Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy and I am
Speaker 1: currently hopelessly addicted to the Florence and the Machine album.
Speaker 1: Lung has been promising Sarah I will copy it for her.
Speaker 1: And in one of the songs, Florence Welch sings, I
Speaker 1: must become a lion hearted girl ready for a fight.
Speaker 1: And since I've listened to the CD every morning for
Speaker 1: approximately the last one mornings, I'm really in love with
Speaker 1: this quote, and it also got me thinking about other
Speaker 1: lion hearts, although I think the subject of this podcast
Speaker 1: isn't quite the kind I'm striving for. Richard the First
Speaker 1: of England, also known as Richard Lionheart or Richard cur
Speaker 1: de Leon. And you might remember Richard from our episode
Speaker 1: quite some time ago on Eleanor of Aquitaine. This is
Speaker 1: his son, Eleanor. We sometimes call her the woman who
Speaker 1: lived too long. Too long, that was so much research.
Speaker 1: It was a podcast. He was a very elderly woman,
Speaker 1: and I don't think we had quite learned to break
Speaker 1: up podcasts. And they're like that, so Anyways, this is
Speaker 1: Eleanor's son with Henry the second, and Richard is not
Speaker 1: so great at being a son to Henry the second.
Speaker 1: But that's not really what he's famous for. He's famous
Speaker 1: for the Third Crusade and for being a great warrior. Say,
Speaker 1: to give you some background on the Third Crusade, we
Speaker 1: have a man named Saladin who is the ruler of
Speaker 1: Egypt and Syria, a very powerful man and known to
Speaker 1: be a very chivalrous one, which kind of makes him
Speaker 1: the perfect counterpart to Richard's reputation as this perfect night.
Speaker 1: Nights from the east and from the west they go together.
Speaker 1: So in the years after the Second Crusade, Saladin had
Speaker 1: taken most of the Crusader cities, including Awker, which was
Speaker 1: a very important port city, Beirut, Nazareth, Caesaria, and then
Speaker 1: finally Jerusalem in eight seven. The city had been in
Speaker 1: Frankish control for eighty eight years, is a huge deal.
Speaker 1: The only city he didn't have was Tire, a very
Speaker 1: important coastal fortress, which would screw him in the end,
Speaker 1: definitely ends up messing him up. But things had been
Speaker 1: rough for the Crusaders through this time. They were suffering
Speaker 1: through famine, disease, thirst because they had contaminated water. They
Speaker 1: couldn't stand up to Saladine, and in the end they
Speaker 1: were very few places left under Christian control. But Saladine
Speaker 1: himself is dealing with some internal problems, especially the Sunny
Speaker 1: Shiite divisions between the Muslims under his rule. So the
Speaker 1: capture of Jerusalem is a huge blow to Christians, and
Speaker 1: Europe is very shocked and very determined to act. And
Speaker 1: we've talked about crusades already and housades and pope popes
Speaker 1: like to have their own crusade. This is the same
Speaker 1: case as the Fourth Crusade. Pope Gregory the eighth encourages
Speaker 1: a new crusade to take back Jerusalem. And the interesting
Speaker 1: thing about this crusade is just how many kings, I guess,
Speaker 1: get involved. There's so many leaders involved in the lead
Speaker 1: up to the third Again it is we have William
Speaker 1: the second of Sicily that he died in nine which
Speaker 1: kind of put a halt to his part of the war.
Speaker 1: And Frederick the first Barbarossa, who had a huge army.
Speaker 1: He was a formidable threat as they pushed through Byzantium
Speaker 1: and Isaac the Second, a Jealous's attempts to thwart them,
Speaker 1: but Frederick drowned before they reached Antioch, possibly because his
Speaker 1: horse slipped in a river. He would not make our
Speaker 1: list of best military horses. Um, and after that his
Speaker 1: army kind of fell apart. It's it's hard to go
Speaker 1: without your leader. And that was the end of that, definitely.
Speaker 1: So rounding out our lineup, we also have Philip the
Speaker 1: second Augustus of France and Henry the second of England,
Speaker 1: who is owner of Aquataine's husband, and these two are
Speaker 1: arch enemies and the cause of their dispute, like everything
Speaker 1: else in the Middle Age of nobody gets along very well.
