The sultan and the king

Two significant medieval deaths on this date. On August 31, 1218, al-Malik al-Adil, Saladin’s younger brother, died after a successful reign. I had fun writing his scenes in Lionheart as he and Richard amused themselves with some verbal jousting. Clearly the two men were on friendly terms—surprisingly friendly in the midst of a holy war and a jihad—for Richard knighted one of al-Adil’s sons and he gave Richard two Arab stallions after the battle of Jaffa as a tribute to the English king’s courage. This act would later give rise to the legend that Saladin sent a horse to Richard in the middle of the battle after his mount had been slain. I think the truth is remarkable enough, does not need embroidering. This legend would also give birth to another, that Richard’s Cypriot stallion, Fauvel, was the horse slain under him at Jaffa, but I am happy to report this is erroneous, too. In his haste to reach Jaffa once he learned it was under Saracen attack, Richard took no horses with him, one of his chroniclers being very precise about the number of horses his men had at the second battle of Jaffa: only eleven, animals they found in Jaffa or took from Saracens. Fauvel was safely back at Acre, not taking part in yet another Lionheart legend. We do not know his eventual fate, but I find it hard to believe Richard would not have shipped him back home, given how attached he was to the Cypriot stallion; the same is true for al-Adil’s magnificent gift, Arabs being highly prized both by the crusaders and the Saracens. So Fauvel gets to chase after the French in Ransom, as I am sure the real Fauvel did. And of course Al-Adil will be an important character in my next novel, The Land Beyond the Sea.
August 31, 1422 was the date of death for the English king, Henry V, sometimes called Harry of Monmouth for the place of his birth. He died of dysentery, a great killer in the MA, and was only 35, leaving a nine month old son as his heir. He has never been one of my favorite kings; there is coldness about him that put me off. But his premature death poses a huge What if. What if he had not died when he did? The history of England and France would have been very different; for better or worse, it is hard to say, but definitely different.