How Richard the Lionheart Got His Name (The epic version)
As historical figures go, Richard’s life had everything a storyteller could want. And yet, it wasn’t epic enough.
Medieval Geopolitics: Could King Richard have captured Jerusalem during the Third Crusade?
What if Richard had pressed his attack in December 1191? Would the city have fallen to the crusaders? Or would the Christian host have smashed itself to pieces on the walls of the Holy City?
Medieval Geopolitics: Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade
Why did King Richard decide to abandon his attempt to liberate Jerusalem in 1192?
Richard I and Berengaria of Navarre
Berengaria of’ Navarre was brought to Richard’s court, then at Messina in Sicily, in March 1191. She accompanied the crusader-king on his journey east and they were married in Cyprus, at Limassol, on 12 May 1191.
BOOK REVIEW: Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers: The History You Weren’t Taught in School
A review of Dominic Selwood’s, ‘Spies, Sadists, and Sorcerers: The History you Weren’t Taught in School’
Tall Tales: The Trouble with Tours
Tours. They can be great, or they can be cringeworthy and rife with misinformation. A great tour guide knows how to add a flourish or two to a story to keep the audience engaged and the history interesting. A bad tour guide invents things and hopes there isn’t a historian in the audience dismayed by the falsehoods they’re spreading to unwitting listeners…
Music for a Captured King: Richard the Lionheart and Blondel
Love him or hate him, one thing you can say about England’s Richard the Lionheart is that there are some great stories about him.
The Arrow of Sherwood by Lauren Johnson
My book review of Robin Hood tale, Arrow of Sherwood by Lauren Johnson.
The Military Legacy of Richard the Lionheart
Authors look back at the entirety of the reign and reach two common conclusions: 1) he was a neglectful and mostly-absent ruler of England, but 2) he attained spectacular success in war, which was, after all, his primary interest.
Medieval Warfare Magazine – Volume IV Issue 5
The newest issue of Medieval Warfare hits the magazine shelves on October 1st. The theme for this issue is Richard the Lionheart’s conquests in the Mediterranean
Extralegal and English: the Robin Hood Legend and Increasing National Identity in the Middling Sorts of Late Medieval England
The legend was clearly not the only work of popular culture in what I propose as the long fifteenth century, but it does serve as a very useful representation for examining the growth of Englishness.
Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of England
Of the many princesses available as a bride for Richard the Lionheart, King of England, Berengaria of Navarre was chosen to be his queen.
The Illnesses of King Richard and King Philippe on the Third Crusade
For weeks both Richard and Philippe were close to the brink of death, before they finally recovered.
The Kidnapped King: Richard I in Germany, 1192–1194
In 1193 the rulers of Germany and England met for the first time in history.
Coeur de Lion in Captivity
In December 1192 Richard I was seized near Vienna by Duke Leopold V of Austria.
MOVIE REVIEW: Order of the Holy Grail (Captain Thunder)
This is a review of the Spanish medieval film: Captain Thunder or Order of The Holy Grail (El Capitán Trueno y el Santo Grial)
Richard Lionheart: Bad King, Bad Crusader?
This paper analyzes the impact of King Richard Lionheart of England during his tenure as leader of the Third Crusade.
BOOK REVIEW: A King’s Ransom – Sharon Kay Penman
A King’s Ransom is the follow up to Lionheart and tells the story of King Richard I’s imprisonment in Germany at the hands of Duke Leopold of Austria and Emperor Heinrich VI and of his battle to win back his Kingdom from his rapacious brother John.
The embalmed heart of Richard the Lionheart (1199 A.D.): a biological and anthropological analysis
We performed a full biomedical analysis of the mummified heart of the English King Richard I (1199 A.D.). Here we show among other aspects, that the organ has been embalmed using substances inspired by Biblical texts and practical necessities of desiccation
King and magnate in medieval Ireland: Walter de Lacy, King Richard and King John
Perhaps the best way to capture the essence of the relationship between Richard, John and their magnates is to focus on one such relationship and to analyse the changes it underwent over the twenty-seven years the two brothers ruled England. The career of Walter de Lacy provides an excellent opportunity for such an analysis.
The Strange Death of Richard the Lionhearted
Why did Richard I, a seasoned and expert warrior, expose himself to a bowman’s shot?
A Question of Truth: Barbour’s Bruce, Hary’s Wallace and Richard Coer de Lion
Tempting though it is to assume that these poems are simply peculiarly Scots, to do so denies them their place in British literature. A survey of English romances, moreover, reveals what appears to be an English equivalent: Richard Coer de Lion. It is also a hybrid poem about a recent king and military leader.
Character-Assassination: Conrad de Monferrat in English-language Fiction and Popular Histories
It is a story will all the ingredients of epic tragedy: a brilliant, courageous and handsome nobleman travels to distant lands, fights battles, marries princesses, is elected King but is slain by treachery, still relatively young, just before he is crowned.
The Fall of the Angevin Empire
A damned inheritance, hopelessly over-extended and out-resourced by the kings of France? Or an effective empire thrown away by incompetence and harshness? John Gillingham weighs the blame for John’s loss of the Angevin dominions.
The Great Men of Christendom: The Failure of the Third Crusade
It is my intention to show that the participation of monarchs in the Third Crusade had an adverse effect on the outcome of the Crusade. Whatever positive aspects of monarchical involvement in the Third Crusade were to be had can be seen at the beginning of the venture, when the Church needed financial and material support, as well as the prestige that royal participation could offer.