Richard the Lionheart: The Greatest King of England? | Medieval History Documentary

this video is sponsored by blinkist richard the lionheart is the most famous king of england and has been admired by the english people for centuries for his heroic martial qualities but some people point out that he wasn't english himself they like to say that he didn't even speak the language and hardly ever stepped foot on english soil and perhaps worst of all he taxed the people so heavily to fund his frivolous adventures overseas that he bankrupted the kingdom and impoverished his subjects so what's going on here if he was so useless why does he have this legendary status is it just because he has such good branding what's the truth about richard's reign his achievements and his abilities i'm dan davis i'm a novelist and on this channel we talk about the real history behind my historical fantasy stories and this is the story of richard the lionheart [Music] richard was born in 1157 son of henry ii and eleanor of aquitone he was their third son and fourth child and so of course he was not expected to become the king of england they say that richard wasn't an englishman but he was born there specifically at beaumont palace in oxford not only that he was raised in england until he was eight years old and in fact he was eventually crowned in westminster abbey it's true though that richard's attention was often directed elsewhere as a young prince he was made duke of aquitaine by his father and he had a great struggle to control the treacherous vassal barons there all his life in fact he was at war with the kingdom of france and its allies from his childhood to his death his father king henry ii had spent his life establishing and growing his influence over various dutches and counties through various methods including his marriage to eleanor historians call this conglomeration of lands the ongovin empire but it was nothing like a single state a single kingdom each duchy was filled with powerful lords who were more like local kings than anything else and they could only be brought into line by a genius political operator like henry ii and his plantagenet descendants would struggle to hold on to various parts of this personal empire during their reigns for well over 200 years with varying degrees of success as the kings of france fought to take it all by force and richard's reign was no different before we talk about richard's life i want to tell you about this video's sponsor i spend a huge amount of time reading history books for my novels and videos i get through at least two books a week and often a lot more but i still end up with stacks of books i don't have time to get to you're probably the same you don't have the time to read as many books as you'd like to and intend to luckily our sponsor blinkist has a solution blinkist is an app that takes thousands of non-fiction books and uses experts to distill them down to the most essential ideas in text or audio that you can digest in about 15 minutes this can be really helpful for engaging with subjects you wouldn't normally get to i've used it mainly for business books and books on marketing and also productivity and i really enjoyed the daily stoic about stoicism and for this video on king john i used the blinks on the history book the plantagenet by dan jones and once i'd read them i went and bought the audiobook you can check out blinkist right now by clicking the link in the description below to get a seven day free trial in addition the first 100 people will get unlimited access for one week to try it out and you'll also get 25 off if you want the full membership so if you like the sound of that please check it out did you know that richard had part english ancestry not much admittedly but his grandmother's grandmother was margaret of wessex and so he was descended from the anglo-saxon kings of england including alfred the great and on all the way back to noah and ultimately to the god woden now we might find that an amusing quirk of medieval genealogy but divine ancestry is common in kings and it's a way that kings are fundamentally different to other forms of leadership it's important to remember that a king is not just a president or a prime minister in a shiny hat and in terms of the overall conflict between the plantagenets and the kings of france we should remember that much of what is france today would not be territory of the kingdom of france for a long time yet the lords and commoners in aquitaine honju brittany and normandy and so on did not consider themselves french there were many local dialects that marked them out as distinct in england too the lords since the norman conquest had become something unique they were lords over lands in england and normandy not english certainly not french they were an anglo-norman ruling class with a dialect of their own it was in this period during the plantagenet rule that these anglo-norman lords moved ever further away from normandy and became far more english especially when english lords lost their norman estates and titles under john it's during john's reign when we see a norman lord appointed to an important position at court being criticized for not being able to speak english so what about richard then is it true that he couldn't speak english well we don't know for sure we know he spoke a number of languages and understood latin his father understood english though he did not have much cause to speak it and we know richard grew up in england and although he would have been surrounded by people speaking the anglo-norman dialect of french it's possible he did speak english either way it doesn't matter you know there's a certain type of king observed in cultures all over the world from the americas to africa and europe to polynesia anthropologists call this the stranger king and marshall salin says that it's the most common form of kingship found in the world because what you need in a king is someone truly different and kings are more often than not said to come from a different people a different tribe a foreign kingdom or even a mythical race in medieval europe though there was an understanding that the nobles of christendom were somewhat interchangeable and it hardly mattered to their subjects if their king or queen was danish or dutch or french or italian queen elizabeth famously said that she was the most english monarch england ever had she was right and she only got more right in the centuries after and even she had welsh ancestors the extent to which the monarchs and their wives foreignness matter to people depended on their actions and richard's actions were well we'll talk about his actions in this video but there's another interesting aspect of his ancestry he was also descended from a female demon the story goes that she was a lady of unearthly beauty who married an ancient count of onju and bore him four children everything about this woman seemed perfect except for the fact that she hated going to church when one day she was forced to do so she grabbed two of her children and floated away through a window never to be seen again leaving behind two of her children who were richard's ancestors the counts of anju were quite open about this family legend by the way richard was said to have declared that he was descended from the devil surprising perhaps for a society like medieval christendom and this would be a shameful heresy for a commoner but you see the rules are different for kings their difference from us is the point so as i said richard spent his childhood in england his first eight years certainly there's no good evidence for this period of his life but of course he would have had the typical nobleman's upbringing and education in manners and singing dancing poetry languages and other study in adulthood richard was known for composing his own songs and writing verse and he enjoyed church music too the boy richard had other disciplines to master there is no doubt that the medieval knight was one of the most effective warriors in world history requiring years of training in the martial arts and mastery of the war horse and richard excelled at these things more than anything else he also had a religious education and contrary to what some might say he grew to be a conventionally religious man and he was sure to regularly attend mass and he was ever attended by bishops and priests and he supported the church financially but he was never supposed to be king