User blog:Nikolai the Second/The History of Richard Lionheart of England.

Richard 1 of England or Richard Lionheart was the central Christian commander in the Third Crusade.

The Third Crusade came up during V2 Ep 1 https://youtu.be/PzPZ6joXq5Y?t=2m35s and Christian symbols are litered all over the show. From Ozpin's scarf, to Qrow's necklace, to Ruby's Red Trailer character model, to Ruby's v1-v3 clothes or the fact that Jerusalem contains the work "Salem".

But analysis of these are not the purpose of this blog. We are going to take a fact based look at Richard Lionheart's actions during the third crusade and afterwards.

On recieving word that Jerusalem had fallen to Saladin, Richard 1 killed his father, taking his crown and immediately raised a tremendous ammount of money for an army. He allowed the king of Scotland to buy his independence, he raised taxes incredibly high, and bankrupted his personal wealth paying for this army. He left with his brother Phillip ll of France (so that no brother could take control while the other was gone) and they met up with the German commander Frederick Barbarossa and Leopold V of Austria.

A long story short, Barbarossa died crossing a river and his large, expensive army turned back. His brother left back to Europe after squabbling over who would appoint rulers of their newly conquered territories. Leopold V also left soon after the battle of Acre. All these setbacks happened before Jersalem could be retaken. All of his allies bailed on him when things got rough.

Alone and abandoned he fought Saladin, the Muslim commander to a draw, neither capable of besting the other. But time was growing short. Phillip ll of France was already plotting to take Richard's throne in England while the English army was away fighting the Muslims and France's army was back in Europe.

Out of time, Richard made swift "deal with the devil" aka Saladin. In a Compromise, unarmed Christians could visit the holy land but it would remain under muslim control. Richard then race back to England only to find his brother, King of France, had taken Richard's throne and Phillip ruled both England and France. Richard was thrown in a German castle and left to rot for 2 years while his brother ruled his domain.

In the end, Richard was stabbed in the back at everyturn (although to be fair he did stab his father and others in the back, literally). He compromised with Saladin which left Jerusalem still in Muslim hands and it was all for nothing because he was still usurped. Richard's failure to secure Jerusalem lead to the INFAMOUS 4th crusade which greatly increased the suffering of the entire near east and gave the Crusades there modern characterization.

I wouldn't be surprised in Leo Lionheart made a "deal with the devil" with Salem directly after the Vytal Festival catastrophy. Salem relaxes the Grimm attacks and in exchange Leo co-operates.