Richard I, king of England

Encyclopedia of War w ie ev rR ee rP Fo http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/war Encyclopedia of War Page 1 of 2 Richard I, King [of England] (1157-99) John D. Hosler Morgan State University john.hosler@morgan.edu Word Count: 1,000 Richard I “the Lionheart” (Coeur de Lion) was a renowned warrior-king of England whose legacy has endured over the centuries since his ten-year reign. The second Angevin king of England, successor to Henry II and predecessor of King John, Richard spent less than two years of his reign in the Isles, distinguishing himself instead in a series of Fo campaigns on the Continent and the eastern Mediterranean. Generous and merciful but proud and wrathful: such characteristics place Richard firmly in the tradition of his powerful and militaristic family. rP Richard’s displayed tremendous prowess as a warrior. Skilled in both melee and missile combat, he was a risk-taker, but he also had a savvy for war and was an instinctive and thoughtful commander of men. He would often wage deliberate, logistical campaigns, avoiding battle and focusing his energies on control of territory through ee the control of castles and fortified towns. Richard is generally recognized as an excellent siege tactician, and although not as prodigious a builder as Henry II, he was nonetheless responsible for the construction of numerous castles, the most famous being the magnificent Chateau-Gaillard on the River Seine. rR The basis for Richard’s early military career was laid in 1169, when, at the age of eleven, he paid homage to Louis VII of France for lordship over Aquitaine. For the remainder of his life Richard fiercely defended this duchy against invasion and rebellion. At the death of his eldest brother Henry “the Younger” in 1183, Henry II ev offered Richard Normandy, Anjou, and Maine in exchange for Aquitaine, which the king planned to give to John, his youngest son. Richard never forgot the slight: relations between father and son swung wildly in the 1180s and ie by 1188-89 had deteriorated fully. He defected to the Capetians and, together with Philip Augustus, drove Henry II out of Le Mans and to an early death. Richard became King Richard I and received the entirety to his father’s lands, the so-called “Angevin Empire.” w 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 The centerpiece of Richard’s military career was his involvement on the Third Crusade (1190-1192). Although both Henry II and John took the cross, Richard was the only Angevin king to journey east to war. He carried with him the hopes of Christendom, for in 1187 two events had seriously weakened the viability of the Crusader States: the July disaster at the Horns of Hattin and the October capture of Jerusalem itself at the hands of an Egyptian army led by Salah al-Din Ysuf ibn Ayyub (Saladin). Taking with him over 200 ships and some 17,000 men, Richard cuts an impressive figure in the narrative sources and earned a glamorous reputation even before reaching the east. Once in the Holy Land, he won a number of victories and established himself as an internationally-renowned military commander. Prominent amongst his accomplishments was the capture of the cities of Acre (1191) and Ascalon and Darum (1192), as well as his stirring defeat of Saladin’s army in the pitched battle at Arsuf (1191). http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/war Encyclopedia of War Richard’s military reputation, however, is marred by a number of questionable decisions he made while on crusade. The first source of controversy concerns Richard’s June 1190 conquest of Cyprus. In the preceding April, ships from Richard’s crusading fleet wrecked upon the Cypriot coast and were seized by the island’s ruler, the Byzantine dissident Isaac II Comnenus. Among the captives were Richard’s sister Joan and his fiancée Berengaria of Navarre, a fact that precipitated his determined invasion and swift conquest of Cyprus. Afterward, Richard sold the island to the Knights Templar for 100,000 gold bezants. Whether or not Isaac’s act justified the taking of a Christian island by a crusading army remains a matter of contention. A second debate has swirled over Richard’s treatment of the Muslim prisoners he had captured at Acre. Following a botched prisoner exchange with Saladin, Richard ordered the mass execution of 2600 captives. Modern historians have judged Richard harshly, perhaps unfairly so, for this deed. Finally, there is the matter of Jerusalem. Twice in 1192 Richard’s army advanced to within striking distance of Jerusalem; in both cases Richard sided with the advice of his military councils and Fo removed his forces to Ramla. The crusading host had been lessened by the death of Frederick Barbarossa in 1190 and the abrupt departure of Philip Augustus 1191, and opinion at the time held that, even were he to capture the city, his remaining forces were insufficient to defend it. Consequently, Richard failed to besiege of the city whose fall rP had prompted the Third Crusade in the first place. Richard’s journey home was delayed by a shipwreck near Venice, after which he was captured by Duke ee Leopold IV of Austria, and turned over to Emperor Henry VI for imprisonment. Ransomed and returned to England in 1194, Richard spent the last years of his life warring against Philip Augustus, who had been intriguing with John and seizing lands on the Continent. Richard regained most of his lands from the French before being hit by a rR crossbow bolt at Chalus-Chabrol and dying on 6 April 1199 from the onset of gangrene. His posthumous reputation—dashing knight in combat, stern protector of his lands, pious defender of Christendom—has largely survived to this day. ev SEE ALSO: Ayyubi, Salah Ad-Din Al (1138-93); Barbarossa, Frederick (1122-90); Henry II, King [of England] (1133-89); Third Crusade (1189-1192); Military Religious Orders REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Gillingham, J. (1999) Richard I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. w ie 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Page 2 of 2 Gillingham, J. (1984) “Richard I and the Science of War in the Middle Ages.” In J. Gillingham and J. C. Holt (Eds.), War and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of J. O. Prestwich. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press. 78-91. Painter, S. (1969) “The Third Crusade: Richard the Lionheart and Philip Augustus.” In K. Setton, R. L. Wolff, and H. W. Hazard (Eds.), A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Later Crusades. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. 44-85. Prestwich, J. O. (1992) “Richard Coeur de Lion: Rex Bellicosus.” In J. L. Nelson (Ed.), Richard Coeur de Lion in History and Myth. English Reprint. London, UK: King’s College London Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies. 1-16. http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/war