History Spotlight, 3/25

King Richard "Coeur de Lion" I of England proves why arrogance doesn't equal immortality on this day in 1199 when he catches a crossbow bolt to the neck. If you've seen The Lion in Winter or any of the various flavors of Robin Hood, you know the drill: Richard had been off beating on the Muslims in the Holy Land for a while, leaving England (which was much larger in those days and encompassed a big chunk of France) under the rule of his brother, John. Like the Steward of Gondor, John wasn't really the king, but ran things in the king's name. Unlike the Steward of Gondor, John wasn't at all shy about trying to have his brother declared dead and have himself made king.

When Richard returned from the Crusades, he wasn't overly impressed with his younger brother. Not that he was ever impressed with him - the depiction of their relationship in Lion in Winter is pretty much spot on. He wound up publicly forgiving him in order to present a unified family to the people.

While John was pretending to run England and Richard was pretending to run the Holy Land, France had been eying England's holdings on the Continent. Quite frankly, they had a point. "Why should England, separated by 21 miles of the treacherous English Channel be running land that rightfully belongs to us?" Well, it's hard to argue with that. As for Richard, he felt that England was the rump state and that he was rightfully the king of France (all of it). After all, the Plantagenets were of French stock, mostly spoke French and saw the holdings in England as merely a ready source of cash and cannon fodder (except they didn't have cannons back then, but you get my point).

King Richard of England and King Phillip of France had been good friends since they were kids. In fact, if you want to go by The Lion in Winter, they were much, much more than friends, although most historians have refused to comment on that. In any event, they were pals and the spat over who got to run France was to be their undoing.

Richard had a fortress in Normandy named (and no, I'm not kidding) "The Saucy Castle," a better name for a gay bar I could not have come up with. That doesn't have anything to do with the story, but I wanted to bring it up.

Richard won several important victories over Phillip, but like most Plantagenets, in victory he got cocky and cruel. During Lent, he went on a rampage, burning, looting and generally pillaging his way through the French country side. He heard a rumor about one little castle at Chalus-Chabrol that was supposed to hold a huge cache of Roman gold that the peasants were keeping secret. He laid siege to the castle and demanded that the gold (which didn't exist) be turned over to him. On the morning of March 25, 1199 he was walking the perimeter, inspecting the work of the siege brigade. Occasionally, one of the defenders would take a shot at him, but he felt he was safely out of range. He wasn't. A crossbowman got in a lucky shot and hit Richard in the collar bone - right in that meaty section between your neck and your arm. Antiseptic medicine being completely nonexistent, the wound quickly became gangrenous and Richard died on April 6th. Prior to his death, he generously pardoned the boy who had shot him and let him go with a hundred shillings. After Richard's death, his forces were not so generous. They rounded the boy up and had him flayed alive.