The word of the day today, thanks to the Brittanica Dictionary, is vain. Vain is an adjective with several possible meanings: “excessively proud of or concerned about one’s own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.,” or “proceeding from or showing pride in or concern about one’s appearance, qualities, etc.,” or “ineffectual or unsuccessful,” or “without real significance, value, or importance; baseless or worthless,” or “senseless or foolish,” although that last one is called archaic (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/vain). The website also mentions one idiom for vain, and that is “in vain,” which means “without effect or avail; to no purpose” or “in an improper or irreverent manner,” specifically in regards to taking God’s name in vain (ibid.).

The word entered the English language “c. 1300, ‘devoid of real value, idle, unprofitable,’ from Old French vain, vein ‘worthless, void, invalid, feeble; conceited’ (12c.), from Latin vanus ‘empty, void,’ figuratively ‘idle, fruitless,’ from PIE *wano-, suffixed form of root *eue- ‘to leave, abandon, give out.’
“Meaning ‘conceited, elated with a high opinion of oneself’ first recorded 1690s in English; earlier ‘silly, idle, foolish’ (late 14c.). Phrase in vain ‘to no effect’ (c. 1300, after Latin in vanum) preserves the original sense” (https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=vain).

On this date in 1199, King Richard I of England (1157-1199), Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionheart, was wounded by a crossbow bolt fired by a boy who was seeking to avenge the deaths of his fathers and brothers (or maybe it was March 26).

Richard was the second oldest son of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. When his older brother, Henry the Young King, died, in 1183, six years before his father, Richard became the heir presumptive. He was the favorite of his mother, and there were times when he supported his father and times when he rebelled against his father.

He became renowned early on as a warrior and leader. He had his own army at 16. In 1175, when Richard was 18, his father gave him the task of subduing some rebel barons in the north of England: “On this campaign, Richard acquired the name ‘the Lion’ or ‘the Lionheart’ due to his noble, brave and fierce leadership. He is referred to as ‘this our lion’ (hic leo noster) as early as 1187 in the Topographia Hibernica of Giraldus Cambrensis, while the byname ‘lionheart’ (le quor de lion) is first recorded in Ambroise‘s L’Estoire de la Guerre Sainte in the context of the Accon campaign of 1191 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_I_of_England). Le quor de lion is the Norman French version of Coeur de Lion, and Norman French was the language spoken by Henry II’s family, given that Henry was the great grandson of William the Conqueror.

Richard became Richard I in 1189, the year Henry II died. He almost immediately went on the Third Crusade. He had allied himself with Philip II of France while engaged in rebellion against his father (keep in mind that much of Henry’s territory included Normany, the Aquitaine, and other parts of modern-day France), and this alliance continued, although it is suggested that they chose to go together because they feared the one left behind would take advantage of the other’s absence. The crusade experienced some successes, but in part because of the strength of Saladin and in part because of dissension among the Christians, it was ultimately a failure.

After the Crusade, on his return to France, he was taken hostage first by Leopold of Austria and then the Emperor Henry VI of the Holy Roman Empire. Henry demanded a very large ransom for the release of Richard, and while Eleanor was trying to raise the money, Richard’s brother Prince John and Philip II offered Henry VI a large sum to keep Richard in captivity, although Henry turned the offer down. While confined, Richard lost some of his French holdings to Philip, but after his release, he fought to get them back; “Richard won several victories over Philip. At Fréteval in 1194, just after Richard’s return to France from captivity and money-raising in England, Philip fled, leaving his entire archive of financial audits and documents to be captured by Richard. At the Battle of Gisors (sometimes called Courcelles) in 1198, Richard took Dieu et mon Droit–‘God and my Right’–as his motto (still used by the British monarchy today), echoing his earlier boast to Emperor Henry that his rank acknowledged no superior but God” (ibid.).

Then in March of 1199, Richard was suppressing a revolt in Limousin, and he was shot by the bolt from the crossbow: “Richard asked to have the crossbowman brought before him; . . . the man turned out (according to some sources, but not all) to be a boy. He said Richard had killed his father and two brothers, and that he had intended to kill Richard in revenge. He expected to be executed, but as a final act of mercy Richard forgave him, saying ‘Live on, and by my bounty behold the light of day’, before he ordered the boy to be freed and sent away with 100 shillings” (ibid.). Richard died a week and a half later, not directly from the wound but from the infection that occurred, a gangrenous infection.

After Richard’s death, his younger brother, John, became king. And King John was a disaster for England, at least in terms of what kings were supposed to do in the Middle Ages. There was a reason John was nicknamed John Lackland. He lost all of those French territories that Henry II and Richard I worked to keep.

In other words, all the campaigns that Richard the Lionheart undertook were ultimately in vain.

The image today is “’Death of King Richard I, 1902. Richard I of England pardons the archer who shot him, 1199. Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199) was fatally wounded by a crossbow bolt while besieging the castle of Chalus-Chabrol in France. After a work by Patten Wilson (1869-1934). From A Child’s History of England by Charles Dickens [J. M. Dent & Co., New York, 1902]” ( https://www.album-online.com/detail/en/ZDY5MzYwMA/death-king-richard-1902-england-pardons-archer-shot-1199-lionheart-alb3945401).