Born: 8th September 1157 at Beaumont Palace, Oxford Died: 6th April 1199 at Chalus, Aquitaine Buried: Fontevrault Abbey, Anjou Parents: Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine Siblings: William, Henry, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan & John Crowned: 2nd September 1189 at Westminster Abbey, Middlesex Married: 12th May 1191 at Limassol, Cyprus Spouse: Berengia daughter of Sancho VI, King of Navarre Offspring: None Richard Plantagenet (also known as “Richard the lion hearted”) was born onSeptember 8th in the year 1157 CE. Although born in Oxfordshire England,Richard was a child of Aquitaine a part of Southern France.
His language wasnot English and throughout his life he spoke little of it. He had four brothers and three sisters, the first of which died at a youngage. Of the remainder, Henry was named heir to the English throne, Richardwas to succeed his mother’s Aquitane and Geoffrey was to inherit Brittany. John was the poorest to fair out receiving nothing from his father.
It isthis action that gave him the name John Lackland. At a young age of twelve, Richard pledged homage to the King of France forlands of his. At the age of fourteen, Richard was named the Duke of Aquitanein the church of St. Hillaire at Poitiers (one of the lands made homage tothe French King.
) Henry’s sons, who had been given lands but no real powerrevolted against their King father aided by their mother. In retaliation KingHenry had Eleanor jailed. She remained there for many years. Richard’s Mother EleanorEleanor was the daughter and heiress of William X, duke of Aquitaine andcount of Poitiers, who possessed one of the largest domains inFrance–larger, in fact, than those held by the French king. Upon William’sdeath in 1137 she inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine and in July 1137 marriedthe heir to the French throne, who succeeded his father, Louis VI, thefollowing month.
Eleanor became queen of France, a title she held for thenext 15 years. Beautiful, capricious, and adored by Louis, Eleanor exertedconsiderable influence over him, often goading him into undertaking perilousventures. From 1147 to 1149 Eleanor accompanied Louis on the Second Crusade to protectthe fragile Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, founded after the First Crusade only50 years before, from Turkish assault. Eleanor’s conduct during thisexpedition, especially at the court of her Uncle Raymond of Poitiers atAntioch, aroused Louis’s jealousy and marked the beginning of theirestrangement.
After their return to France and a short-lived reconciliation,their marriage was annulled in March 1152. According to feudal customs,Eleanor then regained possession of Aquitaine, and two months later shemarried the grandson of Henry I of England, Henry Plantagenet, and count ofAnjou and duke of Normandy. In 1154 he became, as Henry II, king of England,with the result that England, Normandy, and the west of France were unitedunder his rule. Eleanor had only two daughters by Louis VII; to her newhusband she bore five sons and three daughters.
The sons were William, whodied at the age of three; Henry; Richard, the Lion-Heart; Geoffrey, duke ofBrittany; and John, surnamed Lackland until, having outlived all hisbrothers, he inherited, in 1199, the crown of England. The daughters wereMatilda, who married Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony and Bavaria; Eleanor, whomarried Alfonso VIII, king of Castile; and Joan, who married successivelyWilliam II, king of Sicily, and Raymond VI, count of Toulouse. Eleanor wouldwell have deserved to be named the “grandmother of Europe. “During her childbearing years, she participated actively in theadministration of the realm and even more actively in the management of herown domains. She was instrumental in turning the court of Poitiers, thenfrequented by the most famous troubadours of the time, into a centre ofpoetry and a model of courtly life and manners.
She was the great patron ofthe two dominant poetic movements of the time. The courtly love tradition,conveyed in the romantic songs of the troubadours, and the historical matirede Bretagne, or “legends of Britanny,” which originated in Celtic traditions. In the Historia regum Britanniae, written by the chronicler Geoffrey ofMonmouth some time between 1135 and 1139. The revolt of her sons against her husband in 1173 put her culturalactivities to a brutal end.
Since Eleanor, 11 years her husband’s senior, hadlong resented his infidelities, the revolt may have been instigated by her;in any case, she gave her sons considerable military support. The revoltfailed, and Eleanor was captured while seeking refuge in the kingdom of herfirst husband, Louis VII. Her semi-imprisonment in England ended only withthe death of Henry II in 1189. On her release, Eleanor played a greaterpolitical role than ever before.
