The Lives and Legacies of Richard the Lionheart and Saladin

Saladin is widely considered one of the greatest generals in history and one of the most famous leaders of the Middle Ages, but he remains a paradox, both in personal and in historical terms. A military genius, he first served other generals and was overshadowed, late in life, by his greatest rival, Richard I of England. He was far more admired by his Christian enemies, who extolled his chivalry, than some of his Muslim rivals, who fought him for control of Egypt and Syria in the 12th century. His Christian enemies continued his name long after it was forgotten in the Middle East, only to spark a revival of his reputation in Arab culture in the 20th century.

Revered as the flower of Arab culture, he was really a Kurd who nearly destroyed it. Taught to Egyptian children as a native born Egyptian hero, he was, in fact, Egypt's conqueror, the man who destroyed its native dynasty and suppressed the local Shi'ite sect. Praised for his mild temper and mercy, he made it his mission in the last decade of his life to destroy the Frankish states created by the First Crusade in 1099. The most powerful man in the Levant for the last ten years of his life, he died a virtual pauper after giving away his personal fortune to the poor. Having united almost all of the Levant under one rule, he left it as divided as before. He founded a dynasty that was eventually destroyed by slaves.

Richard I Plantagenet (1157–1199), nicknamed “Coeur de Lion” (Lionheart), eventually became King of England, Grand Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Poitou, and Duke of Anjou, but as the third son in a large family, he did not expect to or even want to rule England. Nevertheless, it was he who eventually came to the throne upon his father's death. Richard lived in an age when knights were first asserting themselves as capable of being moral forces for good rather than only agents of chaos. This attitude resolved itself into the mystique of chivalry. As one of the strongest knights of his age, Richard was also considered a flower of chivalry and greatly admired as a model of what it meant to be a knight, both in his lifetime and afterward. But as the son of the most famous power couple of the age — Henry II of England (1133–89) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122/24–1204) — and an expansionist noble contesting over land with other expansionist nobles, he also had many enemies. These enemies portrayed Richard as evil incarnate, at the same time his admirers were portraying him an emblem of virtue. As with all such great and controversial figures, the real Richard lay somewhere in between.

In many parts of the world today, Richard the Lionheart is remembered not for being a medieval king but for being perhaps the Crusades’ most famous European figher. In the Third Crusade, Richard was pitted against the best known Muslim leader in history, Saladin, who like Richard was considered a flower of chivalry by some, a tyrant by others, and even a herald of the Antichrist by Christians. Richard and Saladin's contest was cast by their contemporaries as a battle between Good and Evil (though who was Good and who was Evil depended greatly on the source), but eventually the legend and lore of mutual respect between the two and popular depictions of both leaders helped cement their legacies. Richard's eventual reputation was bound up as much in the crusading spirit of his age as in his reputation as a fearsome warrior or the history of his tumultuous family. If anything, stories like The Lion in Winter have oversimplified the complex Plantagenets who were Richard's closest kin.