of england his father henry ii intended his oldest son henry for the crown and his other sons richard jeffrey and john were to be dukes over the other lands in this personal empire he had built henry the young king as the oldest son came to be known however didn't want to wait to be given what he thought was his men in their late teens are not famed for their patience and good sense and henry the young king was worse than most and in 1173 he rose in rebellion all the 18 year old henry wanted was either england or normandy or onju that's not too much to ask is it richard was only 15. he was spirited away to safety at the french court where he was knighted by the french king louis vii and he took part in an attack on his father's lands in normandy along with his brothers but they were defeated when their father made generous offers for peace they rejected them and the war continued after eleanor his mother was captured by his father richard made an independent and bold decision to attack the town of la rochelle but eventually his father outmaneuvered him and richard had to flee eventually though when he was the only one still resisting richard gave up and threw himself flat at his father's feet weeping and begging forgiveness the victorious and brilliant old king only about 41 at this point by the way rewarded his sons with far less than he had originally offered them still richard got half the revenues from aquitaine and two castles there so not too bad really all things considered but he could not just sit back and enjoy his newfound wealth the rebellion that he'd been part of had stirred up countless lords who had to now be brought to hill and it was richard's task to do it in the name of his father so he took control of the loyal forces of aquitaine and went from castle to castle besieging them and taking them all richard was a young man now knighted and experienced in war with lands and income all of his own so what did he look like well he was extremely tall he was handsome like his parents he had red blonde hair and bright blue eyes this was a young man with long arms and long legs and in a state of superb physical fitness and ability there were more rebellions over the next few years in aquitaine as the king of france and the dukes and counts who were enemies of henry and his sons were encouraged by the king of france it was this conflict with france that would define henry's reign and those of his sons and really all the plantagenets that came after them so the kingdom of france at this time did not directly control much territory but it imposed overlordship over the various territories that make up modern france but thanks to henry ii the king of france had lost control over normandy anju aquitaine and had been outmaneuvered in other disputes like in brittany this relationship was complicated because technically the kings of england still owed fealty to the king of france for the lands they ruled there and over the coming centuries it led to conflicts like the hundred years war anyway as duke of aquitaine richard was almost constantly at war putting down rebellions sponsored by the kings of france trying to agitate against henry and his sons richard however proved himself to be a truly brilliant military commander in may 1179 when he was 21 years old he led his army in a siege of talborg which was considered basically impregnable by this time richard was a veteran what were you doing between the ages of 15 and 21 playing video games getting drunk with your mates getting a useless degree in english literature well richard was making himself an expert in siege warfare to such an extent that after moving his engines into position it took him only three days to take the famed fortress at talborg it was such a stunning victory that the other counts and lords still holding out immediately surrendered their own castles knowing they could never stand against this young prince the duke of aquitaine he wasn't just an expert strategist and tactician at the moment when the assault on the fortress hung in the balance when the hand-to-hand fighting at the gates could have gone either way richard threw himself into the thick of the fighting and won the day won the town and all aquitaine by his own hand henry the young king richard's oldest brother turned out to be a rather incompetent ruler of his own territories richard however managed to raise the power of the duke of aquitaine to a level never before retained henry the young king would be worse than incompetent however in 1182 henry the young king encouraged or you might say manipulated by the new very young king of france philip ii who would become one of the great figures of medieval europe once again rebelled against his father worse he sided with the rebel lord of aquitaine against his brother richard henry the young king was married to margaret philip's sister and so the brothers-in-law made war on the older king of england forces were raised including mercenaries in every territory from brittany to the pyrenees richard was already famous for his decisive actions in war acting first before his enemies were expecting him and now was no different already by his mid-20s he was proving himself to be the best soldier of his generation and in this rebellion richard showed his quality at once he hunted down the breton forces and executed all of those who fell into his hands then he rode almost non-stop for two days and nights through late winter mind you and fell upon a powerful mercenary force led by a rebel count as they attacked a church near limoges they had no idea he was coming the count himself escaped and richard's horses were too exhausted to pursue but they killed the mercenary leader and captured a great many of them richard then treated his prisoners with the respect they deserved some he drowned in the river vienne others he put to the sword and the rest he merely blinded but that's what you had to do with mercenaries who lived like pirates raiding the common people and vulnerable churches everyone hated them they were criminals really so executing and maiming his prisoners was regarded as a moral act but the war was still in the balance when henry the young king got ill and died now richard was the heir to the throne [Music] it was not the end of the family's squabbles however because the king wanted to make young prince jon the duke of aquitaine seeing as richard would now get england but richard had been at war for eight years to make the duchy his own and he loved aquitaine more than anything and he was willing to risk everything rather than give it up richard's other brother jeffrey was so displeased by being left out of everything that he went to the french court to continue the intrigue and to plan an invasion of honju but god intervened and jeffrey was trampled to death by a horse in a tournament without jeffrey king philip mounted an invasion of henry's lands and richard helped his father to drive them off both sides gathered their forces and faced off in battle array prepared for a grand pitched battle the likes of which was hardly ever fought the risks of grand battles like this were known to everyone unlike siege warfare an open field battle was far too risky a man could lose everything in a single day his life of course or even worse his fortune or even his kingdom and the two sensible kings here were too cautious to risk it both sides backed away richard unsurprisingly would have attacked and there's some evidence that he tried to force the issue but a papal legate arrived from pope urban iii with instructions to stop all this pointless quarreling and prepare for a crusade these terms were worked out two years of peace was agreed and the armies disbursed and this was when richard abandoned his father and rode to paris with king philip philip so honored him wrote the chronicler roger of haldon that every day they ate at the same table shared the same dish and at night the bed did not separate them between the two of them they grew up so great in affection that king henry was much alarmed and afraid of what the future might hold in store he decided to postpone his return to england until he knew what lay behind this sudden friendship end quote it's this episode and that quote that from the mid-20th century is sometimes used to portray richard and philip as homosexual or romantically involved but that is a case of projecting modern prejudices and misunderstandings onto the past for one thing