re: The Mount Rushmore of Medieval Heroes

Fauci

Eta: I thought you said medical heroes

No love for Marsellus Wallace?

Barbarossa was a very interesting and innovative guy. I don’t think of him as a hero in a “I lead crazy campaigns” sense that I’m aware of. His negotiations for Jerusalem was great but didn’t do him any political favors.

Can’t believe nobody mentioned Belisarius.

Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199)
William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 or 1147 – 14 May 1219)

william marshal was 43 years old in 1189

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In 1189, while covering the flight of Henry II from Le Mans to Chinon, William unhorsed the undutiful Richard in a skirmish. William could have killed the prince but killed his horse instead, to make that point clear.

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BTW the source of the legend of Marshal unhorsing Richard is that biography commissioned and written a generation after his death, which was intended to commemorate the deeds and accomplishments of William for his heirs and posterity. whether the event actually happened at all much less as written is assumed to be true but cannot be verified (there is no other record of the event, at all)

As I said, Richard was dead when Marshall was 66 years old.

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Like I post in every one of these…

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like I do every time you post this…
downvote

John Sobieski- hero of the battle of Vienna who turned back the Ottoman Empire

Certainly a hero, but not medieval, as his famous Battle of Vienna took place in 1683.

A lot of good mentions so far. I would personally submit John the Blind, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia. Died at the age of 50 while fighting in the Battle of Crecy despite having been blind for the last 10 years.

Despite the fact that the battle was essentially lost already he refused to retreat as he felt it was beneath the dignity of a King. He had his knights tie their horses to his and charged into the fray where he was killed in action. Pretty much embodied the idea of a chivalrous warrior.