| Index | Previous Individual | Next Individual |

Individual Record for: I RICHARD (male)

Source:

bulkeley.txt

Notes:

Richard I ascended the throne in 1189 and reigned 10 years.

"When he was an infant, Richard was betrothed to a daughter of the Fren ch king Louis VII, and in 1172 he was given the duchy of Aquitaine in Fran ce, his mother's inheritance. His early years were spent in warring again st his father to protect his own interests; he emerged a brilliant soldie r. In 1189, he became king of England and shortly thereafter set out on t he Third Crusade. He was accompanied by the young Phillip II, king of Fra nce, son of Louis VII. The Crusade proved a failure almost from the star t, mainly because of the lack of harmony between the two kings. In Sicil y, Richard quarreled with Philip and refused to marry Philip's sister as p lanned. Instead, he married Berengaria of Navarre on Cyprus, which he con quered in 1191. After capturing the Acre (now Akko) from the Saracens th at same year, Richard executed 2700 Muslim prisoners of war. It was Rich ard's personal valor in the Holy Land, however, rather than his ruthlessne ss, that made his name famous in legend. Conflict policy in the Holy La nd resulted in a break between the two, and Philip returned to France alon e. Richard spent months in indecisive contests against Saladin, sult an of Egypt and Syria, before making a truce by which Jerusalem was le ft in Saladin's hands. Captured en route to England by Leopold V, du ke of Austria, Richard was handed over to Holy Roman Emperor Henry I V. He was released in 1194 only after paying a heavy ransom. Richard ret urned to England and there made peace with his brother, John, later ki ng of England, who in his absence had been conspiring with Philip to usu rp the English throne. Leaving the government of England to the care of t he able administrator Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, Richard we nt to France in 1194 to wage war against the French king. Campaigns in de fense of his European lands continued for five years. Victor in most of t he warfare in which he engaged, Richard was fatally wounded by an arrow du ring an insignificant skirmish in 1199.

As king, Richard had chosen able ministers, to whom he left most matte rs of administration. Under his rule, however, England suffered heavy tax ation, levied to support his expeditions. Sometimes cruel, sometimes magn animous, and always courageous, Richard was well versed in the knightly ac complishments of his age and was also a poet. Microsoft Encarta 98 Ency clopedia. (c) 1993-1997


********

a.k.a.: Richard the Lion Hearted; Reign: 1189-99; When he was an infant, R ichard was betrothed to a daughter of the French king Louis VII and in 11 72 he was given the duchy of Aquitaine in France (his mother's inheritance ). When he became king of England, he set out on the Third Crusade with Ph ilip II, king of France (son of Louis VII). The Crusade was a failur e. As king, Richard had chosen able ministers to whom he left most matte rs of administration. Under his rule, however, England suffered heavy taxa tion, levied to support his expeditions. Sometimes cruel, sometimes magnan imous, and always courageous, Richard was well versed in the knightly acco mplishments of his age and was also a poet. He was to become the hero of m any legendary tales.


Richard I, born at Oxford, 6 Sept, 1157; died at Chaluz, France, 6 Apri l, 1199; was known to the minstrels of a later age, rather than to his con temporaries, as "Coeur-de-Lion". He was only the second son of Henry II, b ut it was part of his father's policy, holding, as he did, continental dom inions of great extent and little mutual cohesion, to assign them to his c hildren during his own lifetime and even to have his sons brought up amo ng the people they were destined to govern. To Richard were allotted the t erritories in the South of France belonging to his mother Eleanor of Aquit aine, and before he was sixteen he was inducted as Duke of that provinc e. It was a weak point in the old King's management of his sons, that, whi le dazzling them with brilliant prospects, he invested them with very litt le of the substance of power. In 1173 the young Henry, who, following a Ge rman usage, had already been crowned king in the lifetime of his father, b roke out into open revolt, being instigated thereto by his father-in-la w, Louis VII, King of France. Under the influence of their mother Eleano r, who bitterly resented her husband's infidelities, Geoffrey and Richa rd in 1173 also threw in their lot with the rebel and took up arms again st their father. Allies gathered round them and the situation grew so thre atening, that Henry II thought it well to propitiate heaven by doing penan ce at the tomb of the martyred Archbishop St. Thomas (11 July, 1174 ). By a remarkable coincidence, on the very next day, a victory in Northum berland over William, King of Scotland, disposed of Henry's most formidab le opponent. Returning with a large force to France, the King swept all be fore him, and though Richard for a while held out alone he was compell ed by 21 Sept. to sue for forgiveness at his father's feet.

