Ivanhoe is set in 1194, when Richard I returned from the Third Crusade to reclaim his kingdom from his brother John, who had usurped much of Richard's power during his long absence in the Holy Land. For his portrayal of Saxon England, Scott drew extensively on Robert Henry's The History of Great Britain, Sharon Turner's The History of the Anglo-Saxons from the Earliest Period to the Norman Conquest, and Joseph Strutt's Sports and Pastimes of the People of England.