After King Richard I returned from the Third Crusade, having earned the nickname ‘Lionheart’, he was called upon to put down a rebellion in the French town Limoges, then under his rule. Local bards prophesied that he would meet his doom from a Limoges arrow, but Richard scorned their songs, until he was wounded by a bolt from a crossbow.

After crushing the revolt with brutal efficiency, Richard turned to the young man who had wounded him. The wound had turned gangrenous, and Richard knew he was dying, but still pardoned his murderer, much to that would-be martyr’s disappointment. Nonetheless, Richard did die, and it was said that England’s Lion had been slain by a French ant.

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