sharing a bed was the norm back then whole families shared beds servants slept in bed with their mistress or master and friends and companions shared beds too there was nothing sexual about it they had very different notions of privacy in that period because sharing a bed was something you only did with friends and family it could also be a political act henry ii and the greatest knight who ever lived william marshall symbolically shared a bed at one point as a gesture of friendship and peace it was about a display of trust and richard and philip were using one another publicly showing signs of unity to politically threaten king henry it worked too henry sent word to richard promising him everything he wanted and richard went to him to pay homage swearing on the gospels that he would be faithful to him against all men so their armies had almost clashed in a great and decisive battle on the 23rd of june 1187 but the cautious henry and philip had both decided that prudence was the best course and had withdrawn for peace talks two thousand miles away a few days later on the third of july the king of jerusalem took the opposite decision deciding against all good judgment to march to the relief of the city of tiberias he was surrounded and forced into battle at hatin on the 4th of july the army of jerusalem was annihilated and jerusalem fell to the invaders these events would ultimately lead to the third crusade o mighty soldier o man of war at last you have a cause for which you can fight without endangering your soul a cause for which to win is glorious and for which to die is but gain are you a shrewd businessman quick to see the prophets of this world if you are i can offer you a bargain which you cannot afford to miss take the sign of the cross at once you will have indulgence for all the sins which you confess with a contrite heart the cross is cheap and if you wear it with humility you will find that you have obtained the kingdom of heaven saint bernard of cleveo in the autumn of 1187 richard took the cross at tors he was the first prince north of the alps to announce that he was going on crusade he acted in haste without seeking his father's permission this sparked another crisis between the kings and it was only averted when both henry and philip took the cross too they were swept up in it all sometimes history seems to have a weight and momentum even to the people within it and even kings can be unable to swim against the tide the crusading fever had been sparked off by a saladin's conquest of jerusalem and now the mashed armies of saracens were threatening all the christian kingdoms of utromer all good christian soldiers had to take up their sword in the armed pilgrimage to the holy land and save it for christendom the church was driving the crusading mania and preachers and troubadours roused the masses in their enthusiasm in later times we might call this propaganda and once the public will is formed it can take on a life of its own those men who did not take the cross were given gifts of a spindle and wool to suggest that they were therefore nothing but women suited only for staying home and spinning there were financial pressures applied too everyone had to pay attacks to fund it everyone apart from those who took the cross now you might have had a perfectly valid reason for not taking the cross in fact going on crusade might have been the worst possible thing for you to do making no sense for you whatsoever but whipped up by those in whose interests it was that you do it public opinion was now against you and the weight of it proved irresistible henry was undoubtedly reluctant he'd been promising to go on crusade ever since 1172 but he'd done nothing about it as far as he was concerned he had more important things to attend to richard however was genuinely committed to the cause some men are born soldiers richard was 30 years old now and had been fighting half his life but that was against christians he had done his duties as a prince and he had committed countless acts of heroism but a crusade was something else entirely something far greater but no matter how keen they actually were they couldn't go at once first they had to raise enormous sums of money and it required a remarkable level of planning and years of preparation and despite everything else the local wars continued rebellious counts attacked richard's land and richard attacked theirs in turn in 1188 richard assaulted toulouse and captured 17 castles philip his supposed close friend and brother in the coming crusade took up arms and invaded his lands in one battle over a town he was fighting to win back richard was thrown from his horse in the fighting and he was rescued by a local butcher however by 1189 richard once again fell out with his father over his inheritance and sided with philip together they attacked henry's forties and drove him into flight it was here where a famous incident occurred henry's rearguard was under the command of william marshall richard's forces galloping behind were about to overwhelm them when william turned his horse and rode straight at richard neither man wore their male horbucks and as william levelled his lance richard cried out by god's legs do not kill me marshall that would be wrong i am unarmed this is the way william told it anyway so take it with a pinch of salt and the marshal cried out and answer no let the devil kill you for i won't and adjusting his aim he ran his lance through richard's horse he then rode to safety with his rear guard the king saved but did this actually happen well apart from the dialogue perhaps it probably did happen and that oath by god's legs apparently that was actually one of richard's favorites i might start using that myself king henry on the run now from this alliance of betrayal fell increasingly ill until on 6th of july 1189 he died richard strode into the abbey church where his father's body had been taken and stood at the head of the beer saying nothing and showing no outward sign of emotion then he turned away richard was 31 years old he'd been at war since he was 15. now he was king and he had a lot of work to do william marshall was standing vigil by the king's body so marshall richard said the other day you tried to kill me and would have done so had i not turned your lance aside if i had wanted to kill you william replied nothing could have stopped me marshall richard said you are pardoned i bear you no malice indeed richard praised and rewarded the marshall and all the kings loyal men who had stayed with the king in his defeat and death those men were loyal to the end they were loyal beyond the end these were the kinds of men that richard wanted by his side men who would not desert him even after all was lost to secure the loyalty of william marshall richard granted him the hand of isabel declare heiress to vast estates in the welsh marches as well as the county of pembroke and the lordship of leinster in ireland at a stroke the famous knights had become one of the most powerful men in england in all christendom in fact it would be like winning the lottery controlling a multi-billion dollar company and becoming a powerful politician all in one day and getting a top quality wife william the marshall would serve richard loyally for the rest of his life the marshal set off immediately to marry the declare heiress as he was boarding his ship at dia the victor of a thousand tournaments rushed up the gangplank with such eagerness that he fell off it and plunged headfirst into the filthy dock water richard was king but he was still going to go on crusade before he could do that he had to secure his lands the duchess and counties had to be brought to heal lest they think that this was an opportunity to wriggle out of their duties or even take up arms richard was busy arranging marriages and securing royalty england however was secure his succession to the crown was assured even so he intended to be seen as a fresh start and a welcome alternative to his father he had ended up quite unpopular partly due to the crusade attacks that he'd raised richard restored confiscated lands to english lords and the prisons were emptied so when richard landed at portsmouth he was greeted with cheers of joy by the english richard was already loved for his martial brilliance everyone loves the winner don't they especially in their king he was not above theatrical propaganda either he arrived in england with one of his father's most unpopular