Coeur de Lion

   King Richard the Lionhearted, or Richard I of England, is one of our enduring icons. He's connected to an even greater icon: Robin Hood. While Richard was away fighting in the Crusades, Robin held off Richard's evil younger brother John and his nefarious minion, the Sherriff of Nottingham.
   As King Henry II's third son, Richard hadn't expected to become king at all. England contolled much of eastern France at the time and Richard would likely have become Duke of Aquitaine or some such.  But the oldest son, William, died at the age of three, and the next son, young Henry, got tired of waiting for his father to die, and rebelled. He died while fighting against his father, which left the way open for Richard to became king in 1189.
   It's strange that Richard is still seen as one of the "good" English kings. For one thing, he spoke French rather than English. Richard's great, great grandfather William, Duke of Normandy had conquered England a little over a century previously and the court's business was still carried on in French or Latin rather than the uncouth English of the locals.
 Richard was king for ten years, but only spent six months of his reign in England. He had a wife, but he never spent enough time with her to get her pregnant, which led to his awful brother John becoming king. The rest of the time he was off doing what he loved best: fighting. When he was captured by his enemies, the cost of his ransom almost bankrupted England.
   It was on this day in 1192 that Richard was captured and imprisoned in Germany, or rather, the Holy Roman Empire as it was then constituted. He was on his way home from the Holy Land after learning that John was scheming against him.
  Richard had gone on Crusade right after his coronation along with the King of France to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims. Richard emptied his father's treasury and raised taxes on everything he could think of to pay for his army. "I would have sold London if I could have found a buyer," he said.
   The Crusaders almost took Jerusalem two times. The first time bad weather stopped them. The second time arguments among the allied commanders spoiled everything. Richard made a treaty with the Muslim leader Saladin and headed back to England with a party of five. Bad weather forced his ship ashore and he had to take a dangerous route home. He had almost reached friendly territory when the Duke of Austria captured him. It was against international law to hold a Crusader, but Richard had insulted the duke on one occasion and killed his cousin on anther. Even the pope couldn't secure Richard's release.
   Richard spent over a year in captivity while England mulled over the huge ransom. John said "Let him rot," and even offered the duke half the ransom money to keep Richard locked up. But Richard had a doting mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who raised the ransom. The clergy was exempt from taxation, but Eleanor made them pay. Church and private property were taxed at a quarter of their value to bring Richard home. When Richard returned to England, John begged his forgiveness. Richard said, "No hard feelings. I'd have done the same in your place."
   Richard spent the next five years recovering territory the King of France had conquered in his absence. Warfare was supposed to cease during Lent, but Richard was always in a hurry. He had laid siege to a small poorly manned castle in France. The castle was about to fall and Richard really should have moved on to his next goal, but he had heard there was a hoard of gold in this castle. It was the end of the day and he had removed his armor. He decided to take a tour around the castle to see how his sappers were doing. Sappers were the men who tunneled under a wall of the castle, then lit a huge fire in the tunnel, which caused the wall to collapse.
   There were a couple of archers on the castle wall taking potshots at Richard with their crossbows. Richard scoffed. No one had hit him yet. But one of them got an arrow into Richard's shoulder. The wound was not fatal, but the surgeon who removed the arrow botched the job and gangrene set in.
   Meanwhile the castle fell and the bowman who had shot him was brought before Richard. Richard saluted him and ordered him released with 100 shillings. When Richard died a few days later, one of his captains had the bowman flayed alive and hung. John at long last became king, which led to Runnymede and all that.

None of the Chronicles mentions a meeting between Richard and Robin.
Only the icons know for sure.