Product Description

In this assessment, Gillingham looks afresh at the achievements and failings of the king and at the verdict of history: a restless, fearless individual with a love of war and a genius for it, or a monarch who neglected his kingdom, his citizens and his succession. The account also considers the history of the Third Crusade.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202377 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 392 pages

Review
"Deserves to be regarded as definitive, and... will surely find its way on to the shelves of every student of the period. As befits the magnificence of his subject, Gillingham is a truly great historian." Nicholas Vincent, Times Literary Supplement "There is enough violence and intrigue to appeal to any reader; one wonders why Richard's life has not been made into a movie. The book should appeal to any reader, and its mastery will be obligatory for any serious student of the period... A splendid book." Fred A. Cazel, History: Reviews of New Books "an authoritative reading of Richard and his times... with a lively and engaging style that makes the book highly readable. The result is medieval political history at its best." Scott L. Waugh, Albion "In John Gillingham, Richard I has found his most able biographer. This is a tremendous book and a great read compelling written." S.D. Church, English Historical Review

Fred A. Cazel, History: Reviews of New Books
"There is enough violence and intrigue to appeal to any reader; one wonders why Richard's life has not been made into a movie."

Scott L. Waugh, Albion
"an authoritative reading of Richard and his times ... with a lively and engaging style that makes the book highly readable."

Customer Reviews

Richard The King: Medieval political history at its best
Richard Lionheart is far too often portrait as a romantic figure of public imagination, hero like, captured and imprisoned, beloved by the people, the good one compared with his brother and successor John, the near saint like king in the Robin Hood myth. Well...too good to be true?

John Gillingham presents in his absorbing and well-written biography a "new" Richard, not feckless but astute, not romantic but businesslike, and wholly engrossed in his business of kingship to amassing power. Here is a great king, a medieval ruler at its best. But it is not a whitewash. Gillingham does not create a Richard, whom we could call a good man, but shows him as an extremely impressive ruler.

It is a splendid book that should appeal to students of the time but as well to the general public. I learned a lot about the real Richard. Gillingham gives the reader a convincing interpretation of the significance of the reign of Richard Lionheart

The definitive life of Richard the Lion Heart
Someone said - and I cannot now recall who - that there would be no need for fiction if history were well written. John Gillingham proves this point for he is one of that rare breed: an eminent historian who can write. Admittingly Richard's life is the stuff of fiction - the deadly family quarrels, the adventures of the third crusade, the bitter rivalry with Phillipe Augustus and his tragic death - and this book can be read as an exciting narrative by the general reader; but Professor Gillingham also deals in depth with the many aspects of Richard's life and kingship, exploding many of the fairly recent myths, such as that of his so called squalid death. This is John Gillingham's third biography of Richard and the most academic; however he has that rare quality shared only by a handful of historians (Veronica Wedgewood and Stephen Runcimann are others) who can write a readable academic book. This book is one of the English Monarch series now published by Yale; do not think that all the books in this series are as well written as this one.

Excellent book, setting the record straight on Richard I
Updating and expanding upon Gillingham's previous biography on Richard, this is a superb biography. Gillingham fully explains the political and social back-drop to Richard's many achievements and thereby dispells the Victorian myth of 'Richard the bad king'. I can't recommend this book highly enough.