ministers ostentatiously loaded down with chains the implication being that richard was here to administer justice he's often accused of not caring about governing england but his next actions prove that not to be the case he appointed many trustworthy and experienced men to the important positions of the realm and many of them had served his father he did the same in all of his lands appointing those who could be trusted and his decisions everywhere proved largely correct he's also accused of robbing england blind to pay for his crusade it is said that he declared that he would sell london if only he could find a buyer clearly he saw his english subjects as nothing more than cash cows only it's not true he didn't raise attacks to pay for the crusade his father did a few years before but richard didn't instead he sold whatever he had to willing buyers and it worked in this way for all the kings of england when a lucrative position like county sheriff became available the great lords of the realm would pay the king for the honor the sheriff was like the crown's representative in a county the shire reeve responsible for law and order and for carrying out the king's will and if you could get one of these jobs you'd be set for life you could rake in huge sums depending on the county some were worth more than others and everyone with any ambition knew that these jobs were worth the investment you still had to do a good job of course because you served the king's pleasure and he could kick you out and offer it to someone else who could pay instead the turnover of sheriffs and other officials were a normal part of a king's business men would die or fall ill or they would be promoted or shuffled around and every time they got a new job someone would pay the king the only difference with richard was that all of these jobs changed hands at once so a decade's worth of shuffling happened in a year or two so he raised a lot of money from his lords very quickly but nobody was complaining everyone got what they wanted and richard did not put anyone in place he wasn't absolutely confident in if he had been truly reckless he would have sold the positions to the highest bidder no matter the consequences for his kingdom but he didn't do that so he ended up with enough money to pay for a fleet of ships and he set off for the holy land however the journey there would be almost as exciting and action-packed as the crusade itself [Music] from the start the tension with philip was palpable the king of france was the more important man after all richard held his continental positions with philip as his overlord and england was a smaller kingdom in terms of tradition prestige and wealth but richard certainly had far more personal charisma than philip the traits that helped to make philip so enormously successful over his long reign his prudence patience and pronounced sense of his own greatness were not suited to this great undertaking richard however was a man of action to the core when presented with a problem he acted swiftly decisively and competently like that time he conquered a town in about an hour when the expedition reached messina in sicily the pressures of having the english and french armies and fleets in the town boiled over rising food prices and scarcity made men on all sides desperate richard took over a monastery and used it as a supply dump and rumors went about that richard intended to conquer the city maybe the whole island some sort of fighting broke out and the local authorities couldn't stop it so richard invited king philip and the sicilian governance of messina to a conference at his lodgings so they could jointly come up with a solution to the growing disorder like imposing price limits on certain goods and appropriate discipline and punishments for wrongdoers on all sides but while they were in the middle of discussions the sounds of shouts and the clash of arms reached them from outside a riot had started in that quarter in fact the lodgings of hugh de lucion a baron of aquitaine and an ally of richard was being attacked as far as richard was concerned the time for talking was over the locals could not impose order and so he would king philip primley said that he would do nothing to help so taking up his sword richard marched out of the conference and called his men to him they broke down the gates of messina and charged into the riot with richard at the head of his forces anyone who resisted was killed but it was not some simple massacre richard lost 25 of his own household troops a significant percentage nevertheless it was all over in an hour or two while the english soldiers plundered the city they'd conquered the banners of their king were raised over the walls and towers of messina philip tightly demanded that they'd be taken down and his own raised up in their place this wasn't just about his sense of personal honor as equal partner in this crusade he expected an equal share of all the loot in the spirit of compromise richard lowered his own and raised up the banners of the templars and hospitals and he handed control of the city over to them nevertheless it was richard who maintained order by taking hostages from the wealthier families of messina and it was richard who built a wooden fortress on a hill overlooking the city the price of bread and wine was fixed and anyone who gambled was stripped naked and whipped through the army three days in a row while sailors were dunked in the sea three days in a row and so thanks only to richard's decisive actions the crusade overwintered in sicily in relative peace surely you can see why men loved to follow richard this is the kind of king that all men all warriors at least wish to serve a king who leads them well in war and in the times between wars a king who values them highly because he is a warrior himself a king who will not send them anywhere that he is not willing to go himself a king who you can fight beside shoulder to shoulder look at the adoration heaped on elite sports stars today imagine if one of those sporting champions an especially tall and handsome one was also a war hero descended from a lion of heroes and was the leader of your country is it really so hard to understand why richard is remembered so fondly even today anyway it was now when richard married the only queen of england who was never to set foot in the country while she was queen at least [Music] richard had been betrothed to philip's sister alice for more than 20 years ever since she was a child and for all that time she had been in the custody of henry ii however when she grew to adulthood old king henry had made her his mistress it was rumored that she had given birth to an illegitimate child richard refused to marry such a woman even if she was the sister of the king of france it was a doubly humiliating affront to philip he sailed away from messina leaving richard behind they say that the end of the formal betrothal was where their rift their rivalry deepened beyond repair after philip was gone the 70 year old illinois of aquitaine arrived with richard's bride-to-be berengaria of navarre she's quite an inconsequential figure and she was probably pretty well-mannered and totally boring richard married her to secure his southern borders and ensure aquitaine had a local ally but despite the apparent expectations of the soldiers on the crusade it was not a love match even after his marriage richard preferred to share his bed with other women although he did his duty and slept with her often enough their marriage however was to be childless and after he died the crown would pass to his brother john so richard was not a faithful man there is a story that he was so randy that even in the week that he was dying from sepsis he had women multiple women brought to share his bed his deathbed richard did acknowledge at least one illegitimate son known as philip of cognac after he married the heiress of that land and he lived until he was at least in his early twenties when he either died or became known by some other title there is a story that he killed the viacount of limoge in revenge for his father's death but we don't know if that happened or how it might have occurred that's pretty cool though i hope that did happen that would make a good novel richard couldn't marry berengaria right away because it was lent so they sailed off towards the holy land but an almighty storm blew up and scattered the fleet along with about 25 other ships