The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England, and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. For this reason, the Third Crusade is also known as the Kings' Crusade.
The Crusade was partially successful. It recaptured the important cities of Acre and Jaffa, as well as successfully reversing most of Saladin's conquests (primarily in the Kingdom of Jerusalem), but failed in the ultimate goal to conquer Jerusalem (the major aim of the Crusade and its religious focus).
After the failure of the Second Crusade of 1147–1149, the Zengid dynasty controlled a unified Syria and engaged in a conflict with the Fatimid rulers of Egypt. Saladin ultimately brought both the Egyptian and Syrian forces under his own control, and employed them to reduce the Crusader states and to recapture Jerusalem in 1187. Spurred by religious zeal, King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France (later known as "Philip Augustus") ended their conflict with each other to lead a new crusade. The death of Henry (6 July 1189), however, meant the English contingent came under the command of his successor, King Richard I of England. The German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, now in his mid-60s, also responded to the call to arms, leading an army across the Balkans and Anatolia. He achieved some victories against the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm, but he died whilst crossing a river on 10 June 1190 before reaching the Holy Land. His death caused tremendous grief among the German Crusaders, and most of his troops returned home.
After the Crusaders had driven the Ayyubid army from Acre, Philip—in company with Frederick's successor in command of the German crusaders, Leopold V, Duke of Austria—left the Holy Land in August 1191. Following a major victory by the Crusaders at the Battle of Arsuf, most of the coastline of the Levant was returned to Christian control. On 2 September 1192 Richard and Saladin finalized the Treaty of Jaffa, which recognized Muslim control over Jerusalem but allowed unarmed Christian pilgrims and merchants to visit the city. Richard departed the Holy Land on 9 October 1192 due to mounting threats to his rule back in Europe. The military successes of the Third Crusade allowed the Christians to maintain considerable states in Cyprus and on the Syrian coast, restoring the Kingdom of Jerusalem on a narrow strip from Tyre to Jaffa.
The failure to re-capture Jerusalem inspired the subsequent Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, but Europeans would only regain the city—and only briefly—in the Sixth Crusade in 1229.
Background
Second Crusade
The fall of Edessa, an important city held by the crusaders from 1098 to 1144, deeply shook Europe, which until then had observed the events unfolding in the Near East during the first half of the 12th century with relative passivity. The aggressive and astute policy adopted by the atābeg Zengi, the founder of the Zengid dynasty, had enabled the unification of the regions of Aleppo and Mosul under a single domain. Zengi’s immediate successor was his son Nur al-Din (Nūr ad-Din), who established himself in Aleppo and immediately focused on continuing the holy war against the Christians of Outremer.
It was on these premises and the intense preaching activity of several church figures, most notably Bernard of Clairvaux, that Pope Eugene III proclaimed the Second Crusade. Despite the involvement of the two most powerful European sovereigns of the first half of the 12th century, namely Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, a series of issues compromised the expedition's outcome. These included the lack of cohesion between Germans and French, the journey to the destination, during which a large number of soldiers died, and the decision to attack Damascus, the only city that intended to maintain peaceful relations with the crusaders due to its fear of Nur al-Din’s expansionist tendencies in Syria.At the end of a brief five-day siege, the largest Frankish army ever to arrive in the Near East withdrew from Damascus without achieving any concrete results.
Unification of Syria
The defeat of the crusaders and disputes in the Christian world allowed Nur al-Din to unify Syria and reduce the Crusader states' size. With Turkoman and Kurdish troops, he achieved victories like Inab in 1149, conquering the Orontes Valley, dissolving the County of Edessa (1151), securing Damascus (1154), and nearly destroying the Principality of Antioch.The crusaders, led by Baldwin III, captured Ascalon in 1153. Raids in 1156 were halted by an earthquake, and Nur al-Din's attacks on Baniyas in 1157 failed.