The King dealt leniently with his rebellious children, but this first outb reak was only the harbinger of an almost uninterrupted series of disloy al intrigues, fomented by Louis VII and by his son and successor, Philip A ugustus, in which Richard, who lived almost entirely in Guienne and Poito u, was engaged down to the time of his father's death. He acquired for him self a great and deserved reputation for knightly prowess, and he was oft en concerned in chivalrous exploits, showing much energy in particul ar in protecting the pilgrims who passed through his own and adjacent terr itories on their way to the shrine of St. James of Compostella. His eld er brother Henry grew jealous of him and insisted that Richard should do h im homage. On the latter's resistance war broke out between the brother s. Bertrand de Born, Count of Hautefort, who was Richard's rival in minstr elsy as well as in feats of arms, lent such powerful support to the young er Henry, that the old King had to intervene on Richard's side. The dea th of the younger Henry, 11 June, 1183, once more restored peace and ma de Richard heir to the throne. But other quarrels followed between Richa rd and his father, and it was in the heat of the most desperate of thes e, in which the astuteness of Philip Augustus had contrived to implicate H enry's favourite son John, that the old King died broken-hearted, 6 Jul y, 1189. Despite the constant hostilities of the last few years, Richard s ecured the succession without difficulty. He came quickly to England and w as crowned at Westminster on 3 Sept. But his object in visiting his nati ve land was less to provide for the government of the kingdom than to coll ect resources for the projected Crusade which now appealed to the stronges t, if not the best, instincts of his adventurous nature, and by the succe ss of which he hoped to startle the world. Already, towards the end of 118 7, when the news had reached him of Saladin's conquest of Jerusalem, Richa rd had taken the cross. Philip Augustus and Henry II had subsequently foll owed his example, but the quarrels which had supervened had so far prevent ed the realization of this pious design. Now that he was more free the you ng King seems to have been conscientiously in earnest in putting the recov ery of the Holy Land before everything else. Though the expedients by whi ch he set to work to gather every penny of ready money upon which he cou ld lay hands were alike unscrupulous and impolitic, there is something whi ch commands respect in the energy which he threw into the task. He sold sh eriffdoms, justiceships, church lands, and appointments of all kinds, bo th lay and secular, practically to the highest bidder. He was not ungenero us in providing for his brothers John and Geoffrey, and he showed a certa in prudence in exacting a promise from them to remain out of England for t hree years, in order to leave a free hand to the new Chancellor Willi am of Longehamp, who was to govern England in his absence. Unfortunate ly he took with him many of the men, e. g. Archbishop Baldwin, Hubert Walt er, and Ranulf Glanvill, whose statesmanship and experience would have be en most useful in governing England and left behind many restless spiri ts like John himself and Longehamp, whose energy might have been serviceab le against the infidel.

Already on 11 Dec., 1189, Richard was ready to cross to Calais. He met Phi lip Augustus, who was also to start on the Crusade, and the two Kings swo re to defend each other's dominions as they would their own. The sto ry of the third Crusade has already been told in some detail (see vol. I V, p. 549). It was September, 1190, before Richard reached Marseille s; he pushed on to Messina and waited for the spring. There miserable quar rels occurred with Philip, whose sister he now refused to marry, and th is trouble was complicated by an interference in the affairs of Sicily, wh ich the Emperor Henry VI watched with a jealous eye, and which later on w as to cost Richard dear. Setting sail in March, he was driven to Cyprus, w here he quarrelled with Isaac Comnenus, seized the island, and married Ber engaria of Navarre. He at last reached Acre in June and after prodigi es of valour captured it. Philip then returned to France but Richard ma de two desperate efforts to reach Jerusalem, the first of which might ha ve succeeded had he known the panic and weakness of the foe. Saladin w as a worthy opponent, but terrible acts of cruelty as well as of chival ry took place, notably when Richard slew his Saracen prisoners in a f it of passion. In July, 1192, further effort seemed hopeless, and the Ki ng of England's presence was badly needed at home to secure his own domini ons from the treacherous intrigues of John. Hastening back Richard was wre cked in the Adriatic, and falling eventually into the hands of Leopo ld of Austria, he was sold to the Emperor Henry VI, who kept him prison er for over a year and extorted a portentous ransom which England was rack ed to pay. Recent investigation has shown that the motives of Henry's cond uct were less vindictive than political. Richard was induced to surrend er England to the Emperor (as John a few years later was to make over Engl and to the Holy See), and then Henry conferred the kingdom upon his capti ve as a fief at the Diet of Mainz, in Feb., 1194 (see Bloch, "Forschungen ", Appendix IV). Despite the intrigues of King Philip and John, Richard h ad loyal friends in England. Hubert Walter had now reached home and work ed energetically with the Justices to raise the ransom, while Eleanor t he Queen Mother obtained from the Holy See an excommunication against h is captors. England responded nobly to the appeal for money and Richard re ached home in March, 1194.

