Francesco Portinari was Beatrice's younger brother, Dante's best friend and a Third Crusade veteran. Like Dante, he took the Crusades up to reclaim the Holy Land, unlike most of the Crusaders who just wanted to be absolved. He was with Dante at the Battle of Acre. They watched the prisoners of Acre under the command of Richard the Lionheart. When Dante was "Comforted" by the Slave Girl, Francesco held her husband back from trying to kill Dante. Francesco kept arguing with Dante throughout the Crusades about what Dante was doing when it came to either preserving the prisoners in order to make a truce by the orders of the King or slaughtering them. In an uncontrollable rage, Dante killed all of them, believing them to be heretics. When King Richard saw this, he demanded the accused to step forward. Francesco took the fall in order to save his "Brother" and was sentenced to be hanged as Dante fled.