His reputation as “Good King Richard” began as a PR campaign

After the Komnenian Restoration ends, the Angelos Dynasty ushers Byzantium into a new dark era. The Eastern Empire disintegrates, and Constantinople's influence wanes. A new generation of Crusader Kings responds to the Third Crusade's summons in the meantime. To face the formidable Sultan Saladin, Philip Augustus, Richard I, and Frederick Barbarossa all board the cross and sail for the east.

King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine welcomed King Richard the Lionheart into the world at Beaumont Palace in Oxford on September 8, 1157. After the passing of his older brother Henry, the Young King, their second living son became the successor to his father. He could not even speak English or Angles because he was not English but rather Angevin or French Norman. Then, in that sequence, he was made the Duke of Anjou, the Duke of Normandie, and the King of England. Richard is referred to as Richard Coeur de Lion in France.

Richard's powerful mother, Eleanor, started a PR effort to obtain money for his release after Henry VI demanded a hefty ransom payment of 150,000 marks. Richard was portrayed as a kind monarch in an effort to get the Angevin Empire's people to contribute.