Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade - Research Paper Example

Overview of Richard the Lionheart Richard the Lionheart, or King Richard I, was born on September 8, 1157 and died April 6, 1199. He was the King of England from July 6, 1189 until his death ten years later. King Richard also ruled as the Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Gascony, was the Lord of Ireland Cyprus, and the Count of Anjou, Main, and Nantes. Though King of England, King Richard spent very little time in England, preferring to live in the southwest of France. He did not know English, but was otherwise very educated and spent a lot of his time writing poetry in French. When he was only sixteen years old, King Richard was already commanding his own army against his father, King Henry II (McLynn, 2008). King Richard’s early military experience is hardly surprising as he had been known to be chivalrous and courageous, which had been his claim to fame as opposed to his royal statuses. His political and military abilities allowed him to be one of the most successful military men as well as one of the most revered England kings. It was because of his excellence in his leading the military that he was given the nickname of Richard the Lionheart. His reputation as a great warrior and military leader was what prompted fans and followers to give him this name. King Richard was very concerned about his reputation as a noble, valiant man. When he was crowned king in 1189, he barred Jews and women from the ceremony. Jewish leaders brought gifts to the king, but they were abused and mistreated by King Richard’s courtiers. A rumor was spread that King Richard had ordered all Jews to be murdered and a massacre ensued. To protect his stance and reputation, King Richard ordered executions on those that had mistreated the Jewish people at the ceremony. From that moment forward, King Richard was more civil to the Jews. This was yet another example of King Richard’s nobility to his people, and his needs to fight for what he believed in. The Third Crusade The Third Crusade, also known as the Kings’ Crusade, was fought during 1189-1192. During this battle, European leaders made attempts to reclaim the Holy Land from Saladin, who had captured Jerusalem in 1187 (Reston, 2002). Those in Jerusalem had no choice but to surrender and allow Saladin to make himself and his people at home. It had been widely believed during that time that the Christians should be the ones to claim the Holy Land, not the Muslims who felt that they were entitled to it. The Second Crusade had been a failure, seeing downfall after downfall, but later prompted Henry II of England and Philip II of France to end their own conflicts with each other to begin a new Crusade; Henry ended up dying in 1189, putting Richard the Lionheart in command of the English contingent. After discovering what had taken place in Jerusalem, thousands of men gathered themselves to form the army to fight yet another crusade. Armed with their weapons and the Christian cross, the armies and their leaders made their way towards Jerusalem. Pumped up by the oncoming battle, armies charged towards their enemies with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who was leading one of the larger military groups, drowned as his large army crossed the Anatolia. This caused the majority of the military men to turn around and return to their homes. By the time the armies reached their destination, they were severely lacking in men. Morale was not high. A total of 600,000 men were present for the Third Crusade on the side of England and France. Despite all that Saladin did to prevent the armies from breaking into his newly acquired fortress, he still fell as the English and French forced the place to surrender. Aside from the capture of Acre, not much else had been accomplished by these military men. However, due to the constant arguing of Kings Philip and Richard, they were unable to follow up with their initial success. King Philip ended up returning to his home, leaving King Richard to carry out the rest of the battle. Richard the Lionheart and the Third Crusade Though Richard the Lionheart was not originally supposed to help take control of the armies, he rose to the occasion magnificently when the need was made known, which only helped to exemplify the reasons as to why he had received his nickname to begin with. However, prior to actually fighting in the Crusade, Richard first played in role in raising the funds needed as a means of aiding his effort with the war by imposing a Saladin tithe tax on England. He made sure that he was part of the war from the beginning. Although Richard the Lionheart showed bravery in regard to the war, it was widely believed that he had been eager to fight only because it would get him out of England, a country that he despised. Kings Philip and Richard had gotten along well enough to achieve some degree of the Crusade. The battle at Acre, unfortunately, was as far as they had gotten before Philip became irritated by Richard and left to go back home. This did not sway Richard the Lionheart; indeed, he kept fighting, determined to finish the job that he had started, regardless of who he had helping him in his quest. Although Acre had been properly captured by Philip and Richard, it quickly became clear that Saladin was not going to pay the terms of the treaty at Acre. To show how much he meant business, Richard had the entire troop that was