The husband of the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of John and Richard the Lionheart, Henry’s action-packed reign gave rise to England’s position as a European power to be reckoned with.

Henry was a very young man when he was crowned, having been born just twenty-one years earlier in 1133. He was the son of Empress Matilda, William the Conqueror’s granddaughter, and Count Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, and had a legitimate claim to the throne of England through his mother’s line.

Stephen and Matilda

In fact, when her father Henry I died in 1135 Matilda vociferously voiced her own rights to the throne, only to see her cousin Stephen seize it for himself. Though no woman had ever ruled England, she refused to give up and launched a civil war to claim her birthright.

The reign of the unfortunate Stephen was dogged by the internal fighting known as “The Anarchy” and England was economically ruined by the constant ravages of war.

Much of Matilda’s support came from the south-west, and the young Henry was given his first taste of life in England in 1142 when he was sent to be tutored in Bristol. Meanwhile, his mother fought on, and famously escaped from the besieged castle of Oxford in 1141.

Henry’s first military escapade came at the staggeringly young age of 14, when he lead a band of mercenaries to ravage England’s east coast. It would be the first step of a long and illustrious military career.

Contemporary miniature of Henry’s mother, Empress Matilda, from the ‘Gospels of Henry the Lion’

Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Chroniclers describe Henry as red-haired, and handsome despite being short and famously scruffy. Though a highly intelligent and learned man, he was infamous for his terrible rages and even more threatening silences if things didn’t go his way.

Despite this, his charm and good humour are equally well attested, and even in his teens he had all the attributes to become an exceptional leader of men.

Henry and Louis

Geoffrey, an ambitious father, made Henry the Duke of Normandy in 1150, beginning a lifelong enmity with Louis, the King of France, a man who resented the growing power of Geoffrey’s Plantagenet dynasty. To add insult to injury, after Geoffrey died a year later the eighteen year-old Henry began an audacious marriage.

Louis’ Queen was the beautiful and intelligent Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman whose dowry included huge swathes of land in what is now southern France. After she failed to give him any children, the French King had the marriage annulled.

Just eight weeks later, however, the teenage Henry had seduced Eleanor and married her, in a move that was both shocking in its rudeness and its aggression, for Henry was now the owner of more French land than the King of France himself. And his ambitions, spurred on by his wife and mother, were only just beginning.

Coming to power and consolidation

1153 would prove to be the decisive year in Henry’s life, as he set sail through winter storms to England.

Though he could only spare a small force of mercenaries, his forces danced around King Stephen’s larger army until worsening weather caused a temporary truce. In that time Henry consolidated his hold on the north and enjoyed playing the part of King while the ageing Stephen fretted.

Luck would favour the younger man when Stephen’s eldest son Eustace suddenly died of an illness, and after the two rivals’ armies faced each other at Wallingford Castle, the exhausted King of England met with Henry and confirmed him as his heir.

Though the peace was precarious and there are theories of an attempted plot to murder Henry and put Stephen’s second son on the throne, the Plantagenet luck stayed with the young invader, for in October 1154 the King died aged 62.

Henry still had a huge amount to do, however. In England at that time much of the power rested with the Barons who had their own castles and private armies. In the lawless years of the anarchy many of them had declared de facto independence and began building new fortresses without royal permission as bases for their armies to harass rivals.

In addition, much of the country’s economy was in ruins and few expected the new and inexperienced King to adequately deal with the situation when Stephen had so conspicuously failed to do so. Henry however set about the kingship with a youthful energy which quickly healed his new kingdom.

King Stephen standing with a falcon, and King Henry II seated on his throne

Image Credit: British Library, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Holding court and smashing the Barons’ illegal castles with glee, Henry quickly became a popular monarch, particularly after forcing the Scottish and Welsh out of their English possessions which they had taken during the chaos of the Anarchy.

Unlike his mother, who had been often-derided for her arrogance, Henry took care to listen to the advice of the English Barons, ensuring that he had enough loyal men doing his bidding to keep the country in check.

He needed them. For Henry did not see himself as an Englishman. Less than a hundred years after the Norman Conquest, to him the English were an alien people to be ruled by their Norman-French overlords.

Though Henry was a fairly benign monarch, he believed that his destiny lay on the continent, the land of his ancestors and the scene of his endless quarrels with France.