they're hungarian ship and richard's sister joan was with her too had been blown to cyprus and was now sitting off the coast at limassol cyprus was in a strange situation at this time it had been part of the byzantine empire but a member of the royal family isaac ducass komnenus had basically seized it for himself and set himself up as an independent ruler calling himself emperor he was a tyrant really he'd even allied with saladin all those from richard's scattered ships who washed up on shore were arrested and thrown in prison and treated terribly isaac tried to get berengaria and joan off their ship even trying by force but sensible women they were they declined his false invitations and fought off the attacks all the while isaac was assembling his forces on shore to take the english ships and the princesses into his custody these would be enormously valuable bargaining chips he could charge a king's ransom if he got them two fortunes at least probably enormous political advantages too now knowing what we know about richard what do you think he did when he arrived at limassol and found his wife-to-be and his beloved sister in danger well when isaac refused to release his prisoners or give back the property he had seized richard attacked the assembled army defending the barricade on the shore he and his men piled into rowing boats and pulled hard for the shore his archers shooting when in range as the boats ground against the beach richard leapt out sword in hand and charged the barricades there was a short fight and the cypriots ran away richard took control of limassol and found great stores of wine meat and grain the furious would-be emperor the tyrant isaac comnenus made camp with his army about five miles outside the city and he declared that he would give battle to this upstart pirate the next day we know richard by now we know what to expect but isaac komnenis didn't in the dark of the night richard had his horses quietly disembarked from his ships and exercised to shake off their sea legs when isaac woke bright and early the next day hungry for his scrambled eggs and orange juice he found his camp surrounded by richard's mounted knights the cypriots immediately ran away again and isaac himself got clear but he didn't even have time to get dressed first and he left behind his horses his arms his treasure and his imperial standard embroidered with cloth of gold richard declared that he would send the standard to the abbey of berriton edmonds which is near where i live is a lovely town today so here in limassol was where the king of england would marry his queen and here was where she was crowned by a norman bishop after that richard conquered cyprus it only took him about six weeks at that point isaac agreed to give himself up with only one condition that he would not be clapped in irons after he had lost everything all he wanted was to be spared that final indignity richard happily agreed and promptly had him clapped in custom-made silver chains instead cyprus was an incredibly important place for the crusaders and richard had made conquering it look easy trivial even but now he would face a far tougher test now he sailed on for ultramare and his showdown with saladin saladin is one of the great figures of high medieval history like richard he's another king whose legend is more powerful than the history people might not know much about his deeds but they know saladin was a man of honor and brilliance well he was an expert politician a genius even and he was a pretty good general too much like henry ii really back in august 1189 a few years after jerusalem fell and the great crusader city of accra was also conquered the former king of jerusalem ghida lusinyong eventually took his mega forces and laid siege to accra trying to take it back but he didn't have the men necessary and he was in turn besieged by saladin but celadin couldn't overcome gize camp either and so the double siege continued for two years but with each month that passed more and more reinforcements poured into ghee's camp king philip arrived months before richard because he'd set off earlier and he hadn't conquered any empires on the way but he had since only set up a few catapults to fling rocks at the walls while he sat down at tyre politicking with the local lords to try to resolve who was to be the future king of jerusalem and other issues and when richard got to tyre philip had seen to it they wouldn't let richard into the city but richard wasn't bothered the very next day he took his fleet to accra on the way he found a huge ship flying the french flag smelling a rat richard chased it down it turned out to be a blockade runner trying to sneak suppliers into accra the enemy ship was promptly sunk in sight of all the armies around the city and richard was given a hero's welcome the scene around accra was one of complete destruction it was a land laid waste by two years of warfare there were tumbled walls and scorched earth and the filth and detritus of thousands of people the pestilential air reeked of human waste and campfires this was richard's kind of place from the belly of his ships the king of england craned vast amounts of pre-built siege equipment that his men had built over winter in sicily he also had erected an enormous wooden fortress outside akra the siege stepped up a gear walls were battered down and undermined the crusaders attacked the breaches while saladin's forces outside attacked the crusaders both richard and philip fell ill with some sort of disgusting malady that made their hair and nails fall out it seemed for a while like richard was going to die but soon he demanded to be carried in a litter to the front lines so he could continue to direct the fighting the defenders inside the city had inherited the technology of byzantine greek fire and launched incendiary bombs and shot flamethrowers at the attackers over and over eventually though the city fell and the english and french banners were raised over the city now in this moment of victory a decision was made that would have far-reaching consequences for richard england and all europe because a man called duke leopold of austria a man with impressive connections but little money and almost no soldiers also raised his own banner beside those of the kings now he'd been there in utromer longer than they had but basically all the german part of the crusade had either never arrived or had now left or died of disease raising his banner as if he was equal to the kings of england and france was worse than a joke it was offensive also by raising his banner he was claiming a share of the loot so leopold's banners were torn down and it was this act that led ultimately to the petty jealous leopold taking richard captive on his way home we'll get to that in a bit after accra fell philip outdone at every turn by richard's energy and ability sailed for home not trusting philip to keep his word to leave richard's lands in peace richard also sent a group of englishmen back to warn everyone that despite their oaths to the contrary philip was probably going to start trouble again but richard stayed in order to secure his greatness and it's now that we get observations of richard from the muslim chroniclers for a man called bahar adin a companion of saladin richard was quote a man of great courage and spirit he had fought great battles and showed a burning passion for war his kingdom and rank were inferior to those of the french king but his wealth reputation and valor were greater end quote elsewhere baja adin refers to richard's wisdom experience courage and energy and to the cunning of this accursed man to gain his ends he sometimes uses soft words at other times violent deeds god alone was able to save us from his malice never have we had to face a subtler or a bolder opponent end quote these kinds of comparisons between the two kings have been made ever since because philip made the clever choice to leave didn't he it was of more material benefit to him to be at home scheming in front while richard was busy philip would take advantage but promising to do something like a crusade and then slinking away when it's barely begun is not the act of a hero is it even his friends and contemporaries and his first biographers understood that this act left an indelible stain on his reputation philip was undoubtedly the greatest politician of his generation and he made his kingdom strong and powerful during his reign but the material