guarding the city and, in turn, Saladin, massacred in complete view of Saladin’s camp (Nicolle, 2005). In this Richard the Lionheart killed two birds with one stone: he made his point and stance quite clear to Saladin, and he cut down the protection that was surrounding Saladin. Women and children were also killed during the massacre, further increasing the fact that clearly Richard the Lionheart meant business. After the capture of Acre and the desertion of King Philip, Richard the Lionheart set his eyes on Jerusalem, his next point of attack. Richard and his troops began to make their way towards the city of Jaffa, the place that he would launch his next great attack at Jerusalem. Unfortunately, on September 7, 1191, only thirty miles outside of Jaffa, Saladin went after and successfully attached Richard’s army. Saladin made attempts to bring Richard’s forces out by luring them as this would make it easier to get rid of the troops. Richard the Lionheart, however, was prepared for anything and everything, and maintained the formations of his troop and his position until reinforcements could come. When they did arrive, they attached Saladin from the right, while another group came in from the left. Due to his quick thinking and bravery, Richard was able to win the battle. After capturing and setting up his new headquarters in Jaffa, Richard the Lionheart started the negotiations with Saladin through Saladin’s brother Al-Adil. Unfortunately, the negotiations failed, mainly due to the fact that part of the negotiations dealt with Al-Adil marrying Richard’s sister Joan. After the failed negotiations, Richard the Lionheart continued his battle to Ascalon. In July of 1192, Saladin made a fresh attack on Jaffa, capturing the city and thousands of men and inhabitants. As an odd twist of events, Saladin ended up losing control over his armies, who were still upset by the massacre at Acre that Richard had put them through. Many people claimed that Saladin demanded the people of Jaffa to protect themselves until he was able to regain control of his army. Not too long after this fresh attack and capture, Richard the Lionheart returned on a ship but made no attempts to dock as he did not know what was taking place. After being told of the situation by a priest that swam to the ship, Richard prepared yet another troop, a smaller one of only fifty-five soldiers, and made his way to Jaffa. With only his small army, Richard was able to re-capture the city. The final battle between Richard and Saladin took place in August of the same year. Richard, unsurprisingly, came out as the victor. The following month finally saw a finalized treaty between Richard and Saladin, one that kept Jerusalem under the control of the Muslim population. Part of the treaty would also allowed unarmed Christian travelers to visit the city. After these negotiations were made, Richard returned back home to England at the beginning of October. Conclusions Richard the Lionheart is still considered to be one of the most amazing and successful military leaders. For every battle that was thrown at him, he countered it with intelligence and bravery, all of which helped him to successfully achieve all of his battles. Though he was not thought to be the best king that England had ever seen, nobody could deny the skills and bravery that he had on the battlefield. There was never a warrior like him after him; especially in our modern era, where militaries and armies depend more on technology than on old-fashioned intelligence, quick-thinking, and bravery. Though King Richard was given the nickname of Lionheart prior to the Third Crusade, he really lived up to his name during the Crusade. He did not allow anything to get in his way. Especially during the final battle, during which he only had fifty-five men behind him, and he was unprepared for what was taking place, he was still able to take down Saladin without much difficulty. His greatest enemy during his time had been Saladin, yet he never let his opponent get the better of him. It was because of his confident, intelligent outlook of the Crusade that he was able to lead his troops to victory after victory. King Richard the Lionheart not only won all of his battles, but he made it quite known throughout the country that he was not a force to be messed with. Victorious during his life, he remains to be the same long after his death. Review of Data-Collecting Process The methods used to collect the data for this paper were reading, doing research via the Internet, and taking notes of all that I read that I could make use of for the topic. The process of data-collecting, especially the note-taking, proved to be quite useful as I was able to keep track of all the information that I was finding. This allowed me to decide what information was or was not relevant to the topic. Furthermore, by looking to various sources for various books, I was able to gather enough information that would help me not only make my point in the paper, but to inform readers of the topic if they were not already familiar with it. Works Cited McLynn, Frank. Richard and John: Kings at War. New York, NY: De Capo Press, 2008. Nicolle, David. The Third Crusade: Richard the Lionheart, Saladin, and the Struggle for Jerusalem. Colchester, United Kingdom: Osprey Publishing, Limited, 2005. Reston, James. Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. New York, NY: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2002. Read More