One modern French historian has compared the situation in the 1150s with the Cold War, in that Henry and Louis were constantly meeting face to face in order to try and resolve the rowing tensions between them, whilst secretly trying to shift the balance of power in a favourable way.

Henry’s forays into semi-independent Brittany and Tolouse met with success, and in 1161 his rivalry with Louis finally exploded into fighting. After taking the city of Blois in an impressive siege, the King of England was in the ascendancy, and it took the intervention of the Pope to prevent further fighting.

Twenty years into his reign Henry would rule over England, much of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and almost all of the west of modern France. It is not for nothing that historians have come to christen his lands the “Angevin Empire.”

Empires, however, are notoriously difficult to run, and Henry’s dealt with the problem of ruling his extensive lands in a number of ways. Firstly, like the Romans before him, he took a relaxed approach to central control and generally allowed local feudal lords to do the hard business of ruling for him.

The House Plantagenet

Secondly, the governance of the Empire has been described as a “family affair,” with Matilda and Eleanor wielding huge influence. The later was left in charge of England on numerous occasions while the King was away, and was entrusted with much of the responsibility for her homeland of Aquitaine in the south of France.

Having such an ambitious and talented family was seen as a strength initially, particularly after Eleanor gave birth to a host of sons, but it would eventually prove to be Henry’s undoing.

The early years of the 1170s were eventful for the now middle-aged King. By 1173 he had already invaded Ireland, divided up his Empire between his sons and arranged the infamous murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. That year, however, everything fell apart, and family was at the center of it.

Henry’s eldest son of the same name had been chafing for years under his father’s rule, and when some of his castles in France were given to the King’s youngest son John his resentment burst into open rebellion.

Supported by a formidable coalition of France, Scotland, Flanders, his brothers and even his mother – whose relationship with the King had disintegrated – the younger Henry waged war on his own father for over a year.

13th-century depiction of Henry and his legitimate children: (left to right) William, Young Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan and John

Image Credit: Anonymus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Later years and downfall

Few Kings have ever had to face a bleaker situation with his own family against him and invasions on all sides, but Henry held off despair for long enough to defeat all the rebellions and reclaim his lordship over the Empire.

His life, however, could never be the same again. Eleanor was imprisoned, and all the King’s sons but his youngest John could never be fully trusted.

Embittered and resentful, the final years of his reign had him in a strong position but a state of acute misery and mistrust.

By the end of his life his eldest son, Richard, was once again in open rebellion. In hot French weather in 1189 the tired and ailing King met his son and acknowledged him, with some bitterness, as his heir.

Sick and perhaps tired of life, he died shortly after, to be succeeded by the man who would one day be known as the Lionheart, but who had showed little courage in his treatment of his own father.

Henry was not a perfect man. His temper, odd ways and distance as divinely ordained monarch ultimately turned his family against him, but few historians can contend that he was a fine King.

By the end of his reign, his more famous heir was able to leave a stable and prosperous Kingdom and lead the forces of England east to face Saladin and win renown across the world.

William the Marshal

Not many knights can claim to have served four consecutive English kings. None could have done so as well as William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. He is known for his military strength and his wise royal counsel.

By the age of 24, William had proven himself both a brave and capable knight, and in 1170 he became the guardian of Prince Henry, the eldest son of King Henry II.

Even after the young prince’s death, William continued to service Henry II. He fought alongside him in France, and served him loyally until Henry’s death in 1189.

While his king, Richard I, was off on crusade and then held hostage in Germany, William defended his throne. He helped drive William Longchamp into exile and prevented Richard’s younger brother Prince John from taking the crown.

After the death of Richard I, he then helped John to succeed his brother peacefully.

During his fight against the barons, William helped to counsel King John. He was an effective leader, and well respected. Before his death, John appointed Marshal protector of his nine-year-old son, the future Henry III, as well as regent of the kingdom during Henry’s minority.

This was a wise move on John’s behalf: Marshal was committed to ensuring the stability of the kingdom: he was victorious against a French invasion at Lincoln in 1217, and re-issued Magna Carta in the same year in an attempt to keep the peace between the crown and the barons.

King Arthur

There’s a very good chance you’ve heard of King Arthur, the legendary King of Camelot, and his Knights of the Round Table. His standing as perhaps the most famous knight in the world owes much to folklore of course, but Arthur is believed to be an actual historic figure who probably lived in the 5^th of 6^th century and led a resistance movement against invaders from Northern Europe.

