This biography details the life of Richard the First, focusing intensely on his career in Aquitaine and his crusade in the Holy Land. Kate Norgate explores the formative years of Richard as a young duke tasked by his father, Henry the Second, with subduing a turbulent and rebellious baronage in southern France. Through years of relentless warfare, sieges like that of Taillebourg, and complex feudal maneuvers, Richard established his reputation for stern justice and military mastery.
The narrative follows the deepening rifts within the Plantagenet family, driven by conflicting loyalties, the ambitions of the French king Philip Augustus, and Henry's partiality toward his youngest son, John. Richard's alliance with Philip and his repeated rebellions against his father marked a bitter struggle for the succession and the integrity of the Angevin empire, culminating in Henry's defeat and death at Chinon.
Following his accession to the English throne and his unprecedented coronation, Richard's primary ambition shifted to the Crusade. The narrative covers his arduous preparations, the financial expedients of his reign, his political settlement with Scotland, and his long, eventful journey to the East.
In Sicily and Cyprus, Richard demonstrated his characteristic speed and decisiveness, subduing the island of Cyprus and securing a valuable base for the Christian host. His arrival at the siege of Acre turned the tide against Saladin, leading to the city's capitulation and the consolidation of his authority as the supreme leader of the crusading host amidst shifting alliances and failing health.
The volume concludes with Richard poised to advance toward Ascalon after the fall of Acre, having established his military prowess and unyielding constancy as the central pillar of the Christian expedition in the Levant.