Speaker 1: The cause of their dispute is land and dowries and
Speaker 1: who gets what and who gets home and women is
Speaker 1: pawns in marriage. Yeah, it really doesn't help much when
Speaker 1: Philip teams up with Henry's son, Richard the Lionheart in
Speaker 1: a revolt against him, so major problems between these two guys.
Speaker 1: Henry died of a broken heart, I think shortly after
Speaker 1: he lost to the two of them, to his son
Speaker 1: and to this man he hates. And now it's up
Speaker 1: to Richard to take up the cause of the Crusades
Speaker 1: taking back Jerusalem. He was enthroned in Normandy in July
Speaker 1: nine in England in September, but he would only spend
Speaker 1: about six months in England during the whole of his rule.
Speaker 1: He just wasn't really interested in that part of it.
Speaker 1: And I liked this quote from Encyclopedia Britannica. His abilities
Speaker 1: lay not an administration for which he had no talent,
Speaker 1: but in war, at which he was a genius. So
Speaker 1: that's the final word on that from an encyclopedia. So yeah,
Speaker 1: instead of focusing on England and administration, he focuses on
Speaker 1: the Middle East and in order to get the Crusaders there,
Speaker 1: and when he needs money, he needs a lot of money,
Speaker 1: so he starts selling off lands and titles and taxing
Speaker 1: the people the saladine tax. Yeah. He also picks up
Speaker 1: his father's fight with Philip of France, this argument over
Speaker 1: marriages and dowries that is going on through the generations. Apparently,
Speaker 1: so Philip wants to tear apart the Ajaban Empire of
Speaker 1: which Richard is part and Richard, in preparation for leaving,
Speaker 1: make sure that he has allies who will look after
Speaker 1: his empire while he's gone, he doesn't really trust Philip
Speaker 1: for a good reason well, and as part of that,
Speaker 1: he ticks off Philip even more than he already was.
Speaker 1: I didn't think that was possible, but it is. Because
Speaker 1: he was supposed to marry Philip's sister Alice, and instead
Speaker 1: he promises to marry Berengaria of Navar. Her father was
Speaker 1: going to help take care of Richard's lands while he
Speaker 1: was gone. Um, but he gets to keep some of
Speaker 1: Alice's dowry lands instead of returning them to Philip. And
Speaker 1: this is a grudge that would simmer for years. But
Speaker 1: now both Philip and Richard headed for the Crusades, so
Speaker 1: Richard goes to Sicily first, while Philip goes to Oker,
Speaker 1: and Richard conquers Messina. He's very very efficient and very efficient. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then he's on his way to Cyprus, and in
Speaker 1: this fun classic Middle Ages twist where you have nights
Speaker 1: and damsels and distress, Richard saves both his sister and
Speaker 1: his betrothed who have been shipwrecked and taken into custody,
Speaker 1: so he rescues them from Cyprus, and yeah, then takes
Speaker 1: the island sound that will teach you Byzantine ruler, and
Speaker 1: then he goes to Aker to meet with Philip and
Speaker 1: help him lay siege to the city. Earlier crusaders had
Speaker 1: begun the siege in nine so it's been a couple
Speaker 1: of years. You can imagine that both sides are tired.
Speaker 1: They're pretty much had a stalemate. Neither side has given in,
Speaker 1: and Philip shows up just in time an eleven ninety one,
Speaker 1: and together he and Richard managed to breach the walls finally,
Speaker 1: and the city surrendered in July, much to Saladine's displeasure.
