Richard The Lionheart Warriors Of God

Richard the Lionheart and Saladin Richard the Lionheart and Saladin are known as some of the greatest leaders and warriors to fight in The Crusades. The book Warriors of God, by James Reston describes these two men throughout their battles in the Third Crusade. Many portrayals of these two men are either ones that make them look like the kindest of any of the Crusaders or some of the meanest, most gruesome men to fight. James Reston does a very good job of finding a medium between the two and gives the reader a good understanding of what these two great leaders were like without being biased. Richard the Lionheart was portrayed by Reston as one of the greatest Crusaders of all. After reading this book, the reader would not be able to
There were stories of him doing things that were so amazing that you would think that he was actually more than human. There was one story of him having to fight a lion. When the lion attacked him, Richard ducked under the leaping animal. As it passed over him, he quickly punched it. The lion then fell down, groaning with pain and as it did, Richard reached down the lion's throat and pulled out his heart. He then held it up to his captor and squeezed it, ringing out the blood. In another part of the book, Reston makes him out to be almost superhuman again. He talks about how Richard was "the hero of Europe...the greatest warrior of the Continent," as well as mentioning other great qualities and characteristics of Richard throughout the
He was surprisingly generous for his position, as most people leading an army would not be. I previously talked about Richard the Lionheart's ruthlessness. Saladin was in no way like that. An example of Saladin showing his generosity was at the battle at Jaffa. Richard was down in battle and had lost his horse. Saladin saw this and sent him two horses. He said that "a man as great as he is should not be in parts such as these, on foot with his men." This also showed the respect that Saladin had for Richard. Saladin was also generous in his dealings with Richard at times when they were dividing up the land. Early on in the book, there is a time where Saladin notices that one of his prisoners is far too old to have come to battle in The Crusade. He asks him what he is doing there and the man replies, "I only came to this country to make a pilgrimage to the Church of the Resurrection." Saladin felt for the man. He then set him free and provided him with a horse. He had one of his men escort him through his people to make sure that the man made it out without any trouble. Soon after that he rejected all requests by his men to execute the remaining prisoners. Reston says, "His actions seemed to define what it meant to be a good Muslim. By his amnesties and various charities toward his enemies he secured forever his reputation for gentility and wisdom." (p.