Richard the Lionheart, an English icon, spent no more than six months of his ten-year reign in England.
The rest went on crusade, in captivity or defending his lands in France.
More amazing facts
- 1185 The ominous eclipse in The Tale of Igor's Campaign really happened.
- 1191 Japan's tea culture began with seeds in a monk's luggage.
- 1200 · 1215 While England was sealing Magna Carta, whole churches were being cut out of rock in Ethiopia.
- 1202 The Fibonacci numbers became famous through a puzzle about rabbits.
- 1204 · 1797 · 1815 The bronze horses of St Mark's in Venice are crusader loot.
- 1206 · 1227 The grave of Genghis Khan, founder of the largest contiguous empire in history, has never been found.