Critiques en avant-première

Although by Papal decree, no harm was to come to any crusader, on sailing for home after the Third Crusade, Richard was taken prisoner by the Holy Roman Emperor. (Of the Holy Roman Empire, Voltaire would write “it was neither holy, nor Roman nor an Empire” and though he wrote that in 1756, it applies as well to Heinrich von Hohenstaufen’s reign.) He would languish in chains for more than a year while his indomitable mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, rallied all her resources to raise the exorbitant ransom Heinrich demanded. But Richard knew nothing of her efforts and was utterly at the mercy of a hated and hateful enemy, his hopes of freedom repeatedly dashed. But pay it Eleanor did, bringing it to Heinrich personally. Still, more was demanded: That Richard should swear fealty to Heinrich as his liege lord, a humiliation worse than the chains that had bound him. Only his mother’s entreaties finally persuaded him to kneel before the Emperor. Richard was to live only five years longer, and those years were beset with danger: betrayals, intrigues, wars, and illness were ever present. (So were his infidelities, marking the destruction of his marriage in much the way his father’s had done.) Yet through it all, the power, courage, and intelligence of the man shines through in this remarkable novel, making it easy to understand why his untimely death was so shocking and why his legend lived on.