Michel Fustier
THE DEATH OF RICHARD THE LION-HEART
King Richard the Lion-Heart (1157-1199), the Knight-King, made himself famous
on battle-fields, in particular during the third Crusade which he led in the
Holy Land in the company of Philippe-Auguste, the king of France… Now
he has come back from the Crusade and is waging war in his fiefdom of Aquitaine,
whose Lords have rebelled. He will there die at the age of 44, not very gloriously.
CHARACTERS:
Anna, a young woman who doesn't like war. She writes a play about Richard.
Richard, who comes back to play his part in the performance.
The surgeon. Eleanor of Aquitaine, mother of Richard, queen-mother of England
The chronicler (historically Ambrosius) in charge of telling the king's story
and highlighting it.
(… Anna is sitting at a table, writing. The action of the play shifts
from place to place).
-1-
RICHARD - (arriving) I protest!
ANNA - Really... Who are you?
RICHARD - I am Richard the Lion-Heart and I heard, madam, that you want to turn
me into a theatrical character!
ANNA - That's right: a theatrical character.
RICHARD - If that is so, you must know first of all that no actor is worthy
to play my part. To play Richard, there is nobody but Richard himself!
ANNA - Very well. If you are free… let's have a test… But I do not
pay much!
RICHARD - And secondly I absolutely refuse, after what I've just heard, that
you intend to represent only my death… Or is this a joke?
ANNA – No, it's not a joke. Your death is the moment when you are the
most meaningful.
RICHARD - I beg your pardon… I who, at the head of my army, have lived
so many glorious moments, displaying strength and courage… I used to move
forward bravely on the battlefield so as to cut down my enemies. I was the knight-king,
covered with blood, giving of myself and formidable in action… O my crusades!
It is this that should be displayed.
ANNA - No, no… fighting on the stage is impossible: too much dust! And
above all, do you think that I feel like showing a cruel and obsessed lunatic,
a king with ferocious instincts who took advantage of his power to scatter misery
and death. You reigned for hardly ten years, Richard, and how innumerable are
the misdeeds you committed!
RICHARD - Misdeeds! How dare you? I command you: bring my horse, my armour…
Here immediately…
ANNA - I am the one who decides…
RICHARD - I am the king of England!
ANNA - I am the one who writes the play. And I am alive!
-2-
RICHARD - But what is happening to me? (he touches his shoulder with his hand…)
A crossbow arrow!
ANNA - Nothing may prevent the action from going on, your Majesty… (proclaiming)
Death of king Richard the Lion-Heart.
RICHARD - (still holding his shoulder) Who is the rogue who dared…
ANNA - It's a lone bowman, up there, on the top of the wall of Chalus castle.
RICHARD - What a bastard! It hurts… ouch! As soon as the place has been
taken, I'll have him flayed alive. He will pay a high price…
ANNA - Careful, here comes your chronicler, the man who carefully writes down
all your deeds and to whom you owe the greatest part of your glory… Strike
a pose!
CHRONICLER - (arriving) Are you wounded, your Majesty?
RICHARD - Me, Wounded? … Yes, scarcely! Nothing at all, a pinprick. I
hardly felt it.
CHRONICLER - (touching the arrow in the shoulder) Ah! Who shot it?
RICHARD - The man you see up there: a brave man… He spent the afternoon
on the wall, protecting himself from the arrows with a frying pan. And now…
(to the bowman) Hey, you up there, right on target, congratulations: you hit
the king of England!
CHRONICLER - Great and generous, as always! O you, the greatest king in Christendom.
RICHARD - Right! You'll give him twenty silver coins bearing my effigy…
No, fifteen will do! And you will cut him a new garment in good English cloth.
CHRONICLER - That's exactly what I just said! But let me see that wound. As
to a pinprick, the iron has penetrated very far into the shoulder!
RICHARD - It's nothing, that's enough… I'm now going to review the troops.
CHRONICLER - With that arrow still in your flesh?
RICHARD - Once again, it's nothing at all, I'm used to incidents of that kind!
… You'll bear witness to the strength of my character. We'll take care
of the wound later on.
-3-
ANNA - Hey, you the chronicler, I'm confused! Since I've got you at hand, what
is that castle of Chalus? In what country is it?
CHRONICLER - It's in France, near Limoges… You know that Richard, the
king of England, owns at least half of France. Chalus is a castle of a baron
whom Richard has come to chastise because he has rebelled against him.
ANNA - I see… an important matter! Still, it's Lent during which it's
forbidden to take arms. It's a commandment of the Church.
CHRONICLER - Richard is above all laws… He enjoys fighting so much that
he can't resist the temptation.. Forgive me, I have to follow him…
-4-
CHRONICLER - (returning, followed by Richard) Do not touch the arrow, your Majesty,
the surgeon is about to come…
RICHARD - I'm quite able to take it out by myself. (he takes hold of the arrow
with both hands)
CHRONICLER - You run the risk of breaking the wood and the iron will stay in
the wound. And then…
RICHARD - (who has just broken the arrow) Why did you say so? If you had said
nothing, it wouldn't have happened.
