I realize this question has a lot of nuance to it, (for example, the wealthy and educated likely had a different idea of lions than common peasants) but this question has really been nagging me lately.
I’ve tried to do some research into the issue, using this source it’s apparent that lions had been extinct in England and most of Western Europe for 1000s of years prior to the 12th century AD. This seemingly rules out the possibility that there was any sort of popular memory of lions by the time Richard I ascended to the throne.
Of course King Richard spent a substantial portion of his reign outside of England itself, particularly in the holy land crusading. That same source indicates that lions were often hunted by the ruling class in that region at the time, and didn’t go extinct for another century or so after Richard’s death. This to me would seem to leave open the possibility that Richard and the crusaders could have had first or second hand knowledge of lions, though I haven’t found any historical literature to lend any sort of credibility to this theory.
Finally I noted that lions are referenced several times in the scriptures. This might explain why “lionheart” had such a positive connotation (Christ was referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah). But this still leaves me wondering whether Richard or his subjects had any idea what a lion looked or acted like aside from what clergymen were able to convey to them using biblical sources.
Any insight on this question would be greatly appreciated! I acknowledge that often medieval imagery was mythical in nature (such as the flag of wales adopted in the 15th c) but I was wondering whether people living during or soon after the reign of Richard I (especially Richard himself) had any sort of real idea of what a lion was, or if it was just some sort of semi-mythical beast to them on par with unicorns and dragons. Thank you!
Edit: I’ve seen some of the medieval images of lions, many of which look very un-lion like. Would Richard’s idea of a lion have been exclusively based off of these?
This question comes up a lot! There is even a section of the FAQ about it.
u/jschooltiger also wrote about it: Why does England have a Lion on their flag, despite the fact there were no Lions in England?, with links to numerous other older answers.
Basically, people would have been familiar with lions in the Bible and other religious literature, even if they never saw actually one. The average person probably wouldn't see a lion in England, but lots of people had seen one because they were sometimes found in royal menageries (like a medieval kind of zoo). They also might be familiar with lions if they had been in the Near East, on crusade or otherwise. Richard had some spare time to go hunting while he was one crusade, although I don't think he was hunting lions specifically (he didn't go very far inland, where lions typically would be).
There is a funny story from the First Crusade where a crusader named Gouffier de Lastours had a pet lion after the crusade. When he went back home to Europe, the lion tried to swim after his boat - whether the lion made it back to Europe or not depends on the version of the story, and this probably never actually happened anyway, but crusaders certainly saw lions sometimes.
A Muslim author from the time of the crusades, Usama ibn Munqidh, often went hunting for lions in Syria (the name "Usama" even means "lion"). He also tells the story of a man who was attacked by a lion, but the lion didn't feel like eating him just then, so the man escaped.
Usama doesn't mention any crusaders encountering lions, but he has another story about a leopard, since leopards also lived in Syria at the time. This particular leopard wouldn't attack Muslims, but it did attack crusaders, so it was known as the "leopard of jihad". Clearly Usama is telling a joke, but lions and leopards would have been familiar creatures in the 12th century.
So, England was pretty far from the natural habitat of lions, but there were lions in menageries and Europeans very likely encountered them while on crusade.