Lionheart (46 page)

5 Chronicler Matthew Paris came closer to the reality of knightly violence with this sanitised sketch of William the Marshal unhorsing Baldwin de Guisnes in a
mêlée

6 The truth of knightly conduct: this eroded carving at Parthenay Church shows a knight riding roughshod over a peasant. From the symbolic gyrfalcon on his wrist, this is a duke of Aquitaine – possibly Richard indulging in his favourite activity

7 When not at war, knights relaxed by killing animals instead of people

8 Going on crusade won the pope’s assurance that all their earthly sins would thereby be cancelled out. With so much blood-crime on their consciences, knights feared the weighing of their soul after death by an angel and a demon

9 In the twelfth century, everyone could estimate a horse’s value and, therefore, the wealth or importance of its owner. A knight would have been judged by his mount, much as people today may be judged by the cost and make of the car they drive

10 Reflecting the importance of the horse, the church at St-Front-sur-Gironde is decorated with twenty-six horse heads (the detail of which is shown in the image above), rather than the usual images of saints and angels

11 Richard’s powerful mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, aged 22 at Chartres Cathedral

12 Eleanor of Aquitaine as she looked at the time of her death

13 No clear contemporary image of Richard exists, but he was said to closely resemble his own father Henry II and his grandfather Count Geoffrey the Fair of Anjou, as seen in this polychrome enamel portrait

14 Detail of side chapel in La Sauve Majure abbey

15 Riding from Bordeaux to punish his Gascon vassals with fire and sword, Richard gave alms to the monks at Cayac Abbey (above) so they would pray for his soul. He claimed that his favourite abbey of La Sauve Majeure (detail, top) was ‘dearer to me than my own eye-balls’

16 Richard adored singing and music and would dress up for grand occasions

17 The great audience hall in Poitiers, built by Eleanor and Henry II, where Richard held court