Richard I (1189-1199) The Lionheart makes his start
The first of the Plantagenets, Henry now lies in the tomb!
The throne passes to his son, Richard, fruit of Eleanor’s womb!’
Henry died harbouring an extremely low opinion of Richard. At their last meeting the dying king was said to have cursed his heir for what he regarded as a gross betrayal. Father and son were never to be reconciled. Nonetheless Richard went to pay his respects to the late monarch who was lying in state at Chinon. There had been so much anger and anguish between the two, perhaps Richard could make some token of reconciliation with his father by some act of atonement as the old man lay dead. The gesture was to be rebuffed in a most unexpected and really quite disturbing manner!
‘Alas as everyone knows
The true sign would come through Henry’s nose’
The moment Richard walked into the chamber where the body had been laid out, blood suddenly began to flood from the dead king’s nostrils. This was taken by contemporaries as a final sign of great odium by the dead towards the living as they themselves entered the afterlife.
‘ There are occasions when an expression of hate!
From those whom, so recently, were rendered late!
May verily serve to set an uneven record straight!’
However Richard was concerned only with matters of an earthly nature and to this end he moved swiftly. Protocol and practicality dictated that the ancient city of Rouen would be the first port of call. Here, Richard would be invested as Duke of Normandy.
The arms of the Duchy of Normandy.
Richard then proceeded to England, the veritable jewel in his newly acquired crown, for his coronation. The Lionheart was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey on September 3rd 1189. It was a momentous occasion and the first coronation in living memory. The last had been his own father’s coronation in 1154. Perhaps Richard thought of the coronation of that other great warrior, his great-great grandfather, William the Conqueror, whose grand coronation at the Abbey had been marred by sudden violence. Unfortunately for Richard, his great day at Westminster, just as William’s was, would also be spoilt by some quite unexpected unpleasantness.
Prince Dickie becomes King Richard.
The figure of Richard, with his great height and his noble, military bearing must have enthralled those fortunate enough to be present. The solemnities of the ceremony completed the new king, resplendent in his coronation robes, followed by his fawning entourage, moved in joyous procession to the elaborately decorated banqueting hall. There within the tapestry adorned walls, the dignitaries sat down to a sumptuous banquet for which no expense had been spared. As they feasted on course after endless course, they were entertained by the very finest of musicians and by singers of whom it is said, their voices constituted a true heavenly choir.
However the dulcet tones and exquisite harmonies from within the banqueting hall were soon drowned out by the sounds of the most appalling violence from outside!
The leaders of the local Jewish community had come to present Richard with gifts on his coronation but were denied entry into the royal presence. The crowds of Londoners gathered at the entrance took this as a cue to attack the unfortunate deputation and a number of the Jews were killed. Richard was furious that his coronation celebrations had been spoilt in this way and immediately had some of the rioters executed. How dare these Londoners select the day of his coronation as a time to vent their fury on the indigenous Jewish community! Why had they not selected another less distinguished occasion to misbehave? Their timing was appalling and the whole thing really quite distracting to the guests enjoying the wonderful royal festivities. It appears that Richard might have been more annoyed by the timing of the anti-semitic violence rather than the murders themselves.
‘After King Richard’s ceremony of royal coronation,
In the wake of the nation’s passionate acclamation!
These violent wretches had the poor manners to spoil the grand coronation meal!
For this Richard, made them from a gallows high, dance a final deadly reel!’
The incident appears to have ignited a foul storm of anti-semitic fury, which resulted in deadly pogroms that occurred as far north as the city of York. Below is an image from the age showing the violence visited upon the Jewish people.
A contemporary image of the Jewish people being persecuted in medieval England.
Unlike his regal predecessors, Richard’s immediate ambitions lay far beyond the borders of his own lands or even that of his neighbours. In 1187 an event occurred which shook the whole of Christendom to its very foundations.
The forces of Islam under the leadership of the Kurdish warrior, Saladin had overrun the Crusader states in Palestine and had captured the holy city of Jerusalem. It is impossible for us now, to fathom the depths of consternation felt by Christians at what they regarded as a catastrophe of unimaginable dimensions.
The medieval city of Jerusalem
Richard regarded it his moral, religious and even spiritual duty to see that the Holy Land be wrestled from the armies of Islam and delivered back to Christendom. He announced that he would take up the cross and wasted no time in preparing an army for an invasion of the middle east. Indeed within a year Richard had departed for Palestine. His speedy departure was facilitated somewhat less by his own logistical competence, but rather more by the prescience of his late father, Henry II.
When the Muslims had taken Jerusalem, Henry was still king and he too had declared his intention to join a crusade. With a view to paying for this large undertaking, the old king had levied a tax, the ‘Saladin Tithe’ across his empire. Henry had not lived to carry out his plan so the money lay unspent. Above all things, Richard sought glory as a Christian warrior and his unlamented father, through his fiscal prudence had provided him with the means with which to achieve it.
The Third Crusade had begun.