Richard+The+Lionheart+2016

Richard the Lionheart.

Richard the Lionheart was a fascinating man. Most famous for being the rich and famous king of England from the years 1189 to 1199, He was born in Oxford England and had lived most of his life ruling at least one kingdom or another. He was brought up mostly living with Eleanor of Aquitaine after his parents divorced but was still close with his father King Henry II of England, even helping him by taking control of his own army at the age of 16 to help put down a rebellion against his father. Throughout his whole 41 years alive, he spent most of it at war in the crusades. Even though Richard the Lionheart was most famous for being the king of England, that is only a slight fraction of what he had done. He ruled many places in his relativley short life including Normandy, in the north of France and Brittany. He was also equally as famous for being a great warrior. He fought a large campaign in the Crusades and opening peace talks and made huge advances towards the Crusaders ultimate goal of capturing Jerusalem. Although he never did capture the holy city in his fight against the Muslim leader, Saladin he still shortened the war of the Crusades. There is no doubt that Richard had many fantastic qualities, as well as many bad ones. He was a military mastermind, and politically talented in many ways; yet incredibly foolish in others, and unwilling to give way to the ideas and opinions of others. He loved his family, but behaved ruthlessly to his enemies. He was revered by his most worthy rival, Saladin, and respected by the Emperor Henry, but hated by many who had been his friends, especially King Philip. He was often careless of his own safety: the wound which killed him would not have even happened, or at least barely wounded him, or not have been inflicted at all if he had armored himself. Even through all of this, he changed France so much. If it were not for him France would have probably been invaded in the crusades and many military leaders throughout the world would have one less man to look up to for inspiration.