These Two Kings "Slept" Together to Reconcile between the Two Kingdoms?

Jun 24, 2025 | A legendary king of the Crusades… once shared a bed with the very man considered England’s greatest rival.Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it?They called him Richard the Lionheart—heart of a lion, hand of God, the king who shattered Jerusalem’s gates and made all of Europe tremble.But before he rode into battle, before he ever swore an oath to God… Richard lay in the same bed as Philip II of France—and declared it “an unbreakable alliance.”

That night, the two most powerful men in Europe dined together, toasted one another... and rested their heads on the same mattress. No scribes. No servants. Just two hearts, two colossal egos… and one secret that was never fully confessed.But this isn’t just a story about one night. It’s a question that has whispered across eight centuries: Did England’s greatest warrior-king live a life no one dared to name?

And if he did… We may need to rewrite what we mean by “masculinity,” what we call “heroism,” and what we expect from a king.But before we answer that—You need to hear about the strangest confession ever whispered inside a pope’s private chamber. Because that is where Richard began to hint at what no one dared to say.Are you ready? This isn’t a history lesson. It’s a journey into the soul beneath the golden armor of a king who never bowed.


WIKIPEDIA: Richard I of England »

WIKIPEDIA: Philip II of France »

Why Richard I Shared His Bed with the King of France

THE GUARDIAN: For the past half-century, Richard the Lionheart - that buff, bronzed warrior who hardly saw his wife and had no children - has been something of a gay icon. As a presence on the silver screen (most famously in the shape of the young Anthony Hopkins in The Lion in Winter) his homosexuality has rarely been in doubt.

English history isn't short of gay or bisexual monarchs - Edward II, James I, possibly William II - but the historical evidence for counting Richard I among their number rests on one contemporary document concerning his relationship with King Philip II of France. In 1187, a chronicler reports, the two men were so close that "at night the bed did not separate them".

Now, however, as the BBC prepares to air a new Lionheart docu-drama, the king's biographer, Professor John Gillingham, has pointed out that Richard's ostentatious bed-sharing with the French king was the product of a political alliance rather than a lovers' tryst. » | Helen Castor | Wednesday, March 19, 2008