Speaker 1: He had told them not to, but they said unless
Speaker 1: he came to their aid, they couldn't. They couldn't, We
Speaker 1: can't hold it, and they did get it, so that
Speaker 1: was the end um. As part of being the loser,
Speaker 1: Saladine handed over the fragments of the True Cross that
Speaker 1: he had and also promised ransom for getting back his
Speaker 1: Muslim prisoners from Philip and Richard, but he didn't deliver
Speaker 1: that money fast enough for Richard's liking, and he decided
Speaker 1: to execute thousands of captives where Saladine could see it,
Speaker 1: and Saladine retaliated in kind with Christian prisoners, so really
Speaker 1: no one won that no this massive prisoner execution, And
Speaker 1: just a note about these two men. It may not
Speaker 1: seem like it, but Saladine and Richard had a lot
Speaker 1: of respect for each other. We already mentioned you have
Speaker 1: this ideal Night of the East and Night of the West,
Speaker 1: but legends have the meeting and competing as equals. It's
Speaker 1: fun to imagine them having some sort of jousting match
Speaker 1: or something like that, Richard with his brute strength and
Speaker 1: Soladine with his witty intelligence. But really they never meet.
Speaker 1: They have messengers who communicate between them. It's not quite
Speaker 1: as romantic as even though it would make a good story. Yes,
Speaker 1: there's finally an open battle between Richard's armies and Saladines
Speaker 1: in September at the Battle of Ours. Philip had returned
Speaker 1: home by this time for unknown reasons, and it was
Speaker 1: a decisive win for Richard and the only time the
Speaker 1: two would directly confront one another. And Richard went on
Speaker 1: to win Jaffa, a port city, and the rest of
Speaker 1: the Levantine coast. But what he couldn't get was Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: despite coming in sight of it two times almost being there,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't lay siege to the city, and while this
Speaker 1: made sense from a military strategy point of view, which
Speaker 1: he was oh so good at. His troops didn't understand
Speaker 1: his reluctance and they didn't like it. It's the point
Speaker 1: of why they're there in the first place, to get
Speaker 1: back Jerusalem. Instead, he wants to attack some of Staladine
Speaker 1: Egypt holdings, but the troops don't see the point of
Speaker 1: that either. Negotiations began between Solidine and Richard, but soon stalled,
Speaker 1: and their armies continued to lose and retake cities and
Speaker 1: attempting to avenge their dead brothers and very bloody conflicts.
Speaker 1: But they finally came to a piece in September eleven
Speaker 1: ninety two, and as part of that truce, Christians, as
Speaker 1: long as they were unarmed and Muslims and Jews would
Speaker 1: all be allowed to enter Jerusalem. So all in all,
Speaker 1: despite not winning Jerusalem, which was, you know, the main
Speaker 1: goal of this crusade, it was a pretty successful one.
Speaker 1: Not at all like the Fourth Crusade. If you listen
Speaker 1: to that episode a Crusade gone Wrong, in which everything
Speaker 1: went wrong, they actually get some stuff in this crusade.
Speaker 1: We're going to call that one a success. Semi attain
Speaker 1: the Jerusalem motive so Richard heads home in October. You
Speaker 1: have to imagine he's feeling pretty good, but he's shipwrecked.
Speaker 1: And we always have these shocking shipwreck twists in our podcast.
Speaker 1: Leopold of Austria, who's mad about Richard lighting him during
Speaker 1: the crusade and possibly killing his cousin to stick him
Speaker 1: in captivity, and he remains there for a while until
Speaker 1: Henry the six, who is the Holy Roman Emperor, took him.
Speaker 1: So good old Eleanor of Aquitaine comes into the picture
Speaker 1: here and raises the ransom for her son. But that's
Speaker 1: not quite yet because in the meantime, of course, as
Speaker 1: we mentioned, Philip had returned home and he has been
Speaker 1: up to no good. Specifically, he's trying to take Richard's lands.
Speaker 1: He believed that Alice's dowry lands should be returned to
Speaker 1: his family. As far as I'm considered the point, he
Speaker 1: does have a point, and he also didn't like the
Speaker 1: fact that Richard had gotten all the glory from the crusades,
Speaker 1: and Philip felt that once again the algebra had been
Speaker 1: cheated out of what should belong to them. But since
Speaker 1: Richard was a crusade or his lands were supposed to
Speaker 1: be protected while he was gone. But this was Philip's chance.
