Richard The Lionheart: The Failure Of The Third Crusades

During Richard the Lionheart’s reign as King of England(1189-1199) and in the Third Crusade(1189-1191) he was an unheroic figure and on occasion his actions tended to be iniquitous. The legacy which he left behind is not deserving of the statue erected of him in front of the Houses of Parliament in 1860. His unheroic actions were manifested in his deplorable decisions as King of England leaving the country in a devastated economic state. Furthermore, Richard the Lionheart expressed his evil and immoral character through his incompetent choices he made as a commander. In addition he failed to fulfill his promise and failed to complete the campaign of capturing the holy land of Jerusalem.

Richard the Lionheart’s inadequate decision making as

Richard’s personality was demonstrated by abusing the customs and rituals during his wars. A custom during the period of the Third Crusades was to raise the country's flag that had just been conquered in battle. Nevertheless, after Richard’s triumph in the Siege of Acre(1291 April 6th to 1291 May 18th), his short temper and high ego caused him to throw down the flag of Austria of Duke Leopold to dishonor his duty. This caused Duke Leopold to leave the Third Crusades immediately and soon after King Philip IV of France left and Richard found himself with no allies. In the event that Richard were allies with Duke Leopold, the Third Crusades would have an extra 6,000 soldiers of Austria. There is a likely possibility that the 6,000 soldiers could have been the deciding factor for the Third Crusades to triumph in the capturement of the holy land of Jerusalem. Furthermore, the conflict led Duke Leopold to become enemies with Richard. This was evident in Duke and his soldiers kidnapping Richard(December 20th, 1192) due to disrespect he faced from him. Duke demanded a ransom of 35,000 kilograms of silver(equates to $42 million nowadays) for Richard to be released, as a result Ricahrd ordered the people of his country to raise the funds. The costly quantity of silver given away from England, placed his citizens in a lack of basic needs.