successes of politicians don't stir men's hearts and philip would never become a legendary and beloved figure like richard anyway so back at accra richard gathered his forces for the next conquest but first he had to get rid of these prisoners he tried to hand them over to conrad the ruler of tyre so that he could ransom them to saladin but conrad would do nothing that would help richard who was allied with conrad's enemies the lusignon so richard had to sort it out himself they made a deal with saladin that he would buy them back richard even generously agreed that saladin could pay installments but on the appointed day saladin simply didn't pay and then he continued to stall everyone knew that saladin was trying to slow down richard's advance while saladin raised more men skirmishes started between the two forces and a rumor spread that the christian prisoners in salidan's camp had been executed so finally after being manipulated for days on end richard marched his prisoners out of the city and executed them there were maybe 3 000 of them of course richard had been executing his captive since he was a wee lad and this was how things were done when saladin captured the templars and hospitals after hating he had had them all executed too there's no doubt that richard would have preferred the money but if saladin had decided not to pay then what else was he going to do he couldn't keep them they couldn't possibly feed them for one thing and they couldn't release thousands of soldiers to take up arms behind them and get nothing in return the muslim chroniclers wrote that richard should have just sold them into slavery instead slavery was widespread there and it seemed a simple solution to them but although they had no real moral objection to it the 12th century europeans didn't tend to do that sort of thing so they were killed instead problem solved they marched on south to jaffa and the great battle of the third crusade this would be richard's finest hour now the siege experts of western europe were marching into open country where they would face the elite turkish cavalry this was a new kind of warfare for richard and it would be his greatest test yet during the march from accra to jaffa the mast mounted archers swooped in repeatedly to pepper the crusaders with arrows they surrounded richard's army on three sides as they marched and rode slowly down the coast from a distance the enemy arrows lacked the force to penetrate the armor of the man arms so it was observed that the crusaders walked in the baking heat with arrows sticking out all over them the arrowheads penetrating the male horberg but sticking into the padded gambeson beneath there were so many arrows falling on them that it wasn't worth stopping to pull them out they couldn't stop but adin had this to say i saw some of the frankish foot soldiers with from 1 to 10 arrows sticking in them and still advancing at their usual pace without leaving the ranks one cannot help admiring the wonderful patients displayed by these people but men died on the march horses died too richard rode up and down his lines ordering his men to hold their ranks and carry on discipline was all important if they were to survive these assaults so the two armies marched in parallel down the coast richard knew it was only a matter of time before the enemy attacked in force probing attacks sometimes broke through but the crusaders kept their discipline as they marched from water source to water source sometimes richard had to charge into the fighting himself day after day they marched on but richard's leadership his personal authority kept them together through earth scorched by the enemy and by the sun until they reached the forest of arsuf on the other side across their path saladin had arrayed his vast forces for battle the crusaders were outnumbered and they could not advance without a fight richard assembled his army in a tight close formation and prepared for the tidal wave in the middle of the morning on the 7th of september 1191 thousands of turkish arab syrian and egyptian horsemen charged into the attack their hooves thundering against the bone-dry earth their drums and trumpets sounding as their colourful penance streamed against the blue sky but the crusaders stood firm assaulted from all sides the knight begged to be allowed to be released in a counter-attack but richard said no for hours he said no while the enemy charged in over and over shooting their arrows throwing their javelins the heat grew unbearable and men collapsed where they stood as the dust rose and the drums and symbols crashed horses were killed in their hundreds before they ever took a step in the charge that was surely to come but richard knew he had to time this to perfection if he charged his knights too soon the enemy would simply retreat melt away from the weight of the charge and the knights would come to a stop out there exposed and vulnerable to a swift counter-attack only when the swift horsemen were crowded so tightly that they could not escape would such a charge have any hope of success great lords begged him weeping to order the charge falling to their knees in the dust before him covered in the blood of their horses and still richard said no and then the leaders of the hospitals could take no more and they ordered their knights to charge but they were too early no one else was ready their lines flattened the crusader infantry in front of them slowing down their charge and sending that part of the line into disorder unsupported it was doomed to failure their rash action their failure of nerve was about to lead to another great defeat like hattin but richard did not hesitate seeing the chaos unfolding he ordered the attack the crusaders trumpets sounded and their drums hammered and the vanguard the rear guard the main body the templars the hospitals the bretons anjavins whateverines all charged together into the packed ranks of the enemy horsemen and infantry to the sound of thundering hooves and the clashing of iron the crusaders smashed the enemy down and trampled them underfoot hundreds were killed in this single great charge but now the crusaders were exposed and the enemy who had fled were stopped by their lords turned reorganized and sent back in a vast counter-attack on the exposed crusaders and the battle had turned again but richard had not committed all of his forces in his first charge he held his enormous english and norman forces in reserve once the enemy were engaged again he now led them personally in a counter-attack of his own first with his lance and then with his sword richard led the english and normans in charge after charge quote they're the king the fierce the extraordinary king cut down the turks in every direction and none could escape the force of his arm for wherever he turned brandishing his sword he carved a wired path for himself cutting them down like a reaper with his sickle end quote it was a bloody terrible day and it was a great victory for richard his finest hour really saladin however the myth of his invincibility forever destroyed limped away into the night we were all wounded wrote bahar adin either in our bodies or in our hearts this battle the battle of our suf is in my novel vampire crusader by the way if you like that sort of thing then you should check it out the link is in the description three days later richard's forces marched into jaffa retaking it for the crusaders this was a vital port for anyone who wanted to attack and hold jerusalem but richard did not have the forces or suppliers to march inland to besiege the holy city because celadin would be attacking his supply lines he might have won a great battle but this was still enemy territory richard wanted to march onto ascalon to take it before saladin demolished it but at a conference of the commanders everyone preferred to stay and fortify jaffa he was the leader of the army but richard was not the king of these men and he could not rule by decree richard reluctantly gave way jerusalem seemed so close so ripe for the taking but the bickering lords of utromer were too preoccupied with their own squabbling there were endless fights between them over the crusader states cities and fortresses they did actually march on jerusalem eventually but there was appalling weather heavy rain and violent thunderstorms making a sea of mud for miles around still the soldiers wanted to go on all the way invest in a siege and storm the walls it might even have