num_pages: 328
description: No monarch has generated more conflicting opinions or demanded more effort from the historian attempting to disentangle myth from reality. John Gillingham contends that the popular views of Richard are false that they are based upon legend and not upon evidence. Strip away the legend and look at the evidence study Richard on his home ground in the turbulent Duchy of Aquitaine and a new picture of Richard emerges. He is still the crusading knight and patron of troubadours but he is also a capable ruler with a clear eye for political realities. Indeed in the sheer breadth of his vision in the ability not only to conceive great enterprises but also to carry them out he (though no Englishman) was one of the ablest kings ever to sit upon the throne of England.
language: English
title: Richard the Lionheart
publisher: Times Books