[Artemisia] Richard the Lionheart

[TClayton]

I can actually chime in on this subject...
    Richard's Popularity is strictly a later invention by English writers 
during England's "religious Enlightenment" and again during its Victorian 
era. He lead a Crusade (never mind that he lost it, retreated from Jerusalem 
when he saw the walls around the city, or massacred 3,000 women and children 
in Acre), and he fought and beat those dastardly Catholic Frenchmen! (Never 
mind that England was also Catholic and French at the time...)
    English writers of the 18th and 19th centuries were looking to re-write 
England's history to validate English Imperialism and Imperial Conquests 
around the globe. Richard became a hero and was used as an icon of English 
Manhood, Duty and Nobility during this time.
    In the period, Richard was as reviled as he was feared. Fear, by far and 
large, was more valuable to a King in the Middle Ages, than love was. Even 
the Muslim accounts of the Third Crusade speak of how the "Franks" feared 
the Lion heart   so much, they fled their own castles before he arrived.
    As to Richard being gay... there is no evidence of this at all. Quite 
the contrary. His death is attributed to the fact that he was told to rest 
from his wounds after the battle of Chalus. Instead, he called for the Royal 
"concubines". His womanizing was notorious... as evidenced by his many 
bastards.
-----Ralph, Rex Artemisia
-------------------------------------------------------

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamar Black Sea" <tamar at coteduciel.org>
To: "Kingdom of Artemisia mailing list" <artemisia at lists.gallowglass.org>
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 11:21 AM
Subject: Re: [Artemisia] Richard the Lionheart


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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