Sir, If Richard Morrison wants to go on revering Richard the Lionheart as the greatest Richard of us all (times2, Aug 16), he should avoid reading any sensible biography of him.

Yes, Richard I was a great soldier; but having said that, it’s hard to find anything else favourable to say about him. He milked England and his other territories ruthlessly for funds to go crusading. Unlike his father, Henry II, he had no interest in just and efficient administration.

Yes, he wrote troubadour love songs — but his vassals in Poitou rose in revolt against his habit of abducting and raping their daughters, then passing them on to his soldiers. He attacked King Tancred of Sicily who was trying to cheat Richard’s sister, the Dowager Queen, of her dowry — then when Tancred handed over his sister’s money, kept it for himself. He was the most celebrated warrior in Europe — but when a knight beat him in a friendly joust he threw a tantrum and held a grudge against the winner, much to the detriment of the Crusade they were both embarked on.

Of the whole gifted, erratic Angevin tribe, he was by a considerable margin the most unpleasant and dangerous to know.

Victoria Solt Dennis
Gillingham, Kent

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