Richard I of England

Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period. He was the third of five sons of King w:Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine and seemed unlikely to become king, but all his brothers except the youngest, John, predeceased their father. Richard is known as Richard Cœur de Lion (Norman French: Le quor de lion) or Richard the Lionheart because of his reputation as a great military leader and warrior.

Quotes

• We, however, place the love of God and His honour above our own and above the acquisition of many regions
  • Richard on King Philip II of France's early departure from the Third Crusade; Quoted in Christopher Tyerman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades, Harvard University Press, 2006, (p.455). ^{[specific citation needed]} (from primary source)

• If it had not been for his malice, forcing me to return, I would have been able to recover the whole of Outremer. Then, when I was in prison he conspired to keep me there so that he could steal my lands.
  • Richard on his alleged betrayal by King Philip; Richard I - Gillingham^{[specific citation needed]} (from primary source)

• Stick to your own grammar, my lord, for it is much better.
  • Richard on being corrected by the Bishop of Coventry; The Plantagenets - Harvey^{[specific citation needed]}

About

• Despite the feats and achievements of his astonishing reign, Henry II is one of the lesser-known Plantagenet kings. Not so his third son, Richard I, 'the Lionheart' who inherited the Plantagenet empire in 1189, during the white heat of Europe's most enthusiastic crusading years. Richard – who spent a surprisingly small amount of time in England given the heroic status he achieved there within decades of his death – devoted his life to expanding the horizons of Plantagenet power. This led him to conquests as far afield of Sicily, Cyprus and the kingdom of Jerusalem during the Third Crusade, before he returned, via an expensive imprisonment in Germany, to fight for his inheritance against the French king Philip II 'Augustus.'
  • Dan Jones, The Plantagenets: The Kings Who Made England (2012), p. xxxiv