Third Crusade (1189-1192): Richard the Lionheart and Saladin

The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was the western European response to Saladin’s conquest of Jerusalem in 1187. Led by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England, it is often called the Kings’ Crusade. It recovered Acre and much of the Levantine coast, rebuilding a smaller crusader kingdom, but ended with the Treaty of Jaffa in 1192 without retaking Jerusalem.

Background and causes

In July 1187 Saladin destroyed the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin and captured King Guy of Lusignan. Over the following months almost every Frankish town in the kingdom surrendered, and on 2 October 1187 Jerusalem itself fell to Saladin. Only Tyre, defended by Conrad of Montferrat, and a few castles held out, along with the separate states of Tripoli and Antioch.

Pope Gregory VIII responded with the bull Audita tremendi in October 1187, calling for a new crusade and blaming the disaster on the sins of Christians. Western rulers answered quickly. In January 1188 Henry II of England and Philip II of France met at Gisors, made peace for the moment and took the cross. Both kingdoms raised a special tax, the Saladin tithe, to pay for the expedition.

Wars between Henry II, his son Richard and Philip delayed the departure. Henry died on 6 July 1189, and Richard, crowned on 3 September 1189, threw himself into preparations, raising money by selling offices, lands and privileges.

Frederick Barbarossa’s expedition

The German emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa, was about 67 and had taken part in the Second Crusade four decades earlier. He set out from Regensburg in May 1189 with a large, well-organised army; modern estimates usually range from about 12,000 to 20,000 men, though medieval writers gave far higher figures.

Frederick marched overland through Hungary and the Balkans. Relations with the Byzantine emperor Isaac II Angelos were tense, and the Germans occupied parts of Thrace before a settlement allowed them to cross into Asia Minor in 1190. In Anatolia they defeated the Seljuk Turks and stormed their capital, Iconium (Konya), in May 1190.

On 10 June 1190 Frederick drowned while crossing or bathing in the Saleph (Göksu) river in Cilicia. His death broke the morale of the army. Many men went home; the rest, under his son Frederick of Swabia, reached Acre, where the duke died in January 1191.

Richard and Philip: the journey east

Richard and Philip set out together from Vézelay in Burgundy in July 1190 and wintered in Sicily. There Richard quarrelled with the new Sicilian king, Tancred, captured Messina and forced a settlement. Tensions grew between the two kings, not least because Richard broke his long engagement to Philip’s sister Alys.

Philip sailed directly to Acre, arriving on 20 April 1191. Richard’s fleet was scattered by storms, and some ships were wrecked on Cyprus, whose ruler, Isaac Komnenos, mistreated the survivors. Richard invaded the island in May 1191 and conquered it within weeks. At Limassol, on 12 May 1191, he married Berengaria of Navarre. Cyprus would remain under Latin rule for centuries.

The siege of Acre and the march south

Since August 1189 King Guy, released by Saladin, had been besieging the port of Acre, while Saladin’s army in turn surrounded the besiegers. The arrival of Philip and then Richard, on 8 June 1191, finally broke the deadlock. The garrison surrendered on 12 July 1191. The long Siege of Acre was the largest and costliest action of the crusade.

Philip, ill and eager to secure his interests in Flanders, left for France at the beginning of August 1191. When negotiations with Saladin over the agreed exchange of prisoners and the return of the True Cross stalled, Richard had about 2,700 Muslim prisoners from the Acre garrison executed on 20 August 1191. Saladin responded by killing Frankish prisoners.

Richard then led the army south along the coast, supported by the fleet. On 7 September 1191 Saladin attacked the column at the Battle of Arsuf. The crusaders held their formation, then counter-charged and drove Saladin’s army back. The victory restored the crusaders’ confidence and allowed them to occupy and refortify Jaffa.

The struggle for Jerusalem

From Jaffa, Richard twice advanced inland towards Jerusalem. In January 1192 the army reached Beit Nuba, about 20 kilometres from the city, in cold and rain. The leaders, including the Templars and Hospitallers, advised that the city could not be held after the crusaders left, and the army turned back. A second advance in June 1192 ended the same way.

