#1187CE

[whencyclopedia]

Third Crusade

The Third Crusade (1189-1192 CE) was launched to retake Jerusalem after its fall to the Muslim leader Saladin in 1187 CE. The Crusade was led by three European monarchs, hence its other name of 'the Kings' Crusade'. The three leaders were: Frederick I Barbarossa, King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1152-1190 CE), Philip II of France (r. 1180-1223 CE) and Richard I 'the Lionhearted' of England (r. 1189-1199 CE). Despite this pedigree, the campaign was a failure, the Holy City never even being attacked. Along the way, there were some victories, notably the capture of Acre and the battle of Arsuf. Fizzling out with a whimper, the Crusade collapsed because, by the time they arrived at their objective, the western leaders found themselves without sufficient men or resources to resist the still intact armies of Saladin. Although a compromise was negotiated with access for pilgrims to Jerusalem permitted and a Christian foothold maintained in the Middle East, another attempt to take the Holy City would shortly be made the original objective of the Fourth Crusade of 1202-1204 CE.

The Fall of Jerusalem

The Second Crusade (1147-1149 CE) had effectively ended with the complete failure to take Damascus in Syria in 1148 CE. The various Muslim states in the Middle East then realised that the once-feared western knights could be defeated and the precarious existence of the Crusader-held territories, the Latin East, was starkly highlighted. All that was needed now was a unification of Muslim forces and this was provided by one of the greatest of all medieval rulers, Saladin, the Sultan of Egypt and Syria (r. 1174-1193 CE).

Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty in Egypt, took control of Damascus in 1174 CE and Aleppo in 1183 CE. Saladin then shocked the world by defeating the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its Latin allies at the Battle of Hattin in 1187 CE. Thus, Saladin was able to take control of such cities as Acre, Tiberias, Caesarea, Nazareth, Jaffa and even, the holiest of holies itself, Jerusalem. Remarkably lenient with his Christian captives compared to the butchery of the First Crusade (1095-1102 CE), after the recapture of Jerusalem almost a century earlier, Saladin accepted ransoms from those Latin Christians who could afford to buy their freedom and enslaved the rest. Eastern Christians were permitted to remain in Jerusalem as a protected minority group. The Latin East had all but collapsed, only Tyre remained in Christian hands, under the command of Conrad of Montferrat, but it would prove a useful foothold for the coming fightback.

Pope Gregory VIII only reigned for a few months in 1187 CE but, in October of that year, he made a lasting impact on history by calling for yet another crusade to win back Jerusalem and such lost holy relics as the True Cross. Nothing less than a repeat of the remarkable feat of the First Crusade would do. No fewer than three monarchs took up the Pope's challenge: the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, king of Germany, Philip II of France and Richard I of England. With these being the three most powerful men in western Europe, the campaign promised much.

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