Page 28 - All About History 55 - 2017 UK

RICHARD I

RISE LION
of

the

Before becoming the crusader king, the Lionheart
earned his name by challenging the

family firm for his right to rule

Written by Peter Price

ichard I’s exploits during the Third he would forge his reputation as a great military after Henry’s ancestors from the duchy of Anjou.
Crusade made him a legend in commander, canny politician and a ruler with a Both powerful figures in their own right, Henry
his own lifetime, and he is widely somewhat tyrannical streak. The catalyst for this had forged England into a powerhouse on the
viewed as a paragon of chivalry, a would come from a protracted and bloody family continent, helped in no small way by Eleanor, who
R fearless warrior and staunch defender feud that plagued Europe with near constant had brought her wealthy duchy of Aquitaine into
of Christendom — in essence, the quintessential rebellions and warfare. the Angevin sphere of influence.
Medieval king. But ‘Lionheart’ was not a name Richard was born in Oxford to King Henry The family life of the Angevins was
won on the sands of the Holy Land; instead, it II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, rulers of England complicated, to say the least. Henry was an absent
was in the grassy fields of Europe. It was here that and the newly created Angevin Empire, named father, spending much of his reign travelling the
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