Richard ICoeur de Lion PLANTAGENET, KING OF ENGLAND HRH

                   Sources include but are not limited to;
Ancestral File and the IGI, International Genealogical Index,both
resource systems developed and solely owned by The Church of JesusChrist of
Latter Day Saints.
Acceded to the Throne: 2 Sep 1189
Crowned: 2 Sep 1189 Westminster Abbey, London
Burial: Fontevrault Abbey, France
Reigned: Bet. 1189 - 1199 England
Few monarchs are surrounded by as much romantic lore as is
Richard I.  Remembered by his English subjects as the
Lion-Heart, Richard's reputation was built in a time when war
was considered a romantic art and killing in the name of one's
God the essence of courage.
Richard was raised in Poitiers, the court of his mother,
well-known for it's adherence to the rules of courtly love,
chivalry and knighthood.  The skills Richard learned in these
years proved invaluable for he had two strikes against him; he
was the second born son and he was not his father's favorite.
Henry II's first son, also Henry, was crowned during the old
King's lifetime.  The Young King Henry died in 1183, and Richard
was poised for succession, but Henry favored John, his third and
youngest son.  Richard, pushed to the point of open rebellion,
joined with Philip II of France in an attempt to destroy the
Angevine empire and Henry.  In July 1189, with his health
failing, Henry accepted a humiliating peace and died.  On 3
September, 1189 Richard was crowned at Westminster.
The coronation marked one of the few visits Richard ever made to
England, but it also marked one of England's worse massacres.
The coronation ceremony was to be followed by a banquet.  By the
express decree of Richard, no Jews were to attend. However, Jews
arrived and Ralph of Diceto, quoted in The Plantagenet
Chronicles, described the scene:
...the courtiers laid hands on the Jews and stripped them and
flogged them and having inflicted blows, threw them out of the
king's court.  Some were killed, others they let go half dead.
One of those Jews was so badly injured with slashes and wounds
that he despaired of his life, and was so terrified was he by
the fear of death that he accepted baptism of William, prior of
the Church of St. Mary of York, and was christened William.  And
in this way he avoided the danger of death at the hands of his
persecutors.  The people of London, following the courtier's
example, began killing, robing and burning Jews.  Yet a few of
the Jews escaped that massacre, shutting themselves up in the
Tower of London or hiding in the houses of their friends.
Soon after the coronation, Richard renewed his vow to fight in
the Crusades with Philip II of France.  (In England only long
enough to raise money for his Crusade, Richard jokingly remarked
that he would have sold London if only he could find a buyer.)
Richard and Philip set out for the Holy land in the summer of
1190., but the following winter became waylaid with
transportation problems near the city Messina in Sicily.  Camped
outside the walls of the city, Richard found himself at odds
with the King of Sicily, Tancred.  Tancred had been unkind to
Joan, Richard's sister, and widow of the previous King of
Sicily.  When fighting broke out between the Crusaders and the
people of Messina, Richard seized Messina for ransom and
extracted a tidy profit frm Tancred.  The enforced encampment at
Messina, however, strained the good relations between Philip and
Richard.  Richard had vowed to mayyr Alice, Philip's sister, and
Philip thought Richard to be dragging his heels in the matter.
Richard, in reality, hesitated, some say because he believed
Alice to have been his father's lover.  Either way, when
Richard's mother arrived in Sicily with an alternative bride,
Berengaria of Navarre, Philip stormed off.
When Richard sailed from Sicily in April 1191, he brought
Berengaria and Joan with him.  The ship carrying the two
princesses was separated from Richard's fleet and nearly fell
into the hands of the King of Cyprus.  Richard, in a daring
military operation, rescued the princesses and captured the
island of Cyprus.  While While Richard's capture of Messina had
done much to earn him the reputation of Lion-Heart, the Cyprus
maneuver enshrined his reputation, for Cyprus was strategically
important for generations of Crsaders.  In June 1191, Richard
arrived at the sieged city of Acre.  His forces had the Muslims
of Acre surrounded, but Richard and the other Christian forces
were in turn surrounded by the great Muslim leader, Saladin.
Encouraged by the arrival of Richard and his army, the
Christians pressed on and Acre fell.  The victory was tainted,
however, when Richard and Duke Leopold of Austria quarreled over
the spoils of Acre and left Leopold feeling cheated. Richard
ordered all prisoners taken at Acre killed and then led his army
to Jaffa.  Followed by Saladin, the crusaders were never able to
enter Jerusalem, stopping a mere twelve miles outside the city.
When Saladin agreed to a three years truce, Richard began his
long journey home.  While on the journey Richard was captured by
Duke Leopold of Austria and held for ransom for over a year. The
barons of England bargained for his release and eventually
bought Richard's freedom for 1000 pounds.
While Richard was in prison, his brother John joined forces with
Richard's former friend, Philip II of France, and as a result
lost important Angevin castles and territories.  Upon his
release, Richard visited England for a short while and busied
himself with the task of winning back territories by John.  This
end had been accomplished when, in April 1199, while fighting a
small skirmish in Limousin, Richard the Lion-Heart received a
fatal wound and died.  The age of chivalry lost one of its most
charismatic figurres, and England lost one of its most beloved
kings.  The stage was now set for King John, for whom the
trobadour Bertrand de Born wrote, No man may ever trust him,
for his heart is soft and cowardly.