England’s great national hero barely spoke English, spent perhaps six months of his ten-year reign in the country, and joked about selling London. This deep dive examines Richard I as both a battlefield genius and a deeply flawed administrator, exploring the tension between being a good warrior and being a good king.

We trace Richard from his teenage rebellion against Henry II and the brutal Aquitaine campaigns that earned the name Lionheart to his coronation, the violence against England’s Jewish communities, and the Third Crusade. We cover the conquest of Cyprus, the execution of prisoners at Acre, the victory at Arsuf, his retreat 12 miles from Jerusalem, his captivity and enormous ransom, and his anticlimactic death at Chalus-Chabrol.

• How he took the fortress of Taillebourg by attacking the food supply rather than the walls
• How he sold offices and titles to fund his crusade
• The cold logistical reasoning behind the executions at Acre and the retreat from Jerusalem
• How Eleanor of Aquitaine raised a ransom worth two to three times the Crown’s annual revenue
• How a crossbow bolt and an infected wound ended his life and helped unravel the Angevin Empire