Speaker 1: I mean, when would he have another one. It's just
Speaker 1: too good. So he faked some papers saying, hey, Richard
Speaker 1: and I came to this agreement. He signed them, I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to get those lands back. The Normans are like na,
Speaker 1: so no, it's not going to happen. So he got
Speaker 1: Richard's brother John on his side and some other counts
Speaker 1: of French Lands. And to be fair, they weren't sure
Speaker 1: that Richard would ever get out of prison and return home,
Speaker 1: so they're kind of throwing their lot in with Philip
Speaker 1: and hoping that will help. According to the article, I
Speaker 1: got this from a lot of this from by Simon
Speaker 1: Reyes in military history, so it did make sense to
Speaker 1: stick with Philip for the time he's out of prison,
Speaker 1: although it should be said for a while no one
Speaker 1: knew where Richard was. John even announces that his brother
Speaker 1: is dead, and Eleanor says, nope, he's not dead. So
Speaker 1: you don't know if that's tricky John or if they
Speaker 1: really believe it. I'm gonna go with sneaky John. So
Speaker 1: Philip hits Jesure Castle and just rampages through Normandy pillaging
Speaker 1: along the way, but is stopped at Rouen, the capital
Speaker 1: by Arle Robert of Lester, and eventually Richard's minister has
Speaker 1: decided to make a deal just to stop him from
Speaker 1: making trouble. Keep what you've won already, will give you
Speaker 1: a few other small territories, but we'll give Richard the
Speaker 1: option of buying them back if he wants to and
Speaker 1: he returns, which, of course Richard has too much self
Speaker 1: respect for such a deal. Yeah. Well, and Philip and
Speaker 1: John are trying to bargain with Henry the Six during
Speaker 1: all this too, who is of course the one holding
Speaker 1: Richard prisoner. They're saying, maybe you could turn him over
Speaker 1: to us and will get care of him exactly. Um,
Speaker 1: Henry the Six doesn't have any of that. He lets
Speaker 1: Richard go February four and at this point fill it on.
Speaker 1: It's on. So Richard raises money. We know he's good
Speaker 1: at that already, and he has himself recrowned and he
Speaker 1: heads tom. Yeah, hit home that point that I am back,
Speaker 1: I'm king. So John comes pleading to his brother to
Speaker 1: to forgive him. Richard says, you are a child. You
Speaker 1: can just imagine the condescension way they do make up later,
Speaker 1: we should mention that. But Richard and Philip fight up
Speaker 1: and down Normandy. They fight through Turin and Aquitaine and
Speaker 1: the Loire Valley, and they almost come to a piece
Speaker 1: at the Droi Inven. But Philip is still working against
Speaker 1: Richard even as these negotiations are going on, and Richard
Speaker 1: figures it out. He's just no, we're calling the whole
Speaker 1: thing off. So the two returned to fighting. You're going
Speaker 1: to fight for pretty much the rest of your at.
Speaker 1: In eleven ninety six, Richard manages to cut off philips
Speaker 1: supply lines, which results in a temporary truth, but very temporary. Indeed,
Speaker 1: they fight until January, and at that point they finally
Speaker 1: come to some sort of terms. All well, Richard is
Speaker 1: standing on a boat on the sun and he's yelling
Speaker 1: at Philip, who's up on the banks. It's pretty ridiculous
Speaker 1: for guys who have been fighting for years and years
Speaker 1: to work it out like this, but a plus for him.
Speaker 1: During this time, Richard built his beloved Chateau Guillard, which
Speaker 1: cost eleven thousand, five pounds sterling at the time, an
Speaker 1: astronomical sum of money. We decided that he and Ludvig
Speaker 1: should hang out and have dinner, and it was also
Speaker 1: the strongest castle of its time. But soon after this
Speaker 1: we have the very murky ending of Richard's life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is pretty confusing. We know how he died, but
Speaker 1: the events leading up to it are completely confusing and
Speaker 1: frankly bizarre. So he attacks the Lord of Challou in
Speaker 1: March eleven ninety nine. Why does they do it? There
Speaker 1: are two opinions on this one. It's possible he thought
Speaker 1: that a vast cash of buried treasure had been discovered
Speaker 1: and he had not gotten his share. Um in my
Speaker 1: outline I wrote seriously in parentheses, but I don't know
Speaker 1: any more about that. The second option is that maybe
Speaker 1: he just wanted to destroy the holdings of the Count
Speaker 1: of Limos. I like to think it's a big chest
Speaker 1: full of China smashing this place. But either way, after
Speaker 1: he's attacked this lightly guarded place, he's shot with a crossbow,
Speaker 1: and the story is strange, again, really really weird. A
Speaker 1: man fires at Richard, and supposedly Richard is impressed by
Speaker 1: his bravery. Oh you you know you're shooting at me?
