Some fun discoveries at a book sale

And, a short bibliography

I’ve made a minor policy infraction today. Normally I include a piece of troubadour music with each post. But one of the books I will mention momentarily had the following troubadour lyric of Bertran de Born prominently displayed. I couldn’t find a recording of this song, but in looking for it, I found the music above. I like jazz, and this is a jazz song called Bertran (de Born), by Sylvain Rifflet, from his album called, well, Troubadours. Enjoy.

“Peace delights me not
War – be thou my lot
Law - I do not know
Save a right good blow”
— Bertran de Born, Ges de far sirventes no·m tartz

Apologies for the long delay in posting, I’ve been caught up fixing some issues in my social reading app, Bookship. Hopefully all sorted.

But today is Saturday, not a work day, right? So I hied myself (heh, a little medieval lingo) to the Friends of the Library Hawaii book sale (where I live these days). One would not really expect to stumble on good medieval material there, more one expects old Hawaiiana material, and cheap John Grisham novels and the like. But when you least expect it…..

I stumbled on some fun stuff.

First I found The Age of Chivalry, a sort of coffee table history book, which has some really fun stuff about Richard. Including Chateau Galliard, Richard’s famous castle, the lyric of Bertran de Born, and that second to last shot, of armor in the now-defunct Higgins Armory Museum in Massachusetts where I used to live. I have been in that room and I miss it very much!

pages from The Age of Chivalry

Next I found Life in Norman England, a 1960s book that is a kind of precursor to Ian Mortimer’s A Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England which we’ll come to in a bit. Life in Norman England covers a variety of topics including Village Life, The Church, The Law, Medicine, and many other topics that aren’t usually covered in history books per se. It even has a map of Royal Forests (a topic I plan to come to in a later post), and the location of Norman Castles. All good fun.

Lastly I got a $3 copy of The Invention of Fire by Bruce Holsinger, a very highly regarded recent novel set in medieval London.

And, one of John Le Carré’s last novels, and a fun looking cocktail book. But I digress.

My newfound wealth of books got me thinking about the book that started me on this quest to learn about Richard and his world, as well as all the books I’ve read since. Sharon Kay Penman’s book Lionheart really started it all (see this post), but since then I’ve read mostly non-fiction. I don’t want to let much more fictional Richard into my brain right now because, well, that’s a topic for a different day. Without further ado, here’s my bibliography of key reading about Richard, Saladin, and the Third Crusade. It is by no means intended to be comprehensive, just the books that I’ve explored so far that I have found helpful (and I have not read ALL of ALL of these books!).

Lionheart

Sharon Kay Penman

This is the historical fiction rendering of Richard’s life (or at least up to his departure from the Holy Land), that started me on this topic. I did not find her Richard to be the Richard of my imagination, but I enjoyed reading it very much.

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Contemporary historical reading

The Annals of Roger De Hoveden, Vol 2.

Roger of Hoveden

Seems to be 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. We have an eBook edition! Get it here.

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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 ourselves based on public domain translations, it is one of the few (only?) eBook editions of this work with high quality typography and formatting.

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Itinerary of Richard I and Others to the Holy Land

Richard de Templo

de Templo’s history is rich and detailed, sharing much the Ambroise verse epic about the same events. It covers a number of episodes not covered in other places or covered with little detail. If you are interested, for $4.99 you can purchase our edition on Amazon, an electronic version we have created with high quality typography and formatting.

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The History of the Holy War

Marianne Ailes

A wonderful translation of Ambroise’s epic Old French poem regarding Richard’s exploits in the Third Crusade. Ambroise was on crusade with Richard, present at many of the events recounted, and provides an invaluable firsthand account.

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The History of William Marshal

Nigel Bryant

William Marshall was one of the giants of his era, often referred to as The Greatest Knight due to his prowess in battle. Richard left him in England to help rule in his absence. The History was written just after William’s death, but then lost until the late 1800s. It is the earliest biography of a medieval knight, and in Nigel Bryant’s translation, a fun read as well!