The 1160s were marked by the increasing diplomatic isolation of the Crusader states. While Byzantium sought reconciliation with Nur ad-Din at times, he consolidated his power in the Muslim hinterland. Significant personnel changes took place with the capture of Reynald of Châtillon and the death of Baldwin III
Both the rulers of the Crusader states and the leaders of Muslim polities sought to expand their power and influence, particularly over Egypt. The Fatimid dynasty, weakened by internal conflict, became the target of both Nur al-Din, and Amalric I of Jerusalem. Efforts to gain control over Egypt led to a series of military campaigns and shifting alliances. Amalric’s attempt to invade Egypt in 1163 was unsuccessful, largely due to seasonal flooding. Meanwhile, political instability in Egypt continued as the vizier Shawar, after being deposed, sought military assistance from Nur al-Din.
At the same time, Nur al-Din attempted to attack Crusader positions in Syria but faced resistance from Western European nobles returning from pilgrimage. Nur al-Din sent his general Shirkuh, accompanied by Saladin, to Egypt, where they briefly restored Shawar to power. However, Shawar soon allied with Amalric against Shirkuh. This led to further intervention by Nur al-Din, who sought to exert more influence over the region. In Antioch, Nur al-Din captured several prominent leaders, but refrained from a full assault to avoid confrontation with the Byzantine Empire. Temporary agreements saw both Shirkuh and Amalric withdraw from Egypt, but the contest for control continued. Shirkuh returned to Egypt in 1167, but was blocked by the combined forces of Amalric and Shawar. Negotiations led to another withdrawal. In 1168, Amalric launched another attack on Egypt, but was repulsed again.
Rise of Saladin and the crisis
Shawar was sentenced to death for his alliance with the crusaders, and Shirkuh succeeded him as vizier of Egypt but died in 1169 after a few weeks due to indigestion. Saladin, his nephew, became vizier at thirty-one, a compromise candidate. Nur al-Din later regretted this, fearing Saladin’s ambitions after successes in Egypt and Yemen. When Nur al-Din died in 1174, he left his empire to his eleven-year-old son As-Salih Ismail al-Malik. Saladin, invited by Ibn al-Muqaddam, entered Damascus as the young emir’s guardian, defeating the Zengids at the Battle of the Horns of Hama in 1175, securing supremacy over Syria except Aleppo.
Amalric I had died, like Nur al-Din, in 1174, leaving the throne of Jerusalem to his nearly thirteen-year-old son Baldwin IV, who was afflicted with leprosy. The Franks, divided between peace and war factions, launched expeditions against Egypt from 1175 to 1178. Reynald of Châtillon, freed in 1181, attacked caravans, giving Saladin his casus belli for his offensive against the Franks.
Saladin invaded the region, prompting both sides to gather all available troops. On 3 and 4 July 1187, the Crusader army suffered a major defeat on the hills of Hattin near Lake Galilee. The relic of the True Cross was lost, the king was captured, and many soldiers were either killed or taken prisoner. Most Templars who survived the battle were executed, and Saladin personally killed Reynald of Chatillon. In the months that followed, Saladin gained control over most of the region. Acre was quickly taken, and Jerusalem surrendered in October. By the end of 1187, the Crusader presence had been reduced to the city of Tyre.
Preparations for the Third Crusade
News of the catastrophe reached the west in the early autumn of 1187. Pope Urban III died of stroke on 20 October 1187, upon hearing of these events. Within ten days the new pope, Gregory VIII, was sending out the proclamation of a new crusade.
Therefore, it is incumbent upon all to both consider and choose to amend our sins with voluntary chastisement and, through repentance and acts of piety, to turn to the Lord our God. We must first correct the evil we have done within ourselves, and then attend to the filth and malice of our enemies ... Therefore, think, my children, how you came into this world and how you will depart from it, how all things pass away and you also will pass away, and receive the time for repentance and for doing good, as far as it is up to you, with gratitude ... For perhaps He willed to try and come to the knowledge of others, if there is any one who is intelligent or seeking the Lord, who joyfully embraces the time of repentance offered to him and, laying down his life for his brothers, will be consumed in a short time and fulfill many ages, having heard the awesome things.
The new pontiff, Gregory VIII, declared that the fall of Jerusalem was to be considered God's punishment for the sins. It was thus decided to prepare for a new crusade: Henry II of England and Philip II of France ended the war that had pitted them against each other, and both imposed the so-called Saladin tithe, "a ten percent tax on income and movable goods", to finance the expedition. At Gisors, on January 22, 1188, King Philip Augustus of France and King Henry II of England temporarily resolved their differences and decided to embark on the crusade.