Meanwhile the kingdom’s politics were in turmoil. Conrad of Montferrat, who had married Queen Isabella, claimed the crown against Guy of Lusignan. In April 1192 the barons chose Conrad as king, but he was murdered in Tyre on 28 April 1192 by members of the Nizari Ismaili sect known in the West as the Assassins. Isabella then married Count Henry of Champagne, who ruled the kingdom. Guy, left without a kingdom, bought Cyprus, which Richard had sold to the Templars.

In late July 1192 Saladin attacked and took most of Jaffa. Richard arrived by sea and, with a small force, recaptured the town. On 5 August 1192 he repulsed a further attack in a battle famous for his personal bravery.

The Treaty of Jaffa

Both sides were exhausted. Richard was ill and needed to return to defend his lands against Philip II and his own brother John. Saladin’s troops were tired of campaigning. On 2 September 1192 the two leaders agreed the Treaty of Jaffa, negotiated largely through Saladin’s brother al-Adil.

The main terms were:

• a truce of three years and eight months;
• the coastal strip from Tyre to Jaffa to remain in Frankish hands;
• the fortress of Ascalon to be demolished;
• Christian and Muslim pilgrims and merchants to travel freely, with Christian pilgrims allowed to visit Jerusalem.

Richard left the Holy Land on 9 October 1192. On his way home he was captured near Vienna by Duke Leopold V of Austria, who had been insulted at Acre, and was held until 1194. See the ransom of Richard the Lionheart. Saladin died in Damascus on 4 March 1193.

Key people

• Richard I of England (Richard the Lionheart), king from 1189, a renowned soldier who became the crusade’s main commander after Acre. He spent only about six months of his ten-year reign in England.
• Philip II of France (Philip Augustus), king since 1180, who shared command at Acre but returned home in 1191 and later attacked Richard’s French lands.
• Frederick I Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor since 1155, the senior ruler of the crusade, who died before reaching the Holy Land.
• Saladin (Salah al-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub), Ayyubid sultan of Egypt and Syria, who defended his conquests against the crusade through three years of war.
• Al-Adil (Saphadin), Saladin’s brother and chief negotiator, who later became sultan himself.
• Conrad of Montferrat, defender of Tyre, and Guy of Lusignan, the captured and released king, whose rivalry for the crown divided the crusaders.
• Henry of Champagne, nephew of both Richard and Philip, who ruled the kingdom from 1192.

Consequences and legacy

The Third Crusade did not recover Jerusalem, but it saved the crusader states. A new Kingdom of Jerusalem, with its capital at Acre, survived until the fall of Acre in 1291. The conquest of Cyprus created a Latin kingdom under the Lusignan family that lasted until 1489. A German hospital founded during the siege of Acre in 1190 developed into the Teutonic Order.

The crusade also reshaped European politics. Richard’s captivity and the huge ransom drained England, while Philip used Richard’s absence to attack his lands in France. The heavy financing of the expedition, through the Saladin tithe, was an important step in the development of royal taxation.

In legend, Richard and Saladin became a famous pair of chivalrous enemies. Western romances and later novels, such as Walter Scott’s The Talisman (1825), portrayed a friendship that the sources do not support, though the two leaders did show each other respect through their envoys.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1187, 2 October: Jerusalem surrenders to Saladin.
• 1188, January: Henry II and Philip II take the cross at Gisors.
• 1189, May: Frederick Barbarossa leaves Regensburg.
• 1189, August: King Guy begins the siege of Acre.
• 1190, 10 June: Barbarossa drowns in the Saleph river.
• 1191, July: Acre surrenders to the crusaders; Philip II leaves soon after.
• 1191, 7 September: Richard defeats Saladin at Arsuf.
• 1192, 28 April: Conrad of Montferrat is assassinated in Tyre.
• 1192, 2 September: Treaty of Jaffa ends the fighting.
• 1192, 9 October: Richard leaves the Holy Land.

Why it matters

The Third Crusade was the largest and best-remembered effort of medieval Europe to reverse Saladin’s conquests. Its partial success kept a crusader presence on the coast for another century, and its leaders, especially Richard and Saladin, became enduring figures of history and legend.