England remembers Richard I as its warrior-king, yet the man behind the three lions was barely English. Born to Eleanor of Aquitaine and raised in the south of France as Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou, he composed verse in French and Occitan and spent roughly six months of his ten-year reign (1189–1199) on English soil — England was a treasury to fund his wars, not a home. His fame rests on the Third Crusade: he took Acre, beat Saladin at Arsuf in September 1191, and in 1192 negotiated safe passage for Christian pilgrims to the holy places — but never recaptured Jerusalem itself. He died in 1199 at Châlus, felled by a crossbow bolt over a minor siege.

King & Country's figure catches that reputation in miniature. Richard stands crowned and mailed in a scarlet surcoat blazoned with the three gold lions passant guardant — the royal arms of England — a battle axe balanced on one shoulder and his left hand on a heater shield bearing the same lions, his great helm set at his feet. Pair him with his great adversary Saladin, the sultan he fought at Arsuf and bargained with at Jaffa, or with Frederick Barbarossa, the emperor who set out on the same crusade and drowned before he reached it; for a mounted command group, add the mounted Richard. He anchors any Third Crusade diorama — a siege camp outside Acre, or a face-off across the lines with the Ayyubid army.

Model: MK165 / King & Country / 1/30 (60mm) scale / matte finish / 1 piece set