Sadly, many of the details familiar from the myths and legends surrounding his story, much of which derives from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s imaginative History of the Kings of Britain in the 12th century, aren’t supported by evidence.

So we can’t confirm the existence of a magical sword called Excalibur. Sorry.

Richard the Lionheart

Richard I succeeded his father Henry II to become King of England in 1189 but spent only ten months of his decade-long reign in the country. The majority of his time on the throne was spent fighting abroad, most famously in the Third Crusade, where he earned a reputation as a brave and fierce knight and military leader.

Despite numerous famous victories in the Holy Land, Richard was unable to recapture Jerusalem. On his return to England he was captured by the Duke of Austria, who handed him over to the emperor Henry VI who held him for a huge ransom.

Richard spent less than a year of his reign in England, and showed little interest in his kingdom and its welfare: it was simply a source of funding for his crusading expeditions.

Richard spent the final years of his life doing what he most loved, fighting, and was mortally wounded by a crossbow bolt while besieging the castle at Chalus in France.

Edward the Black Prince

Likely named because he favoured black armour, Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, won fame on at the Battle of Crecy, a key battle in the Hundred years War’. Edward led the vanguard despite his tender years – he was just 16-years-old.

An 18th century imagining of Edward III with the Black Prince after the Battle of Crécy. Image credit: Royal Collection / CC.

He rose to fame as one of the original Knights of the Garter and won his most celebrated victory at the Battle of Poitiers (1356), before travelling to Spain where he a series of famous victories restored Peter of Castile to his throne. He also fought in Aquitaine before returning to London in 1371.

Despite his fame Edward never became king. He succumbed to a particularly violent bout of dysentry in 1376 – an ailment which had plagued him for many years. His only remaining son, Richard, became heir apparent to the crown, eventually succeeding his grandfather Edward III in 1377.

John of Gaunt

Despite inciting his son’s accession to the throne in Shakespeare, the real John of Gaunt was much more of a political peacemaker.

His main military experience came during the Hundred Years’ War, where he led troops as a commander in France from 1367-1374.

In 1371, John married Constance of Castile. He tried to exploit his wife’s claim to the kingdoms of Castile and Leon following their marriage: John travelled to Spain in 1386, but failed miserably and renounced his claim.

Following the death of his father, Edward III, John was an extremely influential figure during the minority of his nephew, the new King Richard II, and made significant efforts at keeping the peace between the crown and a group of rebellious nobles, led by the Earl of Gloucester and Henry Bolingbroke, John’s son and heir.

One of the wealthiest and most powerful men of his time, John of Gaunt died in 1399: he is widely regarded by many as the ‘father’ of English kings: descendants from his line ruled England solidly until the Wars of the Roses, and his great-granddaughter was Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor.

Henry ‘Hotspur’ Percy

Widely known as Harry Hotspur, Percy’s fame owes much to his inclusion in Shakespeare’s Henry IV and, indirectly, to the football club Tottenham Hotspur, which derives its name from the 14^th century’s most revered knight.

Hotspur was a member of the powerful Percy family and built his formidable reputation as a fighter from a young age, patrolling the Scottish borders with his father the Earl of Northumberland. He was knighted at just 13 and fought in his first battle a year later.

Hotspur played a significant part in the deposition of Richard II and the ascent to the throne of his replacement Henry IV, before falling out with the new King and taking up arms in rebellion. He died leading his rebel army into battle against royal forces at Shrewsbury at what some would deem the height of his fame. Although the new king Henry wept over his friend’s body, he had Percy posthumously declared a traitor and had his lands forfeited to the crown.

Joan of Arc

At the age of 18, Joan of Arc, the daughter of a poor tenant farmer, Jacques d’ Arc, led the French to a famous victory against the English at Orleans.

Her unlikely ascent to the role of military leader was driven by mystical visions which compelled her to seek an audience with the future Charles VII who, convinced of her holy destiny to expel the English and reclaim France, granted her a horse and armour.

She joined with French forces at the siege of Orleans where, after a long, hard battle they routed the English. It was a decisive victory that led to Charles being crowned King of France on July 18, 1429. Joan was at his side throughout the coronation.

