King Richard the Lion-Hearted


About 800 years ago the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa led a large multinational army on the Third Crusade to the Holy Land. Several European aristocrats, like King Philip II of France, the English King Richard I the Lion-Hearted, the Austrian Duke Leopold V marched with him to free the Christian cities from their pagan rulers.
After Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, called the Red-beard, had drowned in the river Saleph, a big dispute developed as to who should be in command now. This grew into a major quarrel between King Richard of England and Duke Leopold of Austria. In 1191 at the end of the siege of the stronghold Acre, King Richard offended the Austrian Duke for which the later swore eternal revenge.
At that time a regiment’s flag was the most important symbol to show its identity. It was custom for the troops to gather round their flag before going into battle and when the battle was won the flag was planted on a well visible spot so that everybody could see who had won that battle. Duke Leopold of Austria had his newly created red-white-red flag raised on the city ramparts of Acre as a sign for an Austrian victory.
However, this angered his ally King Richard, whose army had also fought in the battle and had in King Richard’s opinion won the battle. In a fit of anger he had the Austrian flag hauled down and drown into the mud of the battlefield. This in return annoyed the Austrian Duke so much that he left the Holy Land with his knights immediately.
Soon after the withdrawal of the Austrian duke from the Holy Land, the rest of the crusaders were diminished drastically by a deadly diseases. King Richard had to finish the campaign and return home too. Although most of the other crusaders travelled back home over land, King Richard and his followers preferred to sail back to Europe.
Unfortunately for him, the King’s ship sank in a storm and he was forced to travel over land; going through the countries of his newly acquired “enemy” the Austrian Duke. The king and his men disguised as poor pilgrims, hoped that nobody would recognise them, and tried to get through Austria as fast as possible. Just before Christmas, however cold winter weather and hunger forced them to ask for shelter and food in a little village near Vienna. King Richard, disguised as a pilgrim, was told to cook his own meal in the kitchen. While preparing the food, an old Austrian crusader noticed that one of the “poor pilgrims” was wearing a very precious ring and guessed that the pilgrim could very well be the King of England whom he had seen in the Holy Land. The crusader reported his discovery to his commander and soon the Duke’s soldiers came and arrested King Richard. They brought him before the Duke at the palace in Vienna. Duke Leopold took the opportunity to take his revenge and kept King Richard as prisoner. As the palace did not seem safe enough to hold such a famous prisoner, the Duke had the King moved to the fortified castle in Dürnstein, where the Kuenringer knight Hadmar kept him imprisoned in the castle’s dungeon.
The story of the King’s ship sinking reached England and many people were very sad thinking that the King had actually died. The King’s brother John pronounced himself the new King of England. Only King Richard’s former minstrel Blondl would not believe that his King had died and set out to search for him. He took his lute and travelled eastwards from castle to castle along the Rhine and then the Danube. Everywhere he sang the song only he and Richard knew, in the hope of getting a reply from him. Finally he came as far as to the castle in Dürnstein. Tired and without much hope he looked up the steep hill that he had to climb to the castle’s gate, so he first sat down by the wall for a rest. He took his lute and sang the first verse of their song, when he stopped he heard his King’s voice in the distance continuing the song with the second verse. This was wonderful news to Blondl, he now knew definitely that his king was still alive and in which castle’s dungeon he was suffering and hoping to be freed. He also found out that King Richard would be released on payment of a large ransom sum. He immediately returned to England to tell the people that King Richard was still alive.
In spring 1193 King Richard was finally released from another castle where he had been moved to, to hide him again. In February 1194 he was finally released, after the huge ransom sum of some 150 000 marks had been paid by the English people.
The Austrian Duke used the huge ransom sum to enlarge and strengthen the fortification walls around Vienna, which protected the city for many centuries against invaders from the north and east, including the two times when the Turks besieged the city in 1529 and 1683.

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