Entry taken from the book The Plantagenets
We had concluded the first entry dedicated to Richard the Lionheart in September 1192, with the signing of a three-year truce with Saladin and the English monarch's decision to return to Europe.
The return journey was not without its dangers; If by sea was the worst time of the year to undertake the long journey from the Holy Land to England, by land the journey was no less dangerous, because it forced Richard to pass through territories belonging to old and new enemies, all of them eager to prevent Heart of the Lion returned to his country.
Two of the main parties interested in capturing Richard were King Philip of France and his ally, Richard's younger brother Juan sin Tierra. Felipe had taken advantage of his return to Europe after the taking of Acre while Ricardo continued in the Holy Land to embark on the conquest of the territories that the Plantagenets possessed in French territory. In addition, Felipe felt humiliated by Ricardo's decision to retract his marriage commitment to Alicia, sister of the King of France, and his marriage to Berengaria of Navarre.
As for Juan sin Tierra, he had breached his commitment not to set foot on English territory within three years and had also taken advantage of an incident between the chancellor of the kingdom William Longchamp and his half-brother Godofredo, archbishop of York to accelerate his plans to take over England. Godfrey had landed at Dover (although he, too, had promised not to return to England) and was arrested and imprisoned by Longchamp's forces, despite having taken refuge in a church. A council of nobles and members of the clergy removed Longchamp from office and appointed John regent of the kingdom. It was clear why John did not want Richard to return to England.
But our protagonist had made more enemies on his way through the Holy Land; As we mentioned in the first entry, after taking Acre, Richard had torn from the city walls the emblem of Duke Leopold of Austria, who considered himself disgraced and had since declared his hatred of the English king.
One last event had contributed to diminish the fame that his warrior conquests had earned him. In a characteristic gesture of the difficulties not only military but also political that the crusade entailed, arduous negotiations had been held between the Christian leaders to decide who would be appointed king of Jerusalem if the city was taken. Philip of France supported Conrad of Montferrat, while Richard opted for Guy of Lusignan. Well, Conrad died after being attacked by two members of the sect of assassins in Tire in April 1192, but word soon spread that Richard was the one behind the death of the rival of his candidate for the throne of Jerusalem. .
The sum of all these circumstances meant that, as we have said, Ricardo's return trip to Europe was fraught with difficulties. Richard set sail in October 1192, but difficult sea conditions forced him to land in Istria and continue his journey overland. In November 1192, while crossing the territories of Duke Leopold of Austria, he was recognized and taken prisoner. Leopold in turn proceeded to deliver Richard to his sovereign, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, who locked the English king in Hagenau Castle and demanded a large ransom to free his prisoner.
Both Felipe de Francia and above all Juan sin Tierra reacted with great joy to the news and tried to get Enrique to keep Ricardo captive. Furthermore, John paid homage to Philip as sovereign lord of the Plantagenet possessions in France and agreed to marry Alice, the king's sister rejected by Richard.
However, despite being imprisoned, Richard managed to maneuver to straighten things out in his country and managed to have Hubert Walter, his companion in the adventure in the Holy Land, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor. Walter was able to counteract the maneuvers of Juan sin Tierra to seize the crown and with the invaluable help of Eleanor of Aquitaine he managed to squeeze noblemen, merchants, clergy and the English people in general until he obtained the amount of ransom required by Henry VI to give Ricardo back his freedom.
What happened once the Lionheart managed to return to England is far from the legends we have seen and read in the movies and novels of Ivanhoe and Robin Hood. Richard did not return to England incognito nor did he spend a month touring the country looking for allies to recover his crown and finding out firsthand about the state of his Saxon subjects in order to remedy the injustices they suffered.
Richard set foot in Sandwich on March 20, 1194 and immediately went to London, a city he arrived three days later and through which he walked in all his splendor to make it clear that he was back and that he was going to retake the reins from the country. From there he traveled to Winchester where he took up an old Norman custom consisting of a ceremony resembling a second coronation and wearing his crown and sword he paraded through the city.
Opposition to Richard in England was limited to a group of nobles loyal to John the Landless at Tickhill and Nottingham castles, who were not too difficult to defeat. Once order was restored in England, Ricardo set out to settle accounts with Felipe de Francia and Juan sin Tierra. Leaving Hubert Walter in charge of the country and of raising the necessary funds for his new campaign, he set sail for France on May 12, 1194. He never set foot on English soil again.
In the first place he called to order his brother Juan de el, who came to apologize to him in Normandy. Despite the problems his brother had caused him, Ricardo limited himself to giving his brother a brief slap on the ear, blaming his actions on the fact that he was surrounded by bad advisers, and forgiving Juan. It seems that behind this generous attitude of Ricardo was the wise advice of his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine. Ricardo had no offspring nor was he expected to because he did not live with his wife, Berenguela, of hers; Juan sin Tierra was, together with Arturo de Brittany (son of their brother, Godofredo, who died in 1186), the only heir to the throne of England and the rest of the Plantagenet possessions. The relationship between Juan sin Tierra and Arturo de Brittany was destined to end tragically… but that's another story.
From that moment Ricardo dedicated all his efforts to reconquer the possessions that had been taken from him by Philip of France. Here the figure of the warrior Lionheart reappeared, who had recovered a large part of these territories when on March 26, 1199 he was wounded by an arrow while examining the defenses of the castle of Chalus-Chabrol. The wound was not well healed and got worse; ten days later Ricardo Corazón de León died as a result of gangrene. Thus ended the story of one of the most famous kings in history.
By way of conclusion, giving an answer and explaining the title of this series of entries, we can say that Richard was the paradigm of the medieval warrior king who earned his fame fighting in the front line of combat both in France and in the Holy Land, facing Saladin and holding for a while longer the Christian domains of Ultramar.
However, from the point of view of the history of England, Richard was by no means one of the monarchs who have left the most mark:he only spent six months of his ten-year reign in the country, a good part of which he dedicated to squeeze his subjects to finance his campaigns in France and the Holy Land and left a complex succession situation at his death. He felt more attached to his possessions in French territory, which was also the language in which he expressed himself (although it is possible that he had some notions of English) and at his death he asked that his heart be buried in Rouen and his body in Fontevrault.