The following year she was captured during a Burgundian assault at Compiègne and tried by a pro-English church court on the charges of witchcraft, heresy and dressing like a man. She was burned at the stake on the morning of May 30, 1431.

A posthumous retrial, ordered by Charles VII in 1456 and supported by Pope Callixtus III, found Joan to be innocent of all charges and declared her a martyr. 500 years later, she was canonised as a Roman Catholic Saint.

A miniature of Joan of Arc. Image credit: Public Domain.

John has always had a tough time from historians. The son and younger brother of famous warrior Kings – Henry II and Richard the Lionheart– he is best known for losing England’s Norman possessions to the French, going to war with his own barons and eventually being forced into signing the Magna Carta. The loss of the crown jewels merely added insult to injury. His depiction in the popular Robin Hood stories further cemented his reputation as Bad King John.

A troubled kingdom

By 1216 John had been on the throne for 17 years and faced widespread rebellion, which was supported by the Kings of Scotland and France. Earlier in the year Prince Louis of France landed unopposed in Kent, while the rebels held huge swathes of his Kingdom, including much of the east of England.

As a result in September 1216 John launched a campaign to retake these counties, marching to Cambridge before heading north to relieve a rebel siege of the castle at Lincoln. As John headed back south to King’s Lynn to gather supplies more bad news reached him – Scottish King Alexander II had invaded the north of England and was now heading south to link up with the French. In a desperate hurry John decided to retrace his steps north from King’s Lynn, in order to confront Alexander on his march towards London.

The Wash

John’s march involved crossing the Wash, a tidal estuary which contained quicksands and tidal whirlpools. Precisely what happened is unknown, but John was said to have lost at least part of his baggage train to the Wash, as well as several horses.

British school portrait of King John. Image credit: National Trust / CC.

The Crown Jewels

Our knowledge of the Crown Jewels prior to the 13th century is relatively hazy: there is little documentation or description, so precisely what was lost in somewhat unclear. It is known, however, that when Henry III was crowned in 1220, he used St Edward’s Crown, which was reportedly worn by Edward the Confessor over one hundred years earlier, so this piece of regalia at least was saved from a watery fate.

The modern day crown jewels primarily date back to the Restoration in 1661, with additional jewels and pieces that are older. The Black Prince’s Ruby, for example, was given to Edward (the Black Prince) by a Spanish prince in the 14th century, and has been worn into battle on helmets by various kings.

The so-called ‘Sword of Tristram’ was also lost – a ceremonial sword supposedly kept as regalia according to Angevin records. The last mention of it is in 1207.

John’s disastrous final days

The disaster which then unfolded must have seemed like the final straw to John, with every piece of news further dampening his spirits. A string of notable desertions amongst his followers around this time was prompted by John’s increasing clashing with the barons who had remained loyal to him.

The final nail in the coffin for the King was contracting dysentery in King’s Lynn, and as he headed north he grew steadily more ill, before finally dying at Newark castle on 18 October. He was 49 years old. Rumours of poison swirled on his death, with some saying he’d died from a ‘surfeit of peaches’, but the truth was far more mundane.

No trace of what was lost in the Wash was ever found, but the legend persists nonetheless.

John’s death was perhaps the best thing for his troubled kingdom. He was succeeded by his son, the future Henry III, who was just nine years old. As a result, the real power lay in the hands of the Lord Protector William Marshal, and immensely capable baron who won the civil war in 1217 with victories at Lincoln and Dover, and forced the invading French to renounce their claim to the English throne.

Frequently romanticised by historians fixated on her beauty, Eleanor demonstrated impressive political acumen and tenacity, influencing the politics, art, medieval literature and the perception of women in her age.

Here are 10 facts about the most remarkable woman in medieval history.

1. The exact circumstances of her birth are unknown

The year and location of Eleanor’s birth are not known precisely. She is believed to have been born around 1122 or 1124 in either Poitiers or Nieul-sur-l’Autise, in today’s south-western France.

Eleanor of Aquitaine as depicted on the window of Poitiers Cathedral (Credit: Danielclauzier / CC).

Eleanor was the daughter of William X, Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitiers. The duchy of Aquitaine was one of the largest estates in Europe – larger than those held by the French king.

