Why is Richard, the Lionheart?

Richard Lionheart, apparently one of England's bravest and greatest kings. We all seem to know his name but do we really know who this famous king was? And how did he get that nickname? Richard Lionheart ruled England from the 3rd of September 1189 to the 6th of April 1199. A military leader, courageous, chivalrous and basically all the things that lions became to symbolise. It is said that he gained this name during his years as Duke of Accra when he made a name for himself quelling unrest of his dukedom. Rightly it was said that he was named by the French, Richard Coeur de Lion which eventually turned into the English Lionheart. So even before he was king Richard had gained his nickname. At the same time his contemporaries did acknowledge that he was a slave to sin, lust, pride, greed and cruelty. Richard Lionheart became to be an amalgamation of both king and knight. A brave soldier, a great crusader and won many battles over in Jerusalem. But let's backtrack a little. How did he become king? Richard was the son of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. They had a tumultuous marriage and Queen Eleanor spent most of it actively plotting against the king. They had many children together but we don't have all day. So you've got Henry the young king heir to the throne of England, Richard who was Duke of Aquitaine thanks to his mother and Geoffrey was Duke in Brittany. And we have John, he got to be Lord of Ireland. During the revolt of 1174 these lot joined together against dear old dad and suddenly John became the favourite. Henry died, Geoffrey died and then it was down to two. Now that Richard was heir to the throne tensions remained between father and son as Henry asked Richard to pass on the dukedom of Aquitaine to little bro John. He refused because that was his home, those were his people and that was where he was leader. He swore loyalty to the king of France Philip II who went to battle together against his own father. When his father died in 1189 Richard became king of England Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou as well as Duke of Aquitaine. Almost immediately after being crowned Richard took up a crusade to the Holy Land but first he made sure to clean out the treasury to raise money before he left in 1190. Richard grew his reputation as wild and impulsive but a great fighter. In fact on the way to the Holy Land Richard's fleet was wrecked off of Cyprus. After his army was badly treated by the residents Richard went back to Cyprus to fight it out and depose their leader adding another title to his claim, Lord of Cyprus. During his crusade his subject received names of his courage, daring deeds and success. However in reality after three years of fighting he still had not succeeded in his crusade and ended up signing a peace deal. During his journey back home Richard was shipwrecked and captured by the Duke of Austria and then handed over to the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI who was pretty angry at Richard's family for some family drama. A ransom was demanded for his release of £100,000 of silver. England had to painstakingly gather this money and don't forget that Richard himself had dived pretty deep into the treasury to leave in the first place. The people of England themselves were heavily taxed to make up for it. Richard was released after being imprisoned for just under two years and he eventually returned to England in March of 1194. When he arrived he was crowned again more just in the hopes that we would kind of sweep that whole captivity and ransom thing under the rug but he didn't stay in England for long. Whilst he was away his brother John had taken Normandy from right under his nose. Richard had to get it back so he left for France and in fact would never return to England again. It was during a battle besieging a castle in France that Richard was shot by a crossbow in the shoulder. The story goes that he sent for the archer who had shot him. The archer Bertram came to his bedside and Richard gave him a hundred shillings and set him free. Some sources say that despite his pardon the archer was still laid alive and then hanged. King Richard died from infection in the womb at 41 years old. The contemporaries would say the lion by the ant was slain. The throne passed to his brother John. The third crusade made him a popular king long after his death especially in times of religious struggles. Centuries later he also became a hero in romantic legends and this nickname continued somehow through the ages. A late medieval text called Richard Coeur de Lion tells a tale of the dashing Richard who tore the heart out of a lion his father had set upon him. You may also be familiar with Richard as the king mentioned frequently in the tales of Robin Hood. Since the 16th century the story of an outlaw during the reign of Richard I who was away on his crusade at the time as the king's evil brother John attempted to take power. Eventually his sins and missteps are forgotten and all that remained is his strong and patriotic nickname. Lions were popular in heraldry since the medieval ages because it represented bravery and courage. Eventually it became to symbolize England during Richard's reign and has begun to use the three lions in his coat of arms and seals. This became the classic coat of arms for English monarchs which seemingly points to him being a very patriotic king but in reality Richard could be perhaps the exact opposite. Richard really didn't care too much about England or being its king. Out of 10 years of his reign he spent less than six months total in England and he didn't actually know much English either. He once remarked that to him England was just a source of income to fund his war campaigns and that he would have sold the whole country if he could have found a buyer. Overall I think that Richard is the prime example of why we need to learn our history before interpreting these nicknames ourselves. Richard Lionheart as everyone presumes is a brave and noble king that England should be proud of but digging up the history a little bit I think we should reconsider how we think of Lionheart to be a good thing and perhaps just a bit of a reckless warrior who happened to have a crown on his head and access to all of our money. Thanks for watching let me know what other nicknames you want to know about and if you found this one as surprising as I did. Goodbye for now.