Richard the Lionheart

Richard I (1157-99) was one of the most colourful kings in English history. handsome, immensely brave, generous to his friends and the terror of his enemies, he was a brilliant military commander - one of the world's great soldiers. Always leading his troops to victory, he won the total devotion of his own men and the awed respect of his enemies in the Holy Land, while Saladin, his greatest foe, was also perhaps his greatest admirer.

A man of many parts - poet, musician, athlete - like his father, Henry II, on occasion he was prey to terrible outbursts of anger. Antony Bridge, author of the highly acclaimed Crusades sees him as an essentially twelfth-century man, deeply religious, volatile and impetuous in an age when life was violent, unpredictable and precarious, and death was probably waiting round every corner.