Her father ensured that she was well educated in mathematics and astronomy, fluent in Latin and adept at the sports of kings such as hunting and equestrianism.

2. She was the most eligible woman in Europe

William X died in 1137 while on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, leaving his teenage daughter the title of Duchess of Aquitaine and with it a vast inheritance.

Within hours of the news of her father’s death reaching France, her marriage to Louis VII, son of the king of France, was arranged. The union brought the powerful house of Aquitaine under the royal banner.

Not long after the wedding, the king fell ill and died of dysentery. On Christmas Day that year, Louis VII and Eleanor were crowned King and Queen of France.

3. She accompanied Louis VII to fight in the Second Crusade

When Louis VII answered the pope’s call to fight in the Second Crusade, Eleanor persuaded her husband to allow her to join him as feudal leader of Aquitaine’s regiment.

Between 1147 and 1149, she travelled to Constantinople and then to Jerusalem. Legend has it that she disguised herself as an Amazon to lead troops into battle.

Louis was a weak and ineffectual military leader, and his campaign ultimately failed.

4. Her first marriage was annulled

Relations between the couple were strained; the two were a mismatched pair from the very start.

Effigy of Louis VII on his seal (Credit: René Tassin).

Louis was quiet and submissive. He was never meant to be king, and had led a sheltered life in the clergy until his older brother Philip’s death in 1131. Eleanor, on the other hand, was worldly and outspoken.

Rumours of an incestuous infidelity between Eleanor and her uncle Raymond, the ruler of Antioch, aroused Louis’ jealousy. Tensions only increased as Eleanor gave birth to two daughters but no male heir.

Their marriage was annulled in 1152 on the grounds of consanguinity – the fact that they were technically related as third cousins.

5. She married again to avoid being kidnapped

Eleanor’s wealth and power made her a target for kidnapping, which at the time was seen as a viable option for obtaining a title.

In 1152 she was kidnapped by Geoffrey of Anjou, but she managed to escape. The story goes that she sent an envoy to Geoffrey’s brother Henry, demanding that he marry her instead.

And so just 8 weeks after the dissolution of her first marriage, Eleanor was married to Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, in May 1152.

King Henry II of England and his children with Eleanor of Aquitaine (Credit: Public domain).

Two years later, they were crowned King and Queen of England. The couple had 5 sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor and Joan.

6. She was a powerful queen of England

Once married and crowned queen, Eleanor refused to stay idle at home and instead travelled extensively to give the monarchy a presence across the kingdom.

While her husband was away, she played a key role in directing government and ecclesiastical affairs of the realm and particularly in managing her own domains.

7. She was a great patron of the arts

The obverse of Eleanor’s seal (Credit: Acoma).

Eleanor was a great patron of the two dominant poetic movements of the time – the courtly love tradition and the historical matière de Bretagne, or “legends of Brittany”.

She was instrumental in turning the court of Poitiers into a centre of poetry, inspiring the works of Bernard de Ventadour, Marie de France and other influential Provencal poets.

Her daughter Marie would later become patron to Andreas Cappellanus and Chretien de Troyes, one of the most influential poets of courtly love and the Arthurian Legend.

8. She was placed under house arrest

After years of Henry II’s frequent absences and countless open affairs, the couple separated in 1167 and Eleanor moved to her homeland in Poitiers.

After her sons tried unsuccessfully to revolt against Henry in 1173, Eleanor was captured while attempting to escape to France.

She spent between 15 and 16 years under house arrest in various castles. She was permitted to show her face at special occasions but was otherwise kept invisible and powerless.

Eleanor was only fully freed by her son Richard after Henry’s death in 1189.

9. She played a key role in Richard the Lionheart’s reign

Even before her son’s coronation as King of England, Eleanor travelled all over the kingdom to forge alliances and foster goodwill.

Funeral effigy of Richard I in Rouen Cathedral (Credit: Giogo / CC).

When Richard set out on the Third Crusade, she was left in the charge of the country as regent – even taking charge in negotiations for his release after he was taken prisoner in Germany on his way home.

After Richard’s death in 1199, John became King of England. Although her official role in English affairs ceased, she continued to wield considerable influence.

10. She outlived all her husbands and most of her children

Eleanor spent her last years as a nun at Fontevraud Abbey in France, and died in her eighties on 31 March 1204.

