The seizure of Cyprus from its self-styled emperor on the way east, and a wedding at Limassol (1191)
Isaac Komnenos was deposed; the king married Berengaria of Navarre at Limassol in May 1191.
Monarchs · Plantagenet
Richard I
1157–1199
House of Plantagenet — the Lionheart and the Third Crusade
In office: 1189–1199
Third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard succeeded in 1189 and spent almost his whole reign abroad: on the Third Crusade, where he took Cyprus and Acre, beat Saladin at Arsuf and agreed the Treaty of Jaffa; in an imperial prison, after being seized on the journey home and ransomed for 150,000 marks; and finally in France, defending Normandy and building Château Gaillard. He was killed by a crossbow bolt at a minor siege in the Limousin in 1199 and was succeeded by his brother John.
How to spot them
- ▸Coeur de Lion, the Lionheart; a duke of Aquitaine who spoke little or no English
- ▸The Third Crusade, Saladin, Acre, Arsuf and the Treaty of Jaffa
- ▸Captured in Austria and ransomed by the Emperor; the Blondel legend
- ▸Château Gaillard; killed at Châlus; heart at Rouen, body at Fontevraud
In the reign
A victory at Arsuf over Saladin, and a truce at Jaffa guaranteeing Christian pilgrims access to Jerusalem without taking the city (1191–1192)
Arsuf, 7 September 1191; the Treaty of Jaffa, September 1192.
Capture near Vienna on the journey home, imprisonment by an emperor, and a ransom of 150,000 marks raised by a special tax (1192–1194)
Seized by Duke Leopold V of Austria and handed to Henry VI; released in February 1194.
A castle raised in two years on a chalk spur above the Seine at Les Andelys, its builder boasting he could hold it were its walls of butter (1198)
Château Gaillard, built to guard the approach to Rouen; it fell to Philip Augustus in 1204.
A crossbow bolt taken at the siege of a small Limousin castle, and gangrene eleven days later (1199)
Châlus-Chabrol, 26 March 1199; he died on 6 April.
A body divided after death — the heart to Rouen, the entrails to the Limousin, the rest to the family abbey in Anjou (1199)
Fontevraud Abbey holds his effigy beside his parents'.
A massacre of the Jewish community in a northern city, many dying in a castle tower, in the months after a coronation (1190)
York, March 1190, at Clifford's Tower; anti-Jewish riots had begun at the coronation in London in 1189.
Around six months spent in England across a ten-year reign, the kingdom left to justiciars and taxed hard for war (1189–1199)
Hubert Walter and William Longchamp governed in his absence.
Quick-fire facts
- •He was crowned at Westminster on 3 September 1189; anti-Jewish riots broke out during the celebrations
- •He is said to have remarked that he would sell London if he could find a buyer, to fund the crusade
- •He married Berengaria of Navarre, who is often said never to have set foot in England, and left no legitimate children
- •His crusading partners Philip II of France and Leopold V of Austria both went home as enemies
- •The troubadour Blondel searching for his imprisoned lord by singing beneath castle windows is a later legend
- •He was ransomed for 150,000 marks, raised in England by a levy of a quarter of movable goods
- •His brother John's intrigues during the captivity fed the later Robin Hood legends
- •His equestrian statue by Carlo Marochetti stands outside the Palace of Westminster
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- The Royal Household — Richard I Coeur de Lion ('The Lionheart') (r. 1189–1199)
- John Gillingham — Richard I