[Artemisia] Richard the Lionheart

[Tamar Black Sea]

The accountant in me is sputtering in frustration, "but, but, but didn't 
they get tired of having to pay several king's ransoms to bail Richard 
out of jail?"

Didn't they notice that he could win a battle but never a war?

Doesn't somebody want the king to be around to actually
 do the job once in a while?

My modern sensibilities are reeling :-)

Oh...and one last thought. I would guess that the medieval concept of 
"gay" and "straight" might have been very different from our modern 
notion. Wouldn't that have at least partly explained why the fact that 
Richard was gay was ignored. Additionally, he would hardly have been the 
only king who didn't know, didn't like, and didn't spend much time with 
his wife.

Thank you Morgan for your very well informed response. One of my 
daughters is cheering.

YIS,
Tamar

morgan wolf wrote:
> I believe (and I should say that this time frame and the particular "title" I'm about to bring up were my areas of focus during my pursuit of a history degree) that Richard was so incredibly popular because he was considered "the Greatest Soldier in Christendom", a quasi-title that was, in a way, passed on for several generations, usually to the man who utterly defeated the previous "Greatest Soldier".  Richard was considered fearless in battle, demonstrated a mastery of both strategy and tactics, and in a time when martial prowess basically defined a man, stated and proved again and again that he would rather be at war than at peace.  A large part of his popularity with the English nobility was his absenteeism- he was only in England about 4 times during his entire life (he hated the island).  An equally large part, if not larger, of the reason that John was so unpopular with the nobles was his presence in, and desire to actually rule, England.
>
> Richard was such a feared and respected military figure that the fact that he was gay was completely ignored, except for the matter of the succession.
>
>
> Morgan, sometime military and medieval history scholar
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Tamar Black Sea <tamar at coteduciel.org>
> To: Kingdom of Artemisia mailing list <artemisia at lists.gallowglass.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 7, 2007 10:36:23 AM
> Subject: [Artemisia] Richard the Lionheart
>
>
> Greetings Everyone,
>
> My two daughters are homeschooled and are doing a unit on the Crusades 
> and Richard the Lionheart. There is an essay portion with-in each unit 
> and one of the questions was a deceptively simple little question about 
> Richard the Lionheart's legacy in English history. I thought we could 
> whip out an answer in 10 minutes. I was wrong. Days later, we find 
> ourselves still discussing the question.
>
> I would love to hear in-put from anyone out there who has an interest in 
> this subject. The question was:
>
> "Why do you think Richard the Lionheart has always been so popular when 
> he accomplished so little?"
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> YIS,
> Tamar
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