RICHARD I

RICHARD I. (1157-1199), (surnamed Coeur de Lion), king of England from 1189 to 1199, third son and successor of Henry II.; his early years were spent in Poitou and Aquitaine, where he engaged in quarrels with his father; after his accession to the throne he flung himself with characteristic ardour into the Crusade movement; in 1190 joined his forces with Philip Augustus of France in the third crusade; upheld the claims of Tancred in Sicily; captured Cyprus, and won great renown in the Holy Land, particularly by his defeat of Saladin; was captured after shipwreck on the coast on his way home by the Archduke of Austria, and handed over to the Emperor Henry VI. (1193); was ransomed at a heavy price by his subjects, and landed in England in 1194; his later years were spent in his French possessions warring against Philip, and he died of an arrow wound at the siege of Chalus; not more than a year of his life was spent in England, and his reign is barren of constitutional change.