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Arthurian Romances

Chrétien de Troyes

Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet in the court of Marie of France, Eleanor of Aquitaine daughter, and it’s entirely possible he met Richard as well as Eleanor. Eleanor’s court was steeped in the ethos of “Chivalry”, which Richard would have absorbed all his life. de Troyes Arthurian romances were perhaps the most popular tales that celebrated (and questioned!) this new “chivalry”, as well as popularizing the genre of Arthurian literature. Short and good fun!

Modern work

Richard I

John Gillingham

I have been living with this book for the better part of 4 months now. It is the gold standard biography of Richard for a reason. Awash in fantastical levels of detail and research, yet eminently readable. He also provides excellent perspective on how and why Richard’s reputation and legend have evolved over time, and, where appropriate, presents his own view. If you only by one book on Richard, this might be the one.

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Richard The Lionheart

David Miller

Excellent biography of Richard. Shorter and more accessible than Gillingham, I found it particularly contained more details and perspective on Richard as a military leader and tactician. From this book I learned that Richard carried a copy of De Re Militari, a Roman military tactics book, with him wherever he traveled.

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Richard the Lionheart

W. B. Bartlett

Another good biography of Richard. I found it particularly helpful in it’s coverage of the era of Henry II, Richard’s father, and their interactions.

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Crusaders

Dan Jones

Super accessible and fun (if that word can be used for such horrific events), history of the Crusades by the popular historian, Dan Jones. Easily read in chunks of a chapter or so, you can dip in anywhere you like.

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The Crusades Through Arab Eyes

Amin Maalouf

There is a massive amount of history left to us by Arab contemporary historians, much of it highly relevant to Richard. Unsurprisingly their perspective is far different than the Christian historians. But they are mostly very impressed with Richard. Very interesting reading.

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The Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin

Jonathan Phillips

The arab leader Saladin is just as fascinating as Richard. From humble origins he came to rule most of what we today call the Middle East, and fought Richard to something like a draw. Phillips covers the details of Saladin’s life well, then proceeds to examine his image in popular culture, both in the West as well as in the Muslim world.

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Eleanor of Aquitaine

Alison Weir

Eleanor was perhaps the most powerful woman in Europe. Wife of two kings and mother of three kings, she was reputedly beautiful, vivacious, and wise. Weir’s narrative reads easily and captures this most interesting woman vividly.

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Sealed in Parchment

Sandra Hindman

Dr. Hindman is an expert in medieval manuscripts, Professor Emerita of Art History, and CEO and founder of www.lesenluminures.com (a gallery specializing in medieval manuscripts). She was kind enough to answer a number of questions for me regarding books during Richard’s time. Sealed in Parchment is her exploration of the world of Chretien de Troyes through illuminated manuscripts of his work.

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The next two books are not specific to Richard’s era, and in fact skew a bit later. But they are both fantastic reads and provide wonderful insights into medieval life, the medieval mind, and the medieval era.

The Last Duel

Eric Jager

The basis for the movie you might have seen. The last judicial trial-by-combat, to the death. As it really happened. It’s history. Fascinating reading.

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The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England

Ian Mortimer

How to tell time in the medieval era. What to wear. What to eat. How to address people. What life was like.

OK, a few last classics. Sir Walter Scott basically invented historical fiction. At least, some people say that! He wrote two books that relate to Richard:

Ivanhoe

Sir Walter Scott

“"Take heed to yourself for the Devil is unchained!" the King of France warns his treacherous co-conspirator, Prince John of England. The "Devil" is none other than Richard the Lion-Hearted, headed home from the Third Crusade to reclaim his throne.”. And so it begins….

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The Talisman

Sir Walter Scott

The Talisman is Sir Walter Scott's tale of the Crusades -- a tale of chivalry, of violence, of virtue, romance, and deceit. In Scott's own words: ...the warlike character of Richard I, wild and generous, a pattern of chivalry, with all its extravagant virtues, and its no less absurd errors, was opposed to that of Saladin…

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OK it’s time to stop. That should keep you busy for awhile. I may add more books to this in future! You can find this list, and many other Richard-related books, here: https://tbrapp.co/list/057d2793bc6da66d9b99f51ff1559482

If I missed any of your favorites, please drop them in the comments!