seal from 1198 with mounted figure of the king. Canterbury Cathedral, Kent (Bridgeman Images)

  3. Portrait of a sitting man thought to represent Saladin, from a fourteenth-century copy of Kitab fi ma‘arifat al-hiyal al-handisaya by al-Jazari, eleventh century (Freer Gallery of Art, Acc. No. F1932.19)

  4. The Capture of Acre, French school, fourteenth century. British Library, London, MS Royal 16 G VI, fol. 352v (© British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman Images)

  5. The Acre massacre of 1191, in a miniature from Sébastien Mamerot, Passages faiz oultre mer par les François, 1474–5. Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Paris (Erich Lessing/akg-images)

  6. Richard the Lionheard at the Battle of Arsuf by Gustave Doré, illustration from Bibliothèque des Croisades by J-F. Michaud, 1877. Private Collection (© Ken Welsh/Bridgeman Images)

  7. Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem (Nikolay Vinokurov/Alamy)

  8. Richard and Saladin in combat, earthenware floor tiles found at Chertsey Abbey, Surrey. British Museum, London (Photo 12/Alamy)

  9. Château Gaillard, Les Andeleys, France (Hervé Lenain/Alamy)

  10. Twelfth-century stone effigy of Richard from his tomb at Fontevraud Abbey, Maine-et-Loire, France (Erich Lessing/akg-images)

  11. Equestrian statue of Richard, 1860, by Baron Carlo Marochetti, in Old Palace Yard, Westminster (David Lyons/Alamy)

  THE BEGINNING

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  ALLEN LANE

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  Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

  First published 2018

  Copyright © Thomas Asbridge, 2018

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  Cover design by Pentagram

  Jacket art by Ping Zhu

  ISBN: 978-0-141-97686-0

  1. IN SEARCH OF THE LIONHEART

  fn1 Medieval European Christians are most accurately referred to as ‘Latins’ because of the language of their scripture and ritual.

  fn2 This may have been the same huge crown used by King Henry II, but appears to have been distinct from the crown first worn by King Edward the Confessor and traditionally viewed as being the centrepiece of medieval England’s royal regalia.

  2. THE ABSENT KING

  fn1 Contemporaries often described the European settlers in the Levant as ‘Franks’ (Ifranj in Arabic) because many of them originated in Francia (France).

  3. THE CRUSADER KING

  fn1 Richard rewarded William of Préaux’s loyalty at the end of the crusade, agreeing to release ten high-ranking Muslim captives in return for his release.

  fn2 Guy’s claim to the Jerusalemite crown derived from his marriage to King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem’s daughter Sybilla, but she succumbed to illness (along with her two infant daughters) during the siege of Acre, leaving Guy’s legitimacy open to question.

  fn3 For some reason, there seems to have been no explicit discussion regarding the fate of the Jerusalemite True Cross during the negotiations, and the prized relic remained in Ayyubid hands.

  4. THE WARRIOR KING

  fn1 The duke went on to enjoy little success. He was excommunicated by the pope for his actions and later, after being injured in a riding accident, suffered an agonizing death. Leopold’s foot was apparently crushed when he fell from his horse, with bones protruding from the skin, and the injury soon became infected. Once the foot turned black, a decision was made to amputate at the ankle, but the duke’s son was too squeamish to perform the deed, so Leopold had to hold an axe to his leg himself while his chamberlain struck it three times with a mallet. He died soon afterwards.

  fn2 A convincing argument has been made that this ‘Robin’ can be identified as Robert of Wetherby, an infamous brigand who was hunted down and beheaded by Eustache of Lowdham (former Sheriff of Nottingham) in 1225.

  5. THE LEGENDARY KING

  fn1 Tales related to the First Crusade leader Bohemond of Taranto’s time as a prisoner of the Turks in Asia Minor circulated widely in the early twelfth century. His eventual release was attributed variously to the intervention of a beautiful Muslim noblewoman or the intercession of Saint Leonard, the patron saint of captives.

  fn2 Richard I was also long credited with bringing the cult of Saint George to England, but it has since been established that the first signs of Saint George’s adoption as the realm’s patron saint date from the fourteenth century.

 

 

 


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