© Richard Randall

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century. Secondly, his absence from the English political landscape meant that the highly efficient government created by his father was allowed to entrench itself, though King John would later abuse it to the breaking point. The last part of Richard's legacy was romantic and literary. No matter the facts of his reign, he left an indelible imprint on the imagination extending to the present, in large part because of his military exploits. This is reflected in Steven Runciman's final verdict of Richard I: "he was a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier."

Folklore and fiction

By the 1260s, a legend had developed that, after Richard's capture, his minstrel, Blondel, travelled Europe from castle to castle, loudly singing a song known only to the two of them. Eventually, the story goes, he came to the place where Richard was being held, and heard the song answered with the appropriate refrain, thus revealing where the king was incarcerated. The story was the subject of AndrÈ Ernest-Modeste GrÈtry's opera Richard Coeur-de-Lion (1784). It seems unconnected to the real Jean 'Blondel' de Nesle, an aristocratic trouvËre.

In the 16th century, a few fictionalised chronicles linked Richard with the Robin Hood legends, although this did not become widespread until Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (below), and has subsequently been popularised by cinema. These later Hood stories depict Robin as upholding justice in Richard's name, against John and his officials, during Richard's imprisonment. However, in the earliest Robin Hood ballads the only king mentioned is "Edward our comely king", most probably Edward II or III.

In the Arabic world, Richard became a bit of a bogeyman for centuries after his death. Mothers would occasionally threaten unruly children with the admonition "King Richard will get you" well into the late 19th century.

Richard has appeared frequently in fiction, as a result of the 'chivalric revival' of the Romantic era. Sir Walter Scott depicts him in Ivanhoe, in which he initially adopts the pseudonym of Le Noir FainÈant ("The Black Sluggard"), and in The Talisman, a highly fictionalised treatment of the Third Crusade. He is also a major character in James Goldman's play The Lion in Winter, which depicts him as homosexual. He features in Graham Shelby's The Kings of Vain Intent and, more centrally, in The Devil is Loose, Norah Lofts' The Lute-Player, and Jean Plaidy (Eleanor Hibbert)'s The Heart of the Lion. He is generally portrayed in a heroic role in children's fiction, such as Ronald Welch's Knight Crusader.

Richard has been portrayed on film by:

• Wallace Beery, in the 1922 silent film, Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks.

• Henry Wilcoxon in Cecil B. DeMille's 1935 film "The Crusades."

• Ian Hunter in the 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Errol Flynn.

• Norman Wooland in Ivanhoe (1952), starring Robert Taylor.

• George Sanders in the 1954 film King Richard and the Crusaders (loosely based on The Talisman).

• Hamdi Geiss in Egyptian director Youssef Chahine's 1963 film Al Nasser Salah Ad-Din

• Anthony Hopkins in the film version of The Lion in Winter (1968).

• Richard Harris in Robin and Marian (1976).

Richard has had a cameo-role in other films. Sean Connery played him, uncredited, in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, a role parodied two years later by Patrick Stewart in Mel Brooks's comedic Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Iain Glen played Richard briefly at the end of the 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven.

On television, Richard has featured in adaptations of Ivanhoe and The Talisman, and versions of the Robin Hood legend. The 1965 Doctor Who television serial "The Crusade" is set during Richard's conflict with Saladin, and features Julian Glover as Richard. John Rhys-Davies played Richard in one episode of the 1980s television series Robin of Sherwood.

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