Along with the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and the kings of France and England, there were also numerous other groups of European fighters who went to the Holy Land hoping to recapture Jerusalem. For instance, the Pisans, led by their archbishop Ubaldo Lanfranchi, were joined in the late summer of 1189 by the Genoese and Venetians. Over the summer, various French and Burgundians arrived, including, for example, Theobald V of Blois and his brother Stephen I of Sancerre. On 1 September, a large fleet carrying various Frisians and Danes (estimated, likely exaggeratedly, at around 500) landed.
A small fleet of London fighters also left the Thames in August and reached Portugal a month later. On 2 September, a baron of Hainaut, James of Avesnes, arrived overseas with some Flemings; "a soldier of great renown", he became one of the crusade’s commanders. The Bretons then completed their journey, and shortly afterward, in mid-September, various French barons appeared. On the 24th, the Archbishop of Ravenna Gerard and the Landgrave of Thuringia Louis III arrived, the latter succeeding James of Avesnes as the crusade’s leader. On September 29, the Londoners who had helped conquer Silves continued their journey through the Strait of Gibraltar and arrived at their destination some time later. The last to complete their journey were other Danes, accompanied by an unspecified nephew of King Canute VI. Arrivals ceased during the winter but resumed in the spring of 1190. Count Henry II of Champagne, leading a large contingent composed of most of the forces of the French king Philip Augustus, arrived on 27 July and immediately took command.
Barbarossa's crusade
The crusade of Frederick Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor, was "the most meticulously planned and organized" yet. Frederick was sixty-six years old when he set out. Two accounts dedicated to his expedition survive: the History of the Expedition of the Emperor Frederick and the History of the Pilgrims. There is also a short tract, the Letter on the Death of the Emperor Frederick.
Taking the cross
On 27 October 1187, just over three weeks after Saladin's capture of Jerusalem, Pope Gregory VIII sent letters to the German episcopate announcing his election and ordering them to win the German nobility over to a new crusade. Around 23 November, Frederick received letters that had been sent to him from the rulers of the Crusader states in the East urging him to come to their aid. By 11 November, Cardinal Henry of Marcy had been appointed to preach the crusade in Germany. He preached before Frederick and a public assembly in Strasbourg around 1 December, as did Bishop Henry of Strasbourg.
About 500 knights took the cross at Strasbourg, but Frederick demurred on the grounds of his ongoing conflict with Archbishop Philip of Cologne. He did, however, send envoys to Philip of France (at the time his ally) to urge him to take the cross. On 25 December, Frederick and Philip met in person on the border between Ivois and Mouzon in the presence of Henry of Marcy and Joscius, Archbishop of Tyre, but he could not convince Philip to go on a crusade because he was at war with England. Frederick held a diet in Mainz on 27 March 1188. Because of its purpose, he named the diet the "Court of Christ". The archbishop of Cologne submitted to Frederick and peace was restored to the empire. Bishop Godfrey of Würzburg preached a crusade sermon and Frederick, at the urging of the assembly, took the cross. He was followed by his son, Duke Frederick VI of Swabia, and by Duke Frederick of Bohemia, Duke Leopold V of Austria, Landgrave Louis III of Thuringia and a host of lesser nobles. After taking the cross, Frederick proclaimed a "general expedition against the pagans" in accordance with the pope's instructions. He set the period of preparation as 17 April 1188 to 8 April 1189 and scheduled the army to assemble at Regensburg on Saint George's Day (23 April 1189). To prevent the crusade from degenerating into an undisciplined mob, participants were required to have at least three marks, which was enough to be able support oneself for two years.
Protecting the Jews
At Strasbourg, Frederick imposed a small tax on the Jews of Germany to fund the crusade. He also put the Jews under his protection and forbade anyone to preach against the Jews. The First and Second Crusades in Germany had been marred by violence against the Jews. The Third Crusade itself occasioned an outbreak of violence against the Jews in England. Frederick successfully prevented a repetition of those events inside Germany.