Books
eBook editions of three classic histories of Richard the Lionheart
As I began researching Richard the Lionheart, I found myself very interested in reading the contemporary histories of his era, written by eye witnesses to the events described. The books are on the obscure side, necessitating either a trip to the library, or ordering expensive (and heavy!) physical copies. Nicely formatted eBook editions were hard to come by. There are public domain translations of these works available online, often just as image scans. If you want to read a correctly formatted version with beautiful typography in an eReader like a Kindle, it was a problem.
So I made my own. Now you can have them too. Here they are, with links to Amazon where you can purchase them for a nominal amount.
The Annals of Roger De Hoveden, Vol 2.
Roger of Hoveden
Roger is the “gold standard” of contemporary histories of Richard, in terms of accuracy. Roger was on crusade with Richard for a time. Tons of fantastic details, entire copies of many letters between the principle participants, and events covered nowhere else, such as Richard’s gift of Excalibur to Tancred of Sicily. Get it here.
The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes
Richard of Devizes
A short but snarky history of the Third Crusade, primarily addressing Richard’s actions. This link will take you to the edition we created based on the J. A. Giles translation; it is one of the few (only?) eBook editions of this work with high quality typography and formatting.
Itinerary of Richard I and Others to the Holy Land
Richard de Templo
de Templo’s history is rich and detailed, sharing much with the Ambroise verse epic of the same events. It covers a number of episodes not mentioned in other places or covered with little detail, including tarantulas. Not kidding. Our edition on Amazon is here.