Leopold V of Austria

Leopold V of Austria captured Richard the Lionheart on his way home from the Third Crusade and sold him to the Emperor, and the ransom built Vienna. He was a Babenberg duke who inherited Austria and then Styria, and went east with the crusading armies in 1190. At the siege of Acre in 1191 his banner was thrown down from the walls after the city fell - by Richard's men, or with Richard's approval - in a dispute about the division of spoils among princes of unequal rank. The insult was public and Leopold went home. Richard, sailing back late in 1192, was shipwrecked in the Adriatic and had to cross Austrian territory in disguise; he was recognised near Vienna and arrested. Holding a returning crusader was a breach of the church's protection and Leopold was excommunicated for it, which did not stop him handing Richard to the Emperor Henry VI and taking half the proceeds. The ransom demanded was one hundred and fifty thousand marks, several times the annual revenue of the English crown, and England was taxed at a quarter of all movable property to raise it. Leopold's share paid for the walls of Vienna, the founding of Wiener Neustadt, and the first Austrian mint. He did not enjoy it long: his horse fell on him at a tournament at Graz on Christmas of 1194, his foot was crushed and gangrenous, and he died after having it amputated - reportedly holding an axe himself while a servant struck. He was absolved on his deathbed after promising restitution.

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