Richard the Lionheart: Crusade to Château Gaillard

On 1 May 1191 Richard's fleet arrived in the port of Limassol, then called Lemesos. He demanded that Isaac release prisoners and treasure. Isaac refused, so Richard landed his troops and took the town, and his men conquered the whole island by 1 June. Tradition says Richard married Berengaria of Navarre here and crowned her Queen of England in 1191, at what is now Limassol Castle. The landing is documented; the wedding at the castle is only a tradition.

Location precision: Richard landed at the port of Limassol; the pin marks Limassol Castle, where tradition alone places his wedding.

King Philip II of France reached Acre on 20 April 1191; Richard followed on 8 June, after conquering Cyprus on the way. The crusaders were besieging the port, and Richard fell ill. Even so, he is said to have picked off guards on the walls with a crossbow while carried on a stretcher. His siege engines had names: God's Own Catapult and Bad Neighbour. The pin marks the Old City of Acre, not the exact lines of the siege.

Location precision: The siege covered the whole city and its surroundings; the pin marks the Old City of Acre.

After Acre, Richard marched his army south along the coast. He moved only in the morning, before the heat of the day, with frequent rests, always beside sources of water. On 7 September 1191 Saladin's army attacked the column near Arsuf. The Master of the Hospitallers, Garnier de Nablus, repeatedly pleaded to be allowed to attack, but he was refused. The crusaders defeated a significantly larger army. The pin marks a national park on the coast near Arsuf.

Location precision: The pin marks the coastal national park near Arsuf, not the exact battlefield.

Returning from the Third Crusade, Richard was captured near Vienna by Duke Leopold V of Austria. Leopold kept him at Dürnstein Castle, in the care of Hadmar of Kuenring, from December 1192 until March 1193. In prison Richard wrote the song Ja nus hons pris (No man who is imprisoned). The castle was abandoned in 1679 and is part of the Wachau Cultural Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Richard was handed over to Emperor Henry VI, who held him at Trifels Castle. Three weeks of captivity here, from 31 March to 19 April 1193, are well documented. The emperor demanded 150,000 marks for his release. Richard told him, "I am born of a rank which recognises no superior but God." The legend that the troubadour Blondel found him is false: his location was no secret. He was released on 4 February 1194. Replicas of the Imperial Regalia are on display today, in a castle much rebuilt since.

Visitor guidance: Replicas of the Imperial Regalia are on display; the present castle is largely a later reconstruction.

After the Treaty of Louviers of January 1196, Richard still built a castle above the River Seine to protect Normandy from King Philip II. The work cost an estimated 12,000 pounds between 1196 and 1198. A year in, Richard remarked: "Behold, how fair is this year-old daughter of mine!" Philip captured the castle in 1204 after a lengthy siege.