In the movies, England’s King Richard the First—he of the lion heart and Robin Hood fame—is a hero of spotless reputation. In Hollywood’s many versions of the Robin Hood story, for example, Robin worships good King Richard and would willingly die for him. History, however, offers a different slant on Richard’s supposed goodness. In 1189, the pope called for yet another crusade to take back the holy land of Jerusalem from Moslem rule. Intent on following the Pope’s order, Richard combined forces with King Phillip the II of France. Together, they managed to take the town of Acre, a port on what is now Israel’s Northwestern coast. Attempting to blackmail the Moslem ruler Saladin into giving up sacred lands, Richard took 2,500 civilians hostage, many of them women and children. When Saladin refused, Richard promptly slaughtered every last one of his hostages.