3 September 1189: Coronation of Richard I

Today marks the anniversary of the coronation of Henry the Young King's younger brother Richard on 3 September 1189. When Richard was born on 8 September 1157 he was second in line to succession after his brother Henry (b. 28 February 1157) and this did not change until the latter's untimely death in 1183. Then Richard's prospects of becoming king of England, duke of Normandy and count of Anjou boosted. One may think that Richard became his father's heir immediately upon Henry the Young King's death. Far from that. As John Gillingham has pointed out, Richard's inability to quell the 1183 revolt by effectively defeating his brothers could have been the reason for his father's stubborn refusals to recognize him as his heir. Also, there might have been more to this: Henry II probably feared that Richard would follow in his elder brother's footsteps and try to supplant him, as the Young King had tried to do in 1173 (see the Great Revolt of 1173-74). I wrote about Richard's rocky road to becoming his father's rightful heir in my previous post about his brother Geoffrey's death, and about Richard's coronation itself here.