Speaker 1: Richard lionheart, and he ducked but too late and was
Speaker 1: shot in the shoulder and the doctor couldn't get it
Speaker 1: out properly, and the wound turned gangrenous, and Richard forgave
Speaker 1: his killer, whoever it was, but his men did not,
Speaker 1: and after Richard died, the man was flayed to death.
Speaker 1: And again we still don't really know what happened there.
Speaker 1: But John was named his successor, and he just wasn't
Speaker 1: the man that Richard was. Now he he appears in
Speaker 1: a book I have called Histories and Monsters, so we
Speaker 1: might have to talk about him a little later. But
Speaker 1: Philip wore him down and accomplished what he set out
Speaker 1: to do in the first place. He broke the Ingabant
Speaker 1: Empire into many little pieces. So with John's reign leaving
Speaker 1: much to be desired, a lot of people are left
Speaker 1: longing for this the days of the Lion Heart. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Richard seems like the perfect example of a night and
Speaker 1: some historians agree and some don't. There's this ongoing fight,
Speaker 1: for one about his sexuality. Oh right, my favorite excerpt
Speaker 1: I was reading so that he was and I quote,
Speaker 1: accused of homosexuality. We would like to point out, for
Speaker 1: all your history writers, we do not accuse people of
Speaker 1: sexual orientation not the Oscar wild trial there. But they
Speaker 1: all agree on one thing that militarily Richard was brilliant.
Speaker 1: That's why he is the lion Heart. And if you
Speaker 1: care to go over each and every one of his battles,
Speaker 1: both during the Crusade and with Philip, I didn't that
Speaker 1: would have taken us quite a long time. In this
Speaker 1: podcast you'll see multiple examples of how smart his strategy was.
Speaker 1: He was undoubtedly very talented, but was he what England
Speaker 1: needed at the time and is his reputation deserved? That's
Speaker 1: your choice. But just to give you a little bizarro
Speaker 1: world follow up some postscripts. So remember how we've been
Speaker 1: talking recently about Napoleon and his invasion of Egypt and
Speaker 1: all of these Mama Lukes and the warrior slave cast
Speaker 1: that rule Egypt. Tire is taken by the mom Luke's
Speaker 1: in twelve nine one, So it's a small world after all.
Speaker 1: On a podcast reverse order podcast here, And another note
Speaker 1: on one of the cities we've talked about in this podcast.
Speaker 1: The Old city of Aker is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Speaker 1: And as for Sladin our Eastern Night, he died as
Speaker 1: his seventeen sons fought bitterly over his estate, so sad circumstances,
Speaker 1: and he was a really interesting man. So I'm considering
Speaker 1: a podcast on him and get entering a few podcasts
Speaker 1: out of this one. So let us know what you
Speaker 1: think about that suggestion. You can email us at History
Speaker 1: Podcast at House of Works dot com. But that brings
Speaker 1: us to a very special listener mail, and this addition
Speaker 1: of listener mail is a present listener Maal. Christmas and
Speaker 1: August always very exciting from Melinda. We received two really
Speaker 1: awesome shirts and one is handprinted specially for the podcast
Speaker 1: based on our Lilya Kolani Lack Queen of Kawaie episode
Speaker 1: and it says team Lilia Kolani and if you'll remember,
Speaker 1: we are your big fans the queen. We stand with
Speaker 1: her as far as that goes. And the other one
Speaker 1: says the Lusitania is an inside job. You can't buy
Speaker 1: the Lolyoa Kolani T shirts those are just for us,
Speaker 1: but you can get the Lusitania one. I think she
Speaker 1: gave us her website. Yeah, it's Austin Apparel. So thank
Speaker 1: you very much, Melinda. We have been wearing our T
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