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Of Lion Hearts and Kings

You may remember that Robin Hood’s nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham, was largely a lackey of the mean King John, who had risen to power in the absence of the good King Richard, who had left England on a crusade. In some versions of the tale, Robin Hood and his men merrily await the advent of King Richard, whose return promises to bring justice and decency to their benighted neck of the woods.

One may debate the existence of Robin Hood himself, but there is no denying that British school children are still taught about the great King Richard, nicknamed Richard the Lion-heart.

The tale not told is that Robin Hood would have been waiting fruitlessly, as King Richard spent fewer than ten months of his ten year reign (1189 to 1199) in England, and no time after embarking on the crusade. Similarly, it would have been difficult for Robin and Richard to communicate with each other, as the king did not speak much English.

Richard the Lion-heart, or Richard Coeur-de-Lion, was a native French speaker who distained England, once claiming that he would gladly sell London if the price were right.

Richard’s mother was Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, who ruled over a vast territory of southern France west of Toulouse. When her marriage to Louis VII was annulled on grounds of consanguinity, she married Henry II of England, thus moving her lands from French to English rule.

Richard was the third of their eight children (three of whom became Kings) and at thirty years of age, in a wonderful act of Oedipal exuberance, conspired successfully with his mother to battle his father and seize the throne. His father, Henry II, died shortly thereafter. The deed done, Richard took his troops to Jerusalem to ‘save’ the city from the Turks. Although the sobriquet Coeur-de-Lion reflected his many successful battles, in the end Richard failed to capture that relentlessly embattled city.

He returned to southwest France, there to fight for land and power until his death at the age of forty-one. One of the most contested regions in which he battled was called the Quercy, an area that includes the historic medieval village of Saint Cirq Lapopie. Situated on a near-inaccessible bluff overlooking the gorgeous Rive Cele, the village and its denizens proudly claim that at least once, if not twice, Richard was rebuffed by the village archers.

Richard died just a few hours from the village. While walking the perimeter of the Castle of Chalus-Chabrol, he was struck in the shoulder by the bolt of an archer’s cross-bow. The shooter was captured but, as befits the narcissism of kings, Richard praised him for his aim and rewarded him a purse of shillings and his freedom. Alas, neither Richard nor the crossbowman could fulfill the happy ending. Richard soon died of gangrene from the wound, and the shooter was flayed and hanged.

(Our house in the village of Saint Cirq Lapopie was built in the time of Richard and, indeed, has an archer’s window overlooking the river. We named the house “Coeur de Lion”.)


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