She actively prepared for Richard’scoronation as king, was administrator of the realm during his crusade to theHoly Land, and, after his capture by the Duke of Austria on Richard’s returnfrom the east, collected his ransom and went in person to escort him toEngland. During Richard’s absence, she succeeded in keeping his kingdomintact and in thwarting the intrigues of his brother John Lackland and PhilipII Augustus, king of France, against him. In 1199 Richard died without leaving an heir to the throne, and John wascrowned king. Eleanor, nearly 80 years old, fearing the disintegration of thePlantagenet domain, crossed the Pyrenees in 1200 in order to fetch hergranddaughter Blanche from the court of Castile and marry her to the son ofthe French king.
By this marriage she hoped to insure peace between thePlantagenets of England and the Capetian kings of France. In the same yearshe helped to defend Anjou and Aquitaine against her grandson Arthur ofBrittany, thus securing John’s French possessions. In 1202 John was again inher debt for holding Mirebeau against Arthur, until John, coming to herrelief, was able to take him prisoner. John’s only victories on theContinent, therefore, were due to Eleanor.
She died in 1204 at the monastery at Fontevrault, Anjou, where she hadretired after the campaign at Mirebeau. Her contribution to England extendedbeyond her own lifetime; after the loss of Normandy (1204), it was her ownancestral lands and not the old Norman territories that remained loyal toEngland. Many French historians who have noted only her youthful frivolity,ignoring the tenacity, political wisdom, and energy that characterized theyears of her maturity have misjudged her. “She was beautiful and just,imposing and modest, humble and elegant”; and, as the nuns of Fontevraultwrote in their necrology: a queen “who surpassed almost all the queens of theworld. “The Crusades In 1183 the younger Henry died leaving Richard as the heir to the Englishthrone.
Another family dispute occurred when Richard receiving the lands ofhis brother. Henry was expected to give his Aquitane to his brother John. Richard refused to give up the homeland of his mother. While this disputeover family land raged on, Richard learned of the tragic loss at Hattin,where the crusaders had lost Jerusalem to the Saracen leader Saladin.
Richardsoon took up the cross of the crusades, much against his father’s approval. In 1189, upon the death of Henry II, Richard was crowned King of England inWestminster Abbey London. One of his first actions was to free his motherfrom prison. His second was to begin to raise funds for his crusade later tobe called the Third Crusade. He imposed a tax on the English people called aSaladin for the use of aiding his war effort.
A King Imprisoned After the Third Crusade, Richard began his homeward journey to England. Put ashore by bad weather he found himself in Austria home of Leopold,and”their Richard had angered by actions during the crusade. Leopold captureKing Richard and imprisoned him in his castle. Eager for a piece of theaction the Emperor of Germany offered Leopold 75,000 marks for Richard takinghim into custody in Germany. Rumors ran quickly throughout England over the missing king.
There is alegend that the troubadour Blondel heard his king singing in a castle andresponded with a song that the both of them were sure to know. Whether trueor not the fact remains that two Abbots were soon dispatched to journey forhim through the network of the church. Even Eleanor, Richard’s mother wroteto the Pope for assistance in the matter. Richard was found and soon a ransomwas set for his return to England.
The sum was 150,000 marks and amount equalto three years of annual income and weighing at three tons in silver. Return Of the King Richard returned to England receiving a heroes welcome. He forgave hisbrother John, by saying he was manipulated by cunning people and vowed topunish them and not his brother. Unfortunately for the King he returned to aland in financial troubles. The cost of the Crusade and his large ransom hadtapped out the finances of the land. This monetary trouble was to destroy himfor his remaining five-year reign.
He created a new great seal as a means toraise funds and made void all documents signed with the old. Death of A King For such a brave and noble King Richard’s death came about in a ratherstrange way. In Chalus, Aquitane, a peasant plowing his fields came upon atreasure. This treasure consisted of some gold statues and coins. Richard inturn claimed the treasure from the lord, who refused.
This prompted Richardto siege the village. During the siege Richard was riding close to the castle without theprotection of full armor. He spotted an archer with bow in hand on the wallaiming a shot at him. It is said Richard paused to applaud the Bowman.
He wasstruck in the shoulder with the arrow and refused treatment for his wound. Infection set in and Richard the first, the Lionheart died on April the 6th1199. He was buried in the Fontvraud Abbey in Anjou France. Bibliography Richard IBibliography K. Norgate, Richard the Lion Heart (1924, reprinted 1969),F. M.
Powicke, The Loss of Normandy, 1189-1204, 2nd ed. (1961),L. Landon, Itinerary of King Richard I (1935), S. Runciman, A History of the Crusades, vol.
3 (1954), Amy Kelly, Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (1950),
