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  This book, at once readable and scholarly, shows how the fascinating historical figure of Richard the Lionheart metamorphosed into the character of myth and romance that we know today. An ideal introduction to England’s most legendary medieval king.

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  Jay Rubenstein, Professor of History and Religion, USC Dornsife

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  Heather Blurton takes her reader on an enthralling journey through Richard the Lionheart’s many lives. She is a lyrical and sure-footed guide to this most mercurial of medieval figures whose image and reputation, as Blurton incisively shows, were being crafted even in his own short lifetime.

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  Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, University of Cambridge

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  Richard the Lionheart’s legendary legacies have never been explored more lucidly than in Heather Blurton’s account of England’s most absent and most mythic monarch. Blurton deftly weaves together a history of fact-framing and fiction-making from medieval chronicles to contemporary Robin Hood films. This book is compelling, insightful, deeply researched, and lively with instances of history stranger than fiction, and fiction imbued with history, making medieval lives matter in ever-evolving ways to those that read them.

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  Christine Chism, Professor of English, UCLA

Introduction: The Life and Times of Richard I
Chapter 1: Richard I in the Words of His Contemporaries
Chapter 2: The Lionheart and the Troubadours
Chapter 3: Romancing Richard the Lionheart
Chapter 4: The Lionheart and the Prince of Thieves
Epilogue

Chronology
References
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index

Heather Blurton is Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her books include Inventing William of Norwich: Thomas of Monmouth, Antisemitism, and Literary Culture, 1150–1200 (2022).