CHAPTER III

COEUR-DE-LION

‘I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way.’ JEREMIAH IV, 6, 7

King Philip Augustus landed at the camp before Acre on 20 April 1191, the Saturday after Easter, and King Richard seven weeks later, on the Saturday after Whitsun. Nearly four years had passed since the battle of Hattin and the desperate appeal to the West for help. The weary soldiers fighting on the Palestinian coast were so glad to welcome the Kings that they forgave or forgot the long delay. But to the modern historian there is something frivolous in Richard’s leisurely and quarrelsome journey to the battlefield where he was so urgently needed.

That King Philip should not have hurried is easy to understand. He was no idealist, and he went crusading merely from political necessity. It would have lost him the good-will not only of the Church but also of most of his subjects had he abstained from the holy adventure. But his kingdom was vulnerable, and he was rightly suspicious of Angevin ambitions. He could not afford to leave France until he knew that his rival of England was also on his way. Prudence demanded that they should set out together. Nor could either King be blamed for the ultimate delay caused by the death of the Queen of France. Richard, too, had certain excuses. The death of his father obliged him to reorganize his kingdom. Moreover, he, like Philip, intended to travel by sea; and sea travel was impracticable during the winter months. But that so genuinely eager a Crusader should have made so little haste shows a lack of purpose and responsibility.

King Richard and King Philip

There were grave flaws in Richard’s character. Physically he was superb, tall, long-limbed and strong, with red-gold hair and handsome features, and he had inherited from his mother not only the good looks of the House of Poitou, but its charm of manner, its courage and its taste for poetry and romance. His friends and servants followed him with devotion and with awe. From both his parents he derived a hot temper and a passionate self-will. But he had neither the political astuteness and administrative competence of his father, nor Queen Eleanor’s sound sense. He had been brought up in an atmosphere of family quarrels and family treachery. As his mother’s favourite he hated his father, and he distrusted his brothers, though he loved his youngest sister, Joanna. He had learned to be a violent but not a loyal partisan. He was avaricious, though capable of generous gestures, and he liked a lavish display. His energy was unbounded; but in his fervent interest in the task of the moment he would forget other responsibilities. He loved to organize but was bored by administration. It was only the art of warfare that could hold his attention. As a soldier he had real gifts, a sense of strategy and of tactics and the power to command men. He was now aged thirty-three, in the prime of life, a figure of glamour whose reputation had travelled East before him.

King Philip Augustus was very different. He was eight years younger than Richard; but he had been king for over ten years already, and his bitter experience had taught him wisdom. Physically he was no match for Richard. He was well-built, with a shock of untidy hair, but had lost the sight of one eye. He was not personally courageous. Though choleric and self-indulgent, he could cloak his passions. Neither emotionally nor materially did he like ostentation. His court was dull and austere. He did not care for the arts, nor was he well educated, though he knew the value of men of learning and sought their friendship from policy, and kept it by his wit and his pithy conversation. As a politician he was patient and observant, cunning, disloyal and unscrupulous. But he had an overriding sense of his duties and responsibilities. For all his meanness to himself and his friends, he was generous to the poor and protected them from their oppressors. He was an unattractive, unlovable man, but a good king. Amongst the Franks of the East he enjoyed a special prestige, for he was overlord of the families from which almost all of them had sprung; and most of the visiting Crusaders were directly or indirectly his vassals. But they were better able to appreciate Richard, with his courage, his knightly prowess and his charm; and to the Saracens Richard seemed the nobler, the richer and the greater of the two.

The Kings had set out together from Vezelay on 4 July 1190. Richard had already sent the English fleet ahead to sail round the coast of Spain and meet him at Marseilles, but almost all the land-forces of his dominions were with him. Philip’s army was smaller, as many of his vassals had already left for the East. The French army, followed closely by the English, marched from Vezelay to Lyons. There, after the French had crossed, the bridge over the Rhone broke under the weight of the English crowds. Many lives were lost, and there was some delay before transport could be arranged. Soon after leaving Lyons the Kings parted company. Philip went south-east across the Alpine foot-hills to strike the coast near Nice and then along the coast to Genoa, where ships awaited him. Richard made for Marseilles, where his fleet joined him on 22 August. Its voyage had been uneventful apart from a short delay in Portugal in June, where the sailors had helped King Sancho to repel an invasion by the Emperor of Morocco. From Marseilles some of Richard’s followers, under Baldwin of Canterbury, set sail directly for Palestine; but the main army embarked in various convoys for Messina in Sicily, where it was proposed to join up again with the French.