CHRONICLER - Of course, it's my fault. The irons of these crossbow arrows are
as long as my hand! And as you are, dare I say, your Majesty, a bit plump, it
probably penetrated deeply. Here comes the surgeon!
SURGEON - (operating) I'm going to incise the shoulder… Bite your handkerchief,
your Majesty (he makes an incision) I can't see very well where that nasty iron
is? I'll cut a little deeper… (the king groans) Ah, I can see it…
If only blood were not flowing everywhere! Be careful, your Majesty, I'm going
to free it little by little. But before I go further, give him some wine…
Look, now, I'll pull it out in one go. Here it is! (he shows the iron) He's
fainted! Bring him to his tent.
RICHARD - (half rising) I performed well, don't you think so?
ANNA – You were perfect!
5
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - It's you, madam, who engineered it all…? Why have
you been so long in having me come? He is my son, is he not? I'm Eleanor of
Aquitaine.
ANNA - Great queen, if he had followed the advice of his physician, I would
have given him back to you alive… But since he refused to rest, went on
running to an fro and persisted in carousing, the wound got infected and gangrene
invaded it…
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - So, if I understand rightly, he is dead?
ANNA - Yes, your Majesty, he is dead.
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - As soon as I heard he was wounded, I left. I was in the
abbey of Fontevrault… Before he died, what did he do, what did he say?
ANNA - Maybe, as you could have imagined, it's the moment when he was at his
greatest. He gathered his captains around him, took off his regal attire, so
as to die as naked as when he was born, and requested that he be laid down on
the earth as a mark of great humility… He then begged pardon for his sins
and bequeathed his possessions…
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - To whom?
ANNA - His kingdom to his brother John, who was "landless" and now
is no longer "landless"..
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - God be praised!
ANNA - And his riches to his nephew Otto, on condition that a fourth of it be
given to the poor.
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - To the poor, that's generous. And did he think of his
mother?
ANNA - Of course! He begs you, madam, to bring back his body with you to the
Abbey of Fontevrault, to be buried there close to his father Henry II, under
your protection. What more could you expect?
ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE - You are right, nothing more…
ANNA - Woman to woman, we understand each other. Accept my thanks for coming
in answer to my call. Now you may go, the play is finished.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
At the end of the twelfth century, the king of England reigned not only over
England, but also over the western part of France, whose all Atlantic shores
(Aquitaine, Anjou, Maine, Brittany and Normandy) consequently were entirely
English. The always shifting border passed approximately through Clermont, Bourges,
Orleans and Rouen… The king of England had more lands in France than the
king of France!
Such a situation was at the origin of many problems between the king of France,
Philippe-Auguste, and the king of England, Richard the Lion-Heart. Although
they had been waging war against one another, they nonetheless left together
for the Third Crusade and fought side by side under the walls of Saint-John
of Acre… However, as they were both worried about their respective kingdoms,
they came back prematurely before having conquered Jerusalem. Richard had stayed
long enough to make a reputation as a fearless knight. When he returned, Philippe-Auguste,
who had left before him, had already begun gnawing at his French possessions.
The fighting began anew and it is during these engagements that Richard died
in uncertain circumstances.
Richard was a King, but he was above all a Knight. In contemporary terms, he
liked to brawl and could not help doing so. He was even eager for war, according
to the custom of the time when taking provinces from opponents was the rule
of the game.
King Richard the Lion-Heart enjoys a very great reputation. He owes it to a
few feats of valour and above all to propaganda carefully organized to magnify
them. But when things are looked at more closely, it becomes obvious that King
Richard was a terrifying character. Born in a family whose tradition was neither
kindness nor virtue, he was a very violent king, greedy and at the same time
profligate (he used to buy off all those he had need of!), despising all civil
or religious restraints, not hesitating to be cruel and exacting. And for all
these reasons hated universally by those with whom he had to deal.
Walter Scott, a Irish novelist, was so interested in the reign of King Richard
that he dedicated several novels to it, in particular the famous Ivanhoe. The
captivity of Richard in Austria, (when he was returning from the Crusade) was
frequently evoked, especially by Gretry who wrote an opera about it. It is under
the reign of Richard the Lion-Heart that took place the adventures of Robin
Hood which have enriched the makers of movies. Finally, Richard had a younger
brother, Jean-sans-Terre, who is famous both for his name and for having incessantly
plotted against his brother.
Non commercial use allowed. Reg. SACD - Michel Fustier, 4 Chambfort, 69 100 Villeurbanne, France. Tel: 00 33 (0)4 78 84 25 28.