ABSTRACT
Richard Lionheart moved quickly to impress upon his subjects in Anjou his intention to rule them firmly. Richard showed little regard for his father, he owed much to the old king for his peaceful, uneventful, accession to power over all the Angevin lands. Richard had committed himself to the Third Crusade in 1187 while duke of Aquitaine, an enterprise tiiat he was determined to prosecute, unlike his father. Richard's brother, Geoffrey Plantagenet, count of Brittany, who had died in 1186, left a son, Arthur; still a toddler at the time of Richard's accession, the boy posed no threat. While Richard had been recently allied with Philip Augustus against Henry II, his accession to the lordship of the Angevin 'empire' moved the new monarch from Capetian friend to foe. Historians have attacked Richard for his pre-crusade plans with assaults on his sagacity and personal integrity; their comments on Richard's lack of political sense are unfair.