She outlived all but two of her 11 children: King John of England (1166-1216) and Queen Eleanor of Castile (c. 1161-1214).

Effigy of Eleanor of Aquitaine in Fontevraud Abbey (Credit: Adam Bishop / CC).

Her bones were interred in the abbey’s crypt, however they were later exhumed and dispersed when the abbey was desecrated during the French Revolution.

Upon her death, the nuns of Fontevrault wrote:

She was beautiful and just, imposing and modest, humble and elegant

And they described her as a queen

who surpassed almost all the queens of the world.

What the nickname “Bad King John” lacks in originality, it makes up for in accuracy. For that one word best sums up how John’s life and reign panned out: bad.

A troubled start

When we examine the bare bones of John’s biography, this is hardly a surprise. The youngest son of Henry II, he caused plenty of trouble before going anywhere near his father’s crown. He was known in his youth as Jean sans Terre (or “John Lackland”) on account of his want of a landed inheritance.

Henry’s attempt to carve out something for John to govern in central France was the cause of armed warfare between father and sons.

John’s poor behaviour was evident when he was sent to Ireland to enforce English royal prerogatives. Upon his arrival, he provoked the locals by needlessly mocking them and – according to one chronicler – tugging their beards.

It was during his brother Richard the Lionheart’s reign that John’s behaviour became actively perfidious, however. Barred from England during Richard’s absence on the Third Crusade, John nevertheless interfered in the politics of the realm.

When Richard was captured and held for ransom on his way home from the Holy Land, John negotiated with his brother’s captors to keep Richard in prison, giving away lands in Normandy that his father and brother had fought hard to win and keep.

In 1194, Richard was released from prison and John was fortunate that the Lionheart decided to pardon him out of piteous contempt rather than ruin him, as would have been quite justifiable.

The Lionheart’s death

Richard I was the foremost soldier of his generation.

Richard’s sudden death during a minor siege in 1199 put John in contention for the Plantagenet crown. But although he seized power successfully, he never held it securely.

While Henry II and Richard I were the foremost soldiers of their generations, John was a middling commander at best and had the rare ability not only to alienate his allies but also to drive his enemies into one another’s arms.

Within five years of becoming king, John had lost Normandy – the bedrock of his family’s sprawling continental empire – and this disaster defined the rest of his reign.

His hapless and dizzyingly expensive attempts to regain his lost French possessions put an intolerable fiscal and military burden on English subjects, especially those in the north. These subjects had no sense of personal investment in winning back what the king had lost through his own ineptitude and they felt increasing resentment at having to bear the cost.

Meanwhile, John’s desperate need to fill his war-chest also contributed to a long and damaging dispute with Pope Innocent III.

A regrettably present king

King John granted the Magna Carta on 15 June 1215, only to renege on its terms shortly after. This romanticised 19th century painting shows the king ‘signing’ the Charter – which never actually happened.

Not helping matters was the fact that John’s permanent presence in England (after more than a century of more or less absentee kingship since the Norman Conquest) exposed English barons to the full and disagreeable force of his personality.

The king was described by contemporaries as an unchivalrous, cruel and mean-spirited cheapskate. These traits would have been tolerable in a monarch who protected his greatest subjects and their property and provided evenhanded justice to those who sought it. But John, alas, did quite the opposite.

He persecuted those closest to him and starved their wives to death. He murdered his own nephew. He managed to upset those whom he needed in a bewildering variety of ways.

It was no surprise in 1214 when defeat at the calamitous battle of Bouvines was followed by rebellion at home. And it was no surprise in 1215 when John, having granted the Magna Carta, proved himself as faithless as ever and reneged on its terms.

When the king succumbed to dysentery during the civil war he had helped create it was taken as read that he had gone to Hell – where he belonged.

From time to time it becomes fashionable for historians to try and rehabilitate John – on the grounds that he inherited a nightmarish task in keeping together the territories his overachieving father and brother had united; that he has been wrongly defamed on the evidence of uptight monastic chronicles whose authors disapproved of his abuses of the English church; and that he was a decent accountant and administrator.

These arguments almost always ignore the loud and near-universal judgment of contemporaries who thought him an appalling man and, more importantly, a lamentable king. Bad he was, and bad should John remain.

Dan Jones is the author of Magna Carta: The Making and Legacy of the Great Charter, published by Head of Zeus and available to buy from Amazon and all good book shops.

