The Third Crusade (1189-1192)

Part oneThe siege of Acre

News that Jerusalem had fallen shook Western Europe. Three rulers took the cross: the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England. In England a special tax was raised to pay for the expedition, known as the Saladin tithe. Barbarossa led a large army overland, but he drowned in a river in southern Anatolia in 1190, and most of his men turned back. Richard took the island of Cyprus on his voyage east.

The war centred on the port of Acre, which Salahuddin had taken after Hattin. In August 1189 Guy of Lusignan, whom Salahuddin had freed the year before, began to besiege it. Salahuddin's army then surrounded the Franks outside the walls, so each side besieged the other. It went on for nearly two years, with hunger and sickness on both sides. The Franks also quarrelled over the crown. Guy had been king only through his wife, and she died in the camp. Conrad of Montferrat, who had held Tyre against Salahuddin, married her sister and claimed the title for himself.

Supplies mattered as much as swords. A ship sent from Beirut with food for the city slipped through the Frankish blockade after its crew shaved their beards, hoisted crosses and put pigs on deck to pass as Franks. Later Egyptian ships came to help. Philip arrived in the spring of 1191 and Richard in June. In July the garrison of Acre surrendered on terms that Salahuddin had not approved, and he was bound to honour them. They included a large payment, the release of Christian prisoners and the return of the True Cross, a relic taken at Hattin. When the payments were delayed, Richard had more than two thousand of the prisoners put to death in August. Philip soon sailed home, and Richard was left in command.

Part twoArsuf, Jaffa and the treaty

Richard marched south along the coast with his fleet beside him. On 7 September 1191 Salahuddin attacked his column at Arsuf. The Franks held their formation until the moment came to charge, and then they drove the Muslims back. It was not a disaster for Salahuddin, but it ended any idea that his army could not be beaten in the open. Richard went on to Jaffa, about sixty-five kilometres from Jerusalem. Shortly afterward Salahuddin ordered Ascalon pulled down, since he doubted he could hold it against Richard, and the loss of the town grieved him.

In January 1192 Richard led the army to Bayt Nuba, a day's march from Jerusalem, but cold rain and quarrels among the commanders forced it back. He tried again in the summer and again turned away. The commanders could not agree on how to attack a hill city with so little water, and Salahuddin had prepared the roads and wells against them. Behind the lines, envoys went to and fro. Richard asked to meet Salahuddin in person, and Salahuddin replied that kings should meet only after a settlement was agreed. When Richard fell ill, Salahuddin sent him fruit and snow for his fever. Salahuddin's brother al-Adil did much of the talking for the Muslims. An idea was even floated that al-Adil might marry Richard's sister, but nothing came of it. Conrad was chosen as king and was killed by assassins in April 1192, and Henry of Champagne took his place.

In July 1192 Salahuddin took Jaffa. Richard arrived by sea with a small force and drove his men out. Accounts say that when Richard's horse was lost in the fighting, Salahuddin sent him fresh horses, a gesture that both armies noticed. Ibn Shaddad, who was at his side, wrote that on one anxious night Salahuddin spent hours in prayer, in tears, asking for help against an attack due the next day. By then both men were worn out. Richard was ill and worried by trouble at home, and Salahuddin's soldiers had been in the field for years.

Talks had broken down earlier over Ascalon, which Richard had rebuilt, and Salahuddin now repeated his old terms. Many of his emirs wanted to go home after years of service. The Treaty of Jaffa was signed in early September 1192, and it set a three-year truce. The Franks kept a strip of the coast from Tyre to Jaffa, with Acre. Jerusalem stayed under Salahuddin, and Christian pilgrims could visit it freely. Ascalon went back to the Muslims, and its walls were not rebuilt. Richard sailed for home in October. Storms and enemies on the way left him a prisoner in Europe for over a year. Later that autumn Salahuddin received groups of Frankish pilgrims in Jerusalem, as the treaty allowed.

Neither side had won clearly. The Franks had recovered much of the coast, and Salahuddin had kept the one prize that mattered most.

Richard could not take Jerusalem, and Salahuddin could not drive the Franks into the sea.

WatchThe lecture for this chapter

Lecture Al MuqaddimahThe Third Crusade from the Islamic Perspective (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Tyre
• Acre
• Arsuf
• Jaffa
• Ascalon
• Jerusalem

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter