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Dear Lord, I pray Thee to suffer me not to see Thy Holy City, since I cannot deliver it from the hands of Thine enemies …
A prayer given up by Richard the Lionheart upon viewing the towers of Jerusalem and realising that he would never wrest the city from Saladin. Definitely apocryphal.
Saladin’s brother, al-Adil, called Safadin by the Western chroniclers,* was sent to negotiate with the king against a backdrop of Phillip of France having left the Crusade and now threatening Richard’s Angevin inherited lands, friction between Conrad of Montferrat and Richard over the throne of Jerusalem, and the machinations of the king’s brother, John, in England. Saladin also opened talks with Conrad of Montferrat just to stir the pot a little.
The negotiations with Richard went nowhere. The king insisted on the return of the True Cross, Jerusalem and all the lands from the coast to the Jordan for peace. He did, however, offer his sister in marriage to al-Adil, with the couple to then rule Palestine.
Richard had to be stopped on the battlefield, and perhaps then a bargain could be struck. Atrocious weather aided Saladin. It slowed Richard on the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem and by early January 1192, morale in the Crusader camp was collapsing. They withdrew to the coast amid snow, hail and numerous desertions. A low-level war of attrition was fought during the spring but stalemate had ensued.
Richard tried to reinstall Guy of Lusignan on the throne of Outremer, but the barons opted instead for Conrad, and negotiations with Saladin foundered on the sultan’s determination not to allow Ascalon to remain in the Franks’ hands.
With a view to expediting Richard’s passage home, Saladin may very well have helped Richard out with his ‘Conrad problem’, of which more later, but Richard still obstinately refused to quit the Levant. The draw of Jerusalem was perhaps too strong. He forced the sultan into the field at the head of a near-mutinous army with an attempt on Jerusalem on 7 June, but Saladin was able to pull troops from Damascus and Mosul and the Crusaders were pushed back to Jaffa.
Kurdish troops broke into Jaffa, but then galleys carrying Richard and his knights sailed into the harbour and Richard waded ashore despite a fierce archery fusillade. He rapidly drove the Muslims from Jaffa. Saladin attempted a night attack to kill the king, but it failed amid infighting between Kurds and Turks and the Muslims then faced a ‘hedgehog’ of Crusader infantry spearmen backed by crossbowmen, with Richard’s cavalry drawn up behind.
Surprisingly, given the morale of the army and the fact that their dead were piling up, the Turks and Kurds kept coming on. Richard launched a cavalry charge, but the Muslims refused to yield the field and came close to victory in the ensuing battle. The Crusader resistance continued until dusk, and, strictly speaking, Richard won the day, but he had gained very little for his efforts. The king fell sick and rushed into a treaty. By the terms of the accord the Crusaders were given pilgrim access to Jerusalem, and possession of the coast from Acre to Jaffa, but Ascalon returned to Saladin’s possession. Richard hurried back to Europe without ever entering Jerusalem.