worked but the leaders knew that they could not hold the city for long and in the end when they were so close they could smell the stink of the holy city richard ordered the retreat and now richard got word from england his little brother john was making trouble back home and philip despite his oaths was preparing to invade normandy richard had to go home he just had to still there was yet another battle between richard and saladin during an ambush on the king's small force at one point richard led just 10 knights in an attack on a force of enemy horsemen which was described by a chronicler quote the king was a giant in the battle and was everywhere in the field now here now there wherever the attacks of the turks raged most fiercely on that day his sword shone like lightning and many of the turks felt its edge some were cloven in two from their helmet to their teeth others lost their heads arms and other limbs locked off at a single blow he mowed down men as reapers mow down corn with their sickles whoever felt one of his blows had no need of a second he was an achilles and alexander a roland end quote the great soldier was laid low by another bad sickness but eventually he set off for home had he stayed a few more months as he very well might have done he would have been able to exploit the chaos caused by saladin's death and no doubt he would then have taken the holy city but by the time saladin died richard was a prisoner in germany so he sailed home starting in october 1192 and in early december he was approaching venice if he had kept making good time like that he would have reached home while everything he'd set up was still working john had been scheming and plotting but he hadn't really done anything that bad yet there was no crisis richard's careful organization of his lands had worked well and he remained in regular communication with everyone as far as the system of messengers would allow but it was winter now and the seas were too rough to sail and so richard decided to rush through germany on the quiet with a small party he traveled along the coast in gallis but they were wrecked on the dalmatian shore it was okay though because richard had allies in various parts of germany he just had to get there and to avoid a rousing notice he decided to disguise himself and his men as pilgrims now this was a party of grizzled war-hardened veteran noblemen led by the incredibly tall blond-haired blue-eyed most famous hero in christendom and throwing a pilgrim's robe around your silk doublet and bejeweled sword isn't the most cunning of disguises no one knows exactly what happened but it's clear they immediately aroused enormous suspicion and yes communications were slow in those days but the local lords knew that the king of england was traveling home from the crusade and had suddenly dropped off the radar he didn't have to be roger bacon to work this one out so just before christmas 1192 a mere 50 miles from friendly territory richard was surrounded by agents of leopold of austria his feelings had been hurt back at accra and he was greedy for the riches that richard had rightly denied him there the king was locked in a castle built atop a rocky slope over the danube now as a crusader richard was under the protection of the church but laws and customs don't mean anything if those with the power to ignore them choose to do so leopold frightened that someone more powerful would snatch his prize quickly sold richard to henry vi the holy roman emperor christendom was appalled by it the pope excommunicated leopold but he didn't care he was going to be rich now he could buy absolution if he needed it well so he thought richard's enemies acted quickly to take advantage of the situation they even launched an invasion of england that was swiftly beaten off by hastily assembled levees in his captivity richard conducted himself with dignity at one point he was in effect put on trial at the imperial court and accused of all kinds of crimes in the holy land like oath breaking plotting to kill the emperor's allies and other jumped up baseless charges envoys from king philip were there to witness it and also to formally publicly declare that all agreements richard had had with philip were now avoided basically they were saying that philip was now going to invade richard's lands and take it all for himself these lords kings and emperors were a bunch of vile schemers with no honor among them but even philips caught poet an eyewitness in the delegation that day at the imperial court could not help but admire the only truly noble man amongst them all the royal prisoner quote when richard replied to these charges he spoke so eloquently and regally in so lionhearted a manner that it was as though he had forgotten where he was and the undignified circumstances in which he had been captured and imagined himself to be seated on the throne of his ancestors at lincoln or at cayenne end quote somehow it worked richard's speech was so brilliant that the lords of the holy roman empire were moved to tears public opinion or at least lordly opinion was swayed by richard's performance and the emperor dropped his accusations and instead praised richard giving him the kiss of peace and promising to bring about a reconciliation between him and king philip and then he demanded a hundred thousand marks for the ransom richard may have been locked up but even now you can sense the man's immense energy and unshakable spirit there were reports for example that richard was playing practical jokes on his guards and getting them terribly drunk the nobles of england and all his lands were asked to come up with as much money as they could quickly of course the more they paid the more royal favor they were buying and so they did it with as much enthusiasm as they could afford and a hefty temporary tax was raised on income maneuverable property they also raided the church's silver and gold plate when he heard that richard was going to be released philip sent a warning to john in england he said look to yourself the devil is loose despite richard apparently being brought so low and despite philip having had such a huge advantage in attacking and taking many of his rivals castles during his captivity despite phillip being his overlord on the continent and jon being in command of england it's clear that they were still desperately frightened of him so frightened in fact that they put their money together and offered 150 000 marks to buy richard or if the emperor preferred they would pay him a hundred thousand marks to keep richard locked up in germany for another campaigning season or they would pay 1 000 pounds per month for every month he was locked up for as long as the emperor wanted to keep him you can sense their desperation can't you richard's allies in the empire forced the emperor to stick to his word and then after more than a year richard was finally free and now his enemies would pay one of his enemies leopold of austria promptly had a riding accident his horse crushed his foot and it turned black no one was brave enough to perform the necessary amputation on their prickly lord so leopold eventually tried to do it himself with a bit of help he held an axe over his shin and he ordered a servant to whack it with a mallet after three blows the limb was finally severed but it was too late the sepsis got him and he died in agony clearly god had punished him for his actions but it was down to richard to deal with his brother john amazingly john had spread rumors that richard had died and he was calling himself king even when richard arrived in england in 1194 john's men held onto the castles that he'd taken in his own name richard actually stormed nottingham castle leading the assault himself when he was seriously under armoured this attack was repulsed but they captured some john loyalists and the next day they hanged them in sight of the defenders in the castle when they were finally convinced that richard had actually returned they surrendered richard initiated legal proceedings against those lords who had gone against him reorganized everything in england and set off to defend normandy from the french invasion he was never to set foot in england again but then he didn't need to he'd restored order and everything was working properly again under the administrators he set in place however his holdings on the continent were at enormous risk of being lost and that's where his treacherous brother was richard