He showed little gratitude to his native land, and after spending less th an two months there quitted it for his foreign dominions never to retur n. Still, in Hubert Walter, who was now both Archbishop of Canterbury a nd Justiciar, he left it a capable governor. Hubert tried to wring unconst itutional supplies and service from the impoverished barons and clergy, b ut failed in at least one such demand before the resolute opposition of S t. Hugh of Lincoln. Richard's diplomatic struggles and his campaigns again st the wily King of France were very costly but fairly successful. He wou ld probably have triumphed in the end, but a bolt from a cross-bow whi le he was besieging the castle of Chaluz inflicted a mortal injury. He die d, after receiving the last sacraments with signs of sincere repentanc e. In spite of his greed, his lack of principle, and, on occasions, his fe rocious savagery, Richard had many good instincts. He thoroughly respect ed a man of fearless integrity like St. Hugh of Lincoln, and Bishop Stub bs says of him with justice that he was perhaps the most sincerely religio us prince of his family. "He heard Mass daily, and on three occasions d id penance in a very remarkable way, simply on the impulse of his own dist ressed conscience. He never showed the brutal profanity of John."

Lingard and all other standard Histories of England deal fully with the re ign and personal character of Richard. DAVIS, A History of England in S ix Volumes, II (2nd ed., London, 1909), and ADAMS, The Political Histo ry of England. II (London, 1905), may be specially recommended. The Prefac es contributed by Bishop Stubbs to his editions of various Chronicles in t he R. S. are also very valuable, notably those to Roger of Hoveden (Londo n, 1868-71); Ralph de Diceto (1875); and Benedict of Peterborough (1867 ). Besides these should be mentioned in the same series the two extreme ly important volumes of Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richa rd I (London, 1864-65), also edited by Stubbs; the Magna Vita S. Hugoni s, edited by Dimock, 1864; and Randulphi de Coggeshall Chronicon Anglicanu m, ed. Stevenson, 1875. See also NORGATE, England under the Angevin Kin gs (London, 1889); LUCRAIRE AND LAVISSE, Histoire de France (Paris, 1902 ); KNELLER, Des Richard Lwenherz deutsche Gefangenshaft (Freiburg, 1893 ); BLOCH, Forschungen zur Politik Kaisers Heinrich VI in den Jahren 1191-1 194 (Berlin, 1892); KINDT, Grnde der Gefangenschaft Richard I von Engla nd (Halle, 1892); and especially R?HRICHT, Gesch. d. Konigreich Jerusal em (Innsbruck, 1890).

HERBERT THURSTON.
Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII
Copyright b 1912 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright b 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

When he was an infant, Richard was betrothed to a daughter of the French k ing Louis VII and in 1172 he was given the duchy of Aquitaine in France (h is mother's inheritance). When he became king of England, he set out on t he Third Crusade with Philip II, king of France (son of Louis VII). The Cr usade was a failure. As king, Richard had chosen able ministers to wh om he left most matters of administration. Under his rule, however, Engla nd suffered heavy taxation, levied to support his expeditions. Sometimes c ruel, sometimes magnanimous, and always courageous, Richard was well vers ed in the knightly accomplishments of his age and was also a poet. He w as to become the hero of many legendary tales.



Notes Source: bulkeley.txt

| Index | Previous Individual | Next Individual |

Web site created from GEDCOM file by GEDitCOM