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Richard I (1157-99) King of England (1189-99), Duke of Aquitaine (1172-99):

Coeur de Lion or Lionheart, third son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was a renowned and outstanding soldier who because of his permanent military expeditions in France and on the Third Crusade spent only five months in England. On his return from Jerusalem he was taken prisoner in Austria in 1192 and held by the German Emperor Henry VI until an enormous ransom (150.000 marks) was paid in 1194. During the king's absence England was ruled by the Justiciar Hubert Walter. Repeatedly he had to crush attempted coups of his younger brother John. Richard was a cultivated man who is supposed to have composed songs in company with the troubadour Blondel de Nesle. He was married to Berengaria of Navarre in 1191, but except his bastard son, Philip de Cognac, he had no children. Richard was mortally wounded in France.