1190: King Tancred of Sicily

It had been at the suggestion of King William II of Sicily that the Kings of France and England, when their joint Crusade was first planned, decided to assemble their forces in Sicily. But King William had died in November 1189. He had married Richard’s sister, Joanna of England; but the marriage was childless, and his heir was his aunt Constance, the wife of Henry of Hohenstaufen, Frederick Barbarossa’s eldest son. To many of the Sicilians the idea of a German ruler was repugnant. A short intrigue, backed by Pope Clement III, who was alarmed by the prospect of the Hohenstaufen controlling southern Italy, brought to the throne in place of Constance and Henry a bastard cousin of the late King, Tancred, Count of Lecce. Tancred was an ugly unimpressive little man, who almost at once found himself in difficulties. There was a Moslem revolt in Sicily and a German invasion of his lands on the mainland; and the vassals that had elected him began to change their minds. Tancred was obliged to recall his men and ships from Palestine, and, thanks to them, he defeated his enemies. But, though he was ready to receive the Crusading kings with honour and to assist them with provisions, he was in no position to accompany them on the Crusade.

King Philip left Genoa at the end of August and after an easy voyage down the Italian coast arrived at Messina on 14 September. Hating pomp, he made his way into the town as unobtrusively as possible, but on Tancred’s orders he was received with honour and lodged in the royal palace there. King Richard decided to travel by land from Marseilles. He seems to have disliked sea voyages, doubtless because he suffered from sea-sickness. His fleet conveyed his army to Messina and anchored off the harbour to await him, while he with a small escort took the road along the coast through Genoa, Pisa and Ostia to Salerno. He waited until he heard that his fleet had arrived at Messina and then, it seems, sent most of his escort by ship to Messina to prepare for his arrival. He himself continued on horseback, with only one attendant. When he passed near the little Calabrian town of Mileto he tried to steal a hawk from a peasant’s house and was very nearly done to death by the furious villagers. He was therefore in a bad temper when he reached the Straits of Messina a day or two later. His men met him on the Italian shore and conveyed him in pomp to Messina, where he landed on 3 September. The lavish grandeur of his entry was in sharp contrast with Philip’s modest arrival.

As he passed through Italy Richard had learned of many things that displeased him about Tancred. His sister, the Dowager Queen Joanna, was being kept in confinement and her dower was withheld from her. She had some influence in the kingdom and Tancred clearly did not trust her. Moreover, William II had left a large legacy to his father-in-law, Henry II, consisting of gold plate and gold furniture, a silk tent, two armed galleys and many sacks of provisions. As Henry was dead, Tancred proposed to retain them for himself. From Salerno Richard had sent to Tancred to demand the release of his sister and the cession of her dowry and the legacy. These demands, followed by news of Richard’s behaviour in Calabria, frightened Tancred. He saw to it that Richard was lodged in a palace outside the walls of Messina, but, to conciliate him, he sent Joanna with a royal escort to join her brother and opened negotiations about money payments in lieu of the dowry and legacy. King Philip, whom Richard had visited two days after his arrival, offered his friendly offices; and when Queen Joanna went to pay her respects to him, he received her so cordially that everyone expected to hear of their forthcoming marriage. But Richard was not in a conciliatory mood. First, he sent a detachment across the Straits to occupy the town of Bagnara, on the Calabrian coast, and installed his sister there. Then he attacked a small island just off Messina, where there was a Greek convent. The monks were brutally ejected to give place to his troops. The treatment given to these holy men horrified the people of Messina, who were mainly Greeks, while the wealthier citizens were enraged by the conduct of the English soldiers towards their wives and daughters.

1190: Richard seizes Messina

On 3 October a quarrel in a suburb between some English soldiers and a group of citizens led to a riot. A rumour spread through the town that Richard intended to conquer the whole of Sicily; and the gates were closed against his men. An attempt by his ships to force the harbour was repulsed. King Philip hastily summoned the Archbishop of Messina and Tancred’s admiral Margaritus and the other Sicilian notables in the town to his palace, and went with them next morning to pacify Richard at his headquarters outside the walls. Just as it seemed that some arrangement would be made, Richard heard some of the citizens, collected on a hill outside the windows, hurl insults against his name. In a fury he left the assembly and ordered his troops to attack once more. This time the citizens were taken by surprise. In a few hours the English had captured Messina and had pillaged every quarter except for the streets by the palace where King Philip was lodged. Margaritus and the other notables barely had time to escape with their families. Their houses were seized by Richard. The Sicilian fleet anchored in the harbour was burnt. By afternoon the standard of the Plantagenets floated over the town.

Richard’s truculence did not end there. Though he agreed to let King Philip’s standard float next to his own, he forced the citizens to give him hostages against their King’s good behaviour, and announced that he was ready to take the whole province. Meanwhile he constructed a great wooden castle just outside the town, to which he gave the scornful name of Mategrifon, ‘the curb on the Greeks’.

Philip was disquieted by this example of his rival’s temper. He sent his cousin, the Duke of Burgundy, to find King Tancred at Catania, to warn him of Richard’s intentions, and to offer him help if worse were to follow. Tancred was in a difficult position. He knew that Henry of Hohenstaufen was about to invade his lands; and he knew that his own vassals were untrustworthy. A rapid calculation decided him that Richard would be a better ally than Philip. Philip was unlikely to attack him now; but the Kings of France were on good terms with the Hohenstaufens, and Philip’s future friendship was uncertain. Richard, on the other hand, was the greatest present menace, but was known to dislike the Hohenstaufen, the enemies of his Welf cousins. Tancred rejected the French offer of help and entered into negotiations with the English. He offered Richard twenty thousand ounces of gold in lieu of the legacy due to Henry II, and Joanna the same sum in lieu of her dowry.

Richard’s wrath could usually be assuaged by the sight of gold. He accepted the offer on his own and his sister’s behalf, and further agreed that his young heir, Arthur Duke of Brittany, should be betrothed to one of Tancred’s daughters. When Tancred further revealed the propositions made to him by King Philip, Richard willingly had the terms embodied in a treaty, which the Pope was asked to sponsor. Peace was restored; and, on the advice of the Archbishop of Rouen, Richard grudgingly gave back to Margaritus and the other leading citizens of Messina the goods that he had confiscated.

1190: Negotiations in Sicily

King Philip was outwitted but made no public objection. On 8 October, while the treaty was being drawn up, he and Richard met once more to discuss the future conduct of the Crusade. Rules were made about the price-control of foodstuffs. Serving men were bound to their masters. A half of every knight’s money was to be devoted to the needs of the Crusaders. Gambling was forbidden, except to knights and clerks; and if they gambled excessively they were to be punished. Debts contracted on the pilgrimage must be honoured. The clergy gave sanction to the regulations, promising to excommunicate offenders. It was easy for the Kings to agree on such matters; but there were political questions that were less readily settled. After some discussion it was agreed that future conquests should be held equally between them. A more delicate problem concerned King Philip’s sister Alice. This unfortunate princess had been sent as a child, years before, to the English court to marry Richard or another of Henry II’s sons. Henry II had detained her, in spite of Richard’s unwillingness to agree to the proposed marriage. Soon there had been ugly rumours that Henry was too intimate with her himself. Richard, whose own tastes did not lie in the direction of marriage, refused to carry out his father’s arrangement, in spite of Philip’s reiterated demand. Nor would his mother, Queen Eleanor, now that Henry’s death had freed her from restraint, see her favourite son tied to a member of a family that she hated, and one whom she believed to have been her husband’s mistress. With the interests of her native Guienne at heart she had determined to marry him to a princess of Navarre; and he accepted her choice. So, when Philip brought up again the question of Alice’s marriage, Richard refused to consider it, giving Alice’s reputation as his reason. Philip was quite indifferent to his family’s happiness. He never intervened to help his miserable sister Agnes, the widow of Alexius II of Byzantium. But the insult was hard to bear. His relations with Richard grew still chillier, and he planned to leave Messina at once for the East. But the day after he sailed a great tempest drove him back to Sicily. As it was now mid-October he decided that it would be more prudent to winter at Messina. That, it seems, had always been Richard’s intention. His treaty with Tancred was not signed till 11 November. In the meantime he sent to ask his mother to bring Berengaria of Navarre to join him in Sicily.

The winter passed quietly enough in Sicily. On Christmas Day Richard gave a sumptuous banquet at Mategrifon, to which he invited the King of France and the Sicilian notables. A few days later he had an interesting interview with the aged Abbot of Corazzo, Joachim, founder of the Order of Fiore. The venerable saint expounded to him the meaning of the Apocalypse. The seven heads of the Dragon were, he said, Herod, Nero, Constantius, Mahomet, Melsemuth (by whom he probably meant Abdul Muneim, founder of the Almohad sect), Saladin, and finally Antichrist himself, who, he declared, had already been born fifteen years ago at Rome and would sit upon the Papal throne. Richard’s flippant reply, that in that case Antichrist was probably the actual Pope, Clement III, whom he personally disliked, was not well received; nor would the Saint agree with him that Antichrist would be born of the tribe of Dan in Babylon or Antioch, and reign in Jerusalem. But it was comforting to learn from Joachim that Richard would be victorious in Palestine and that Saladin soon would be slain. In February Richard organized tilting matches, in the course of which he quarrelled with a French knight, William of Barres; but Philip was able to reconcile them. Indeed, Richard behaved very correctly towards Philip, and a few days later even gave him several galleys that had recently arrived from England. About the same time he heard that Queen Eleanor and Berengaria had arrived at Naples and sent to meet them and escort them to Brindisi, as their company was too large for the strained resources of Messina, where the Count of Flanders had just arrived with a considerable following.

As spring came near, the Kings prepared to resume their journey. Richard went to Catania to visit Tancred, with whom he swore a lasting friendship. Philip was frightened by this alliance and joined them at Taormina. He was ready now to patch up all his disagreements with Richard, and formally declared him free to marry whomsoever he chose. It was in an atmosphere of general good-will that Philip sailed with all his men from Messina on 30 March. As soon as he had left the harbour, Queen Eleanor and Princess Berengaria arrived there. Eleanor remained only three days with her son, then left for England, travelling by way of Rome, in order to do some business for him at the Papal Court. Berengaria remained, under the chaperonage of Queen Joanna.

1191: The English Fleet arrives off Cyprus

Richard at last left Messina on 10 April, after dismantling the tower