History Memes

Richard is one of those unusual historically-relevant figures who really embodies that ancient 'warrior ethos' of many pre-modern societies, with all of its paradoxes. He will absolutely butcher your mass of peasant levies, or send in his mass of peasant levies to be butchered, without a second thought. He'll start a war over a line in a feudal contract that can be disputed to his favor. He'll gleefully split your skull with a battleaxe in NOBLE AND HONORABLE COMBAT, even if he may prefer the ransom of a capture.

But he was also capable of great generosity of spirit, and largely (though not always - Richard's temper was noted as volatile) acted in accordance with a kind of 'golden rule' treatment. If you were on the battlefield, he expected no more from you than he intended to give.

Notably, his last act was to pardon and reward the Frenchman who killed him with the equivalent of a few years' wages. The Frenchman, also notably, killed him with a crossbow, which was considered a brutal and cutting-edge weapon... which Richard was very fond of despite the constant moral condemnations of it. "Live by the sword..."

Unfortunately, one of his more monstrous mercenary companions tortured said Frenchman to death once King Richard had breathed his last and could no longer interfere. One of the... caveats of keeping dangerous company is that you can no longer direct whom they're dangerous towards once you're gone...

He was noted as very close with several of his military companions, who ran the gamut from common-born to lower nobility, and likewise from monstrous to chivalric. He suffered with his men on campaign, even when he could very easily have lived an easy life at relatively little additional cost, and was always noted as generous to his troops, at a time when monarchs cheating their men even of their promised pay was common.

Some real Beowulf shit, 'heroic' and loyal to his friends, but not necessarily 'good'.