King Richard the LionHeart!

Hi readers!

Yay! First post, but where should I start? At the start? Nah, that idea is so old, lets jump forward a little to a story about: King Richard the LionHeart.

Alright guys, but before we jump in, turn kids mode on!
History: Kids Mode.

Richard I the Lion Heart

Who was Richard the Lion Heart?

Not many of us know the real truth about him, apart from, okay, fine. Countless legends and songs.

But who was he really? Lets check out his life!

Richard I was born on the sixth of September, 1157, in a fortress called Beaumont Place, 

Oxford. His parents were Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was a pretty good baby I guess, no one really knows. But on July 6, 1189, when he turned 31 years old, he ascended to the throne.

Of course, as you can expect, he did lots of good deeds and made the people happy, and that’s why they added ‘Lion Heart’ to his name.

But Richard didn’t just want to stay in one place, being a good king, he wanted to explore, to be adventurous, he wanted to travel.

And of course, what better way to do all those three things at once than to go on a crusade?

Richard gathered lots of money, he said he would sell the whole of London for the crusade if he could only find someone to buy it!

Soon, it was time to go and  he left a good and trusty friend, William Longchamp, in charge while he was gone. With all that done, Richard set off in 1189, the same year he was enthroned.

Back in England, everyone missed Richard, well, except for one particular person, who was, most ironically, John, his own brother!

Behind every villain is a backstory, and John had one too. Because, going with the nickname trend of that era, the people of the country nicknamed him too. They called him… John Lackland.

Well, that might not seem so bad today, but Lackland literally meant that he LACKED LAND.

And he did.

So you can see why John wasn’t bawling all over the place when his brother left, he knew it was a chance, and opportunity.

And of course, he took it.

On 1191, William Longchamp fell from his power, and John Lackland very kindly self-appointed himself to rule while Richard was gone.

The people hated him as much as they loved Richard, because he took money from the lords.

That wasn’t much of a problem left alone if you weren’t a lord, but the lords, now finding themselves without money, took money from the people. And of course by people I mean townsfolk, ordinary people like you and me a thousand years ago.

Somewhere around this time a man called Robin Hood (Who, as far as I know, is 60% legend) started springing up and getting back the money of the villagers from the lords and barons.

Soon, people got kinda mad at John and they made him sign what is known as the Magna Carta.

Which is basically a law in which the leader (king, president, emperor etc. etc.) has to agree not to fine or put a person in prison for an unimportant or no reason. So, if you were a king, couldn’t punish a guy for, say, taking your stuffed elephant 20 years ago.

John had to sign it, but he still did more bad stuff secretly, so the people weren’t entirely satisfied.

Let’s get back to Richard now.

Richard, king of England, the Lion Heart and most brave of his time….. Was in trouble.

It all started when he had a tiny argument with the King of France. It soon turned into a BIG problem and the King of France left without even saying Au Revoir. Ahem, sorry, goodbye.

Alone with no one but the duke of Austria and 1,000 men or so, Richard got a little bit… prideful.

He told the duke of Austria that he had no right to fly his banner next to his, after all, he was only a duke and Richard was king!

The Duke of Austria refused, again and again. So what did Richard do? He had a little huddle with his men, and told them to, at the stroke of midnight, throw the duke’s banner into the mud.

The duke left angrily, and I don’t blame him, I mean, who would stay after something like that happens?

Richard moved on, when he reached Jerusalem, he was blocked by Saladin’s army, Richard tried to get past them, but nothing would work.

Richard, I suppose, had nothing much to do but to keep looking for a break in security, which never came.

Soon, though, our king got news that John, his own brother, was taking over his land, so he jumped into action, rushing home to save his country.

Being anxious to go home and all, he decided to go through a shortcut through Austria, and who did he bump into there? Yep, the duke of Austria, and our duke here wasn’t too happy to see him, so he gave Richard a not so warm welcome, locking him into a dungeon at the top off a really tall tower.

Thankfully, one of Richard’s friends, called Blondel, missed him, so he went out in a search for Richard in a most peculiar way, he walked around the dungeons and fortresses, singing an old English folk song, one day, when he was tiring out, he sat under a tall tower (Can you think of anything here?) and sang the song absentmindedly…

Suddenly, the 2^nd verse was sung back!

Blondel jumped up, and sang the 3^rd line, and the 4^th line was floating down faintly from the tower!
Blondel knew it was Richard, and he rushed to the duke of Austria to ask for a ransom price.

Seeing the sudden advantage, the duke named his price: 150,000 marks! In today’s money, that’s 17.4 million dollars!

Blondel gathered money from all the people who were longing for Richard to come back (Which was a lot)

In 1195, Richard came back, and saved his people from John.

Soon, though, Richard left again to war with France, there, he was fatally wounded in a little town called Chalus, and was buried in Limousin, France, on April 6, 1199, aged 41 years 6 months, and 39 days.

He only reigned for 9 years (Well 9 years, 8 months, and 30 days) but lots of legends live on. Some are true, and some aren’t, but every legend says, that Richard was rightfully named, Richard the Lionheart.

 Alright! That was one cool story, just so you guys know, this story, (And all the others that are gonna be posted) are written by yours truly (aka ME!) Well, now that this story is done, lets go ahead and wait for the next one!