Richard Plantagenet, who reigned from 1189 to 1199 as Richard the First of England, and is better known as Richard Coeur de Lion or Richard the Lion Hearted, was born at Oxford on September 8, 1157, the second son of Henry II of England and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.1 Very few English monarchs have achieved so enduring a status in popular legend as Richard.
The great irony of Richard's enduring popularity as a figure of historical legend is that it has very little to do with his actual character and career, both of which are known in considerable detail. This is not the case with other well remembered monarchs. Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I are perhaps the only other historical King and Queen of England to survive as household names on a level with Richard. In both of their cases, however, the legend has a recognizable basis in history. Henry was not simply the tyrant who chopped off his wives' heads, and Elizabeth was not simply Gloriana the Virgin Queen but their images are firmly rooted in their real careers and characters.
By contrast, the historical Richard shares only his undoubted fighting prowess and some talent as a troubadour with the Richard of popular legend. Of the ten years he reigned as King of England, he spent only about six months in that country. His native tongue was French, and it is most unlikely that he could understand or speak a word of English.2 He certainly made no effort whatsoever to bring Normans and Saxons to amity, nor to restore right and justice to the realm of England. On the contrary, he taxed England heavily to raise funds for his wars abroad. The most colorful way historians have expressed his role historical as King of England is to say that he treated it as the "milch cow" of the Third Crusade.
Nor was he particularly the embodiment of chivalry, at least as we commonly imagine chivalry today. He was certainly a magnificent fighter an...