could have punished john severely but he didn't when john came to richard in normandy he fell at his feet and begged forgiveness that forgiveness was given at once but with words of deep contempt this is what richard said looking down at his groveling brother don't be afraid john you are a child you have got into bad company and it is those who have led you astray who will be punished john was 27 years old by the way some historians have called richard arrogant others tempered this judgment and observed that his greatest fault was his overconfidence he acted as if he was indestructible as if he was destined for greatness and a long life and nothing could stop him not enemy arrows and swords or treachery and scheming then again he had been in countless battles i have mentioned barely any of them and he had been laid low by severe illness many times and he'd been locked up by his enemies betrayed by his brother and here he was the momentum immediately back in his favor as soon as he is back on the scene it's no wonder he was confident he had a realistic view of his own remarkable abilities of course this recklessness would ultimately lead to his early death so there is that but the war against philip did indeed turn in richard's favor the contrite john had gone over to his brother along with all his forces and they retook the towns that had been lost fortress after fortress castle after castle was attacked and taken or demolished from normandy he marched to aquitaine all the while trying to bait philip into a battle that would decide everything richard wanted that battle more than anything but philip repeatedly refused to give it to him once the two armies almost engaged when richard cut off the french army's progress but philip immediately turned and marched away even then richard caught up with the rear guard captured the siege engines and then the whole french army disintegrated as it fled in panic from richard's forces richard himself intended to capture philip and they charged after the fleeing king for hours changing tired horses almost without stopping but philip got away his wagon train however did not he lost his finest horses his royal tents and a huge amount of his treasure richard also captured the french archives including the documents naming the lords who had been willing to portray richard it was another stunning victory and over the next few years richard doggedly regained the lands that had been taken from him and extended his influence further it was not all plain sailing once he was shot in the knee by a crossbow bolt a foreshadowing of what was to come also he built his famous fortress chateau guyard that means saucy castle it was a vast undertaking built in a strategically critical part of the country he built himself a palace at the site down by the river where he lived for the last two years of his life opposite the palace he laid out a new town and above it all on the 300 foot limestone crag was where he built his magnificent castle as the world's foremost expert on siege warfare he designed it himself and he was there directing operations for the two years of its construction driving the workmen on day after day they finished in two years what would have taken a decade anywhere else chateau guyard was not intended to be merely an impenetrable defensive structure richard intended to use this place as the jumping-off point for his conquests of french territory he continued to fight almost continuously and again came close to killing or capturing philip in a skirmish richard led a charge against a numerically superior enemy we ourselves unhorsed three knights with a single lance he wrote this in a letter this is the royal we he's talking about himself we ourselves unhorsed three nights with a single lance and have them prisoner end quote as the french knights fled in panic a wooden bridge collapsed under their weight and 20 of them drowned humiliated once again king philip himself had to be dragged out of the river before he drowned in his armor but philip's constant politicking his ceaseless scheming and bribery and promises to those who would rebel against richard finally paid off [Music] in march 1199 richard led his troops in a siege to a rebel via counts castle at shalu chabron at dusk on the evening of the 26th of march richard ordered his men to press on with their assault this was a pathetically small and weak castle it had no hope of holding out against the veterans and the 40 men and women inside would surrender at any moment the story goes that there was a single cross still shooting from the ramparts so ill-equipped was he this commoner used a frying pan for his shield every now and then he would load and shoot down at the attackers richard watched from behind his men when the crossbowman aimed a bolt at richard the amused king applauded the man's absurd confidence however this meant he was a fraction late in raising his shield and the bolt penetrated the king's shoulder acting as if nothing was wrong so as to not alarm his men richard strolled nonchalantly into his tent where he angrily grabbed the shaft and tried to yank it out all he succeeded in doing was breaking the shaft and leaving the iron head inside his shoulder when the surgeon arrived he had to cut very deeply to extract it bandaged richard now lay in his tent to recover drinking and sleeping with women while the castle fell but when the gangrene set in he knew what it meant he'd been a soldier since he was 15 years old and now he was 41 and he'd seen this happen to countless men before he set his affairs in order and wrote to his mother asking her to come to see him immediately as he was dying he had the crossbowmen brought before him in a last chivalrous act he gave the man 100 shillings for serving his lord so faithfully richard's heartbroken men were not so forgiving because as soon as richard died the crossbowman was flayed alive you know i've had all these comments on my channel mostly under my king john video asserting that richard was a worse king than john amazingly some say that richard was the worst king of england the worst of all some people seem to think that richard hated england or had contempt for it and also that he was an incompetent ruler that he was a great soldier perhaps but a terrible king but what is that based on they say that he begged the country to pay for his crusade but he didn't they say that he bankrupted england to pay his ransom but that didn't happen they say he taxed england heavily to pay for his wars in france impoverishing the kingdom but that's not true either i suppose all these criticisms are part of his legend too for some reason richard the lionheart apparently arouses a visceral scorn in some people the history though shows that he put great effort into ensuring england was prosperous and governed by law throughout his reign by appointing competent men in important positions remaining in constant contact with them replacing them when necessary and intervening himself whenever it was needed he was a man who was loved by his friends and his subjects and feared and admired by his enemies he kept england and the english people safe and in good order throughout his reign and he fought constantly and successfully to protect the lands he inherited which extended from the pyrenees to the scottish border he did his duty as a knight a duke a king and a crusader and by his character his virtues and his great deeds he became more than a king he became a legend these videos take me weeks to make if you can support me on patreon like these amazing patrons here that would help me enormously or if you prefer you can support me by picking up a copy of one of my many novels follow the links in the description if you enjoyed this video please subscribe and check out the playlists for more videos like this thank you for watching

Channel: Dan Davis History

Views: 200,078

Keywords: Richard the Lioneart, Richard I, The Third Crusade, richard the lionheart, third crusade, battle of arsuf, eleanor of aquitaine, knights templar, crusader kingdoms, kingdom of heaven, Richard the Lionheart Documentary, henry ii, philip ii, richard vs saladin, third crusade battle, richard the lionheart documentary, richard i of england story, richard the lionheart death, third crusade saladin, third crusade documentary, crusader king, medieval history documentary

Id: Asl9pN6FpZI

Length: 71min 18sec (4278 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 10 2021