richard

Richard the Lionheart was born on September 8, 1157, in Oxford, England. He was generally considered to be his mother's favorite son, and has been described as spoiled and vain because of it. Richard was also known to let his temper get the better of him. Nevertheless, he could be shrewd in matters of politics and was famously skilled on the battlefield. He was also highly cultured and well-educated, and wrote poems and songs. Through most of his life he enjoyed the support and affection of his people, and for centuries after his death, Richard the Lionheart was one of the most popular kings in English history.
He was very attractive, with a hair between redhead and blond, blue eyes and pale skin. Apparently had a height above average: 1.96 m. However, his exact height is unknown because his remains, in the time of the French Revolution, had been lost.
Richard the Lionheart was the third son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and although his eldest brother died young, the next in line, Henry, was named heir. Thus, Richard grew up with little realistic expectations of achieving the English throne. In any case, he was more interested in the family's French holdings than he was in England; he spoke little English, and he was made duke of the lands his mother had brought to her marriage when he was quite young: Aquitaine in 1168, and Poitiers three years later.

In 1169, King Henry and King Louis VII of France agreed that Richard should be wed to Louis's daughter Alice. This engagement was to last for some time, although Richard never showed any interest in her; Alice was sent from her home to live with the court in England, while Richard stayed with his holdings in France.
Brought up among the people he was to govern, Richard soon learned how to deal with the aristocracy. But his relationship with his father had some serious problems. In 1173, encouraged by his mother, Richard joined his brothers Henry and Geoffrey in rebelling against the king. The rebellion ultimately failied, Eleanor was imprisoned, and Richard found it necessary to submit to his father and receive a pardon for his transgressions.
In 1889 Richard the Lionheart had become King of England; but his heart wasn't in the sceptred isle. Ever since Saladin had captured Jerusalem in 1187, Richard's greatest ambition was to go to the Holy Land and take it back.

Philip and Richard agreed to go to the Holy Land together, but not all was well between them. The French king wanted some of the lands that Henry had held, and that were now in Richard's hands, which he believed rightfully belonged to France. Richard was not about to relinquish any of his holdings; in fact, he shored up the defenses of these lands and prepared for conflict. But neither king really wanted war with each other, especially with a Crusade awaiting their attention.
In July of 1190 the Crusaders set off. They stopped at Messina, Sicily, in part because it served as an excellent point of departure from Europe to the Holy Land, but also because Richard had business with King Tancred. The new monarch had refused to hand over the bequest the late king had left to Richard's father, and was witholding the dower owed to his predecessor's widow and keeping her in close confinement. This was of special concern to Richard the Lionheart, because the widow was his favorite sister, Joan. To complicate matters, the Crusaders were clashing with the citizens of Messina.
Richard resolved these problems in a matter of days. He demanded (and got) Joan's release, but when her dower was not forthcoming he began taking control of strategic fortifications. When the unrest between the Crusaders and the townfolk flared into a riot, he personally quelled it with his own troops. Before Tancred knew it, Richard had taken hostages to secure the peace and begun constructing a wooden castle overlooking the city. Tancred was forced to make concessions to Richard the Lionheart or risk losing his throne.
The agreement between Richard the Lionheart and Tancred ultimately benefited the king of Sicily, for it included an alliance against Tancred's rival, the new German emperor, Henry VI. Philip, on the other hand, was unwilling to jeopardize his friendship with Henry and was irritated at Richard's virtual takeover of the island. He was mollified somewhat when Richard agreed to share the monies Tancred paid, but he soon had cause for further irritation. Richard's mother Eleanor arrived in Sicily with her son's bride, and it was not Philip's sister. Alice had been passed over in favor of Berengaria of Navarre, and Philip wasn't in either a financial or military position to address the insult. His relationship with Richard the Lionheart further deteriorated, and they would never recover their original affability.
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Richard couldn't marry Berengaria quite yet, because it was Lent; but now that she'd arrived in Sicily he was ready to leave the island where he had tarried for several months. In April of 1191 he set sail for the Holy Land with his sister and fiancé in a massive fleet of over 200 vessels.

Richard's first success in the Holy Land, after having sunk an enormous supply ship encountered on the way, was the capture of Acre.

The battle of acre began when King Guy had been released by Saladin in 1189 Regaining his freedom, he attempted to take command of the Christian forces in Tyre, but Conrad of Montferrat had taken power after his successful defense of the city against Muslims. Conrad had gathered an army to besiege the city, with the help of the French army newcomer Philip II, though it was not yet large enough to counteract the forces of Saladin.

Richard landed at Acre on June 8, 1191, and immediately began overseeing the construction of siege weapons to attack Acre, which was captured on July 12.

Richard, Philip and Leopold V, who led the remnants of the army of Frederick Barbarossa, started a dispute over the spoils of the newly conquered city. Leopoldo felt he deserved such a part in the cast for their efforts in the battle, but Ricardo took the German city banner, which threw the pit. Meanwhile, Richard and Philip were arguing about which candidate had more right to the throne of Acre. Ricardo advocated the candidacy of Guy, while Philip was in favor of Conrad. It was decided that Guy would continue to reign, but that Conrad would inherit his death.

Upset with Richard, Philip and Leopold left the city with his troops in August of that year. Philip returned to France, which was considered by the British desertion. Ricardo Saladin negotiated with the rescue of thousands of Muslims who had been taken prisoner. As it appeared that Saladin was not willing to provide the agreed sum, Ricardo ordered 3,000 prisoners were slain before the city of Acre, in view of the camp of Saladin.

After his victory, Richard took over the city of Jaffa, where he established his headquarters. Saladin offered to begin negotiating a peace treaty. The Sultan sent his brother, al-Adil, called Saphadin, to meet with Ricardo. The two sides were unable to reach agreement, and Richard marched to Ascalon. He called in the aid of Conrad of Montferrat, who refused to follow him, reproaching have sided with Guy de Lusignan. Soon after, Conrad was murdered on the streets of Acre by two masked murderers sent by the Old Man of the Mountain, leader of an Islamic sect, the murderers, located in the mountains of northern Syria, in the fortress of Masyaf, some order of Ricardo, as mandated by Saladin other as other Old own initiative. Guy de Lusignan became king of Cyprus, and Henry of Champagne became the new king of Jerusalem.

In July 1192, Saladin launched a sudden attack on Jaffa and recaptured the city, but few days later was again conquered by Ricardo. On August 5, a battle between Richard and Saladin, in which the English king, despite its marked outnumbered, were won was fought. On September 2, the two monarchs signed a peace treaty by which Jerusalem would remain under Muslim control, but the Christians were granted the right to freely pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Richard left the Holy Land on October 9, after having fought there for sixteen months.

Passing an inn near Vienna, on his journey back to England, Richard was taken prisoner by Duke Leopold of Austria, whose banner Ricardo had thrown into the den in Acre. Later it passed into the hands of the Emperor Henry VI, who was held captive for a year, and not freed until March 1194, after paying the enormous sum of 150,000 marks. The rest of his reign was spent fighting against France, and died from an arrow wound in the Limousin, in 1199, at the age of 42 years.