The English king, knight and crusader Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) died 820 years ago. His life and reign are shrouded in numerous myths and legends. Richard was more French than English; as the third son of the English Plantagenet king Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, initially it was thought unlikely that he would ever ascend to the throne. The best-known chapter in his life is connected with his participation in a crusade to the Holy Land and his capture by enemies on the return journey. Richard’s contemporaries saw him as an ideal knight, but today we know that there was a darker side to his personality too. His relationships with women were also very complicated; he loved his mother more than any other woman in his life. Richard’s life of adventure was eventually cut short by an arrow fired “accidentally” from the crossbow of one of his own soldiers during the siege of the rather unimportant castle of Châlus. This lecture explores the life and personality of one of the best-known English kings of the Middle Ages.
Only in Czech.