He is often portrayed as the crusading “goodie” against his “baddie” brother (the aptly nicknamed Bad King John) – an image solidified in recent times by Hollywood, including by Disney’s famous cartoon version of the Robin Hood tale.

In reality, however, Richard the Lionheart was a far more complex character and certainly no angel. Here are 10 facts about him.

1. He was engaged at just nine years old

Richard’s father, Henry II of England (he was also the Count of Anjou and the Duke of Normandy), arranged for his nine-year-old son to become betrothed to French King Louis VII’s daughter Princess Alais, also aged nine. But the wedding never actually went ahead. Instead, Henry kept Alais as a prisoner for 25 years, part of which time he also used her as his mistress.

2. But he never had any children

Berengaria of Navarre is depicted here as showing alarm for Richard while he is away on Crusade.

Richard showed little interest in women and his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was the only woman to whom he showed much consideration. After ascending the throne at the age of 31 without a wife, Richard eventually married three years later.

But his marriage to Berengaria of Navarre was strategic – he wanted to obtain control of the Kingdom of Navarre – and the two spent very little time together, with no children being born.

3. He tried to depose his own father more than once

Henry died in July 1189, leaving the English throne and control of the Angevin Empire (which consisted of all of England, half of France and parts of Ireland and Wales) to Richard. But it wasn’t because Richard was his favourite son. In fact, the Lionheart is seen by many as having tormented his father to a premature death.

Just two days before Henry died, forces loyal to Richard and Philip II of France had defeated the king’s army at Ballans. It was only after this victory that Henry named Richard his heir apparent. And it wasn’t the first time Richard had tried to depose his father. He had also joined his brothers, Henry the Young and Geoffrey, in a revolt against him in 1173.

4. His chief ambition as king was to join the Third Crusade

This goal was prompted by the Muslim leader Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem in 1187. Three years later, Richard departed for the Middle East, having raised the funds for his trip through the sale of sheriffdoms and others offices. He finally arrived in the Holy Land in June 1191, a month before the fall of Acre.

Despite his legacy as the great “Crusader King”, Richard’s record during the Third Crusade was a bit of a mixed bag. Although he oversaw some major victories, Jerusalem – the Crusade’s main objective – always eluded him.

After a year of stalemate between the opposing sides, Richard agreed a truce with Saladin in September 1192, and began his journey home the following month.

5. He tried to sneak home in disguise

Richard’s return to England was far from plain sailing, however. During the Crusade he had managed to fall out with his Christian allies Philip II of France and Leopold V, Duke of Austria, and, as a result, found himself facing a trip through hostile lands to get home.

The king tried to travel through Leopold’s territory in disguise, but was captured and handed over to the German emperor, Henry VI, who then held him for ransom.

6. His brother John negotiated to keep him imprisoned

John, who had set himself up as an alternative ruler of England – complete with his own royal court – in Richard’s absence, negotiated with his brother’s captors to keep him imprisoned. When Richard finally returned home, he proved remarkably forgiving of John, deciding to pardon – rather than punish – him.

7. His reputation as “Good King Richard” began as a PR campaign

When Henry VI ransomed Richard for the weighty sum of 150,000 marks, his formidable mother, Eleanor, launched a PR campaign to raise the funds for his release. In an effort to persuade the citizens of the Angevin Empire to stump up, Richard was portrayed as a benevolent monarch.

Richard portrayed as the great Crusader.

8. He was crowned for a second time upon his return to England

Following the ransom payment, Richard was released in February 1194. But that wasn’t the end of his problems. The king now faced a threat to his authority and independence from those who had forked up the money to release him. So, in order to reinforce his position as England’s monarch, Richard immediately returned home and was crowned king once again.

9. But he left England again almost straight away

The tombs of Richard, right, and his mother, Eleanor, in Rouen, France.

Just a month after Richard’s return home, he left again for France. But this time, he would never return. After spending the next five years on and off warring with Philip II, Richard was fatally wounded while besieging a castle in central France and died on 6 April 1199. During a reign that spanned 10 years, Richard had only spent six months in England.

10. It’s unclear if he ever met Robin Hood

Despite what the Disney film, and others besides, would have us believe, it’s not known if The Lionheart actually met the legendary Prince of Thieves.