Richard I : The Crusader King PDF
Preview Richard I : The Crusader King
Thomas Asbridge RICHARD I The Crusader King Contents Genealogical Table RICHARD I 1. In Search of the Lionheart 2. The Absent King 3. The Crusader King 4. The Warrior King 5. The Legendary King Illustrations Notes Further Reading Picture Credits Follow Penguin Penguin Monarchs THE HOUSES OF WESSEX AND DENMARK Athelstan Tom Holland Aethelred the Unready Richard Abels Cnut Ryan Lavelle THE HOUSES OF NORMANDY, BLOIS AND ANJOU William I Marc Morris William II John Gillingham Henry I Edmund King Stephen Carl Watkins Henry II Richard Barber Richard I Thomas Asbridge John Nicholas Vincent THE HOUSE OF PLANTAGENET Henry III Stephen Church Edward I Andy King Edward II Christopher Given-Wilson Edward III Jonathan Sumption Richard II Laura Ashe THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK Henry IV Catherine Nall Henry V Anne Curry Henry VI James Ross Edward IV A. J. Pollard Edward V Thomas Penn Richard III Rosemary Horrox THE HOUSE OF TUDOR Henry VII Sean Cunningham Henry VIII John Guy Edward VI Stephen Alford Mary I John Edwards Elizabeth I Helen Castor THE HOUSE OF STUART Thomas James I Cogswell Mark Charles I Kishlansky [Cromwell David Horspool] Charles II Clare Jackson David James II Womersley William III & Mary Jonathan Keates II Richard Anne Hewlings THE HOUSE OF HANOVER George I Tim Blanning George II Norman Davies George III Amanda Foreman George IV Stella Tillyard William IV Roger Knight Victoria Jane Ridley THE HOUSES OF SAXE-COBURG & GOTHA AND WINDSOR Edward VII Richard Davenport-Hines George V David Cannadine Edward VIII Piers Brendon George VI Philip Ziegler Elizabeth II Douglas Hurd For my mother Gerd Asbridge 1 In Search of the Lionheart Just before dawn on 5 August 1192, Richard I of England lay sleeping in his resplendent royal tent on the coast of the Holy Land, two thousand miles from home. Unbeknownst to the king, a large party of Muslim warriors were at that moment stealing their way through the half-light, planning to launch a surprise attack and take him prisoner. They might well have succeeded had it not been for a lone Christian sentry, who spotted the first rays of sunlight glinting from their helmets as they approached and immediately raised the alarm. With the camp thrown into frenzied confusion, Richard leapt from his bed, hurriedly pulled on a mail shirt and rushed out to give battle. The odds that day were not in the king’s favour. Only ten of his knights actually had horses, leaving the remaining seventy or so to fight on foot alongside a small force of crossbowmen and assorted infantry – all against an enemy numbering in the thousands, most of whom were mounted. A different man might have contemplated flight, but Richard chose to make a desperate and daring stand, fighting from first light until dusk. Contemporary chroniclers marvelled at his bravery and prowess: ‘never was such a battle seen’ remarked one, while another likened the king to a ‘ferocious lion’ felling all in his path. The king’s expertise as a military commander was severely tested, but he managed to impose order, throwing up a defensive shield and spear wall, behind which his crossbowmen could operate to good effect, strafing the enemy. At one point, as the melee reached fever pitch, Richard was said to have ‘charged into the accursed people, so that he was swallowed up by them and none of his men could see him’. Brandishing his ‘sword with rapid strokes’, the king began ‘cutting [the enemy] in two as he encountered them’, mowing them down ‘as if he were harvesting them with a sickle’ – carrying himself all the while ‘with indescribable vigour and superhuman courage’. At last he emerged from the fray, ‘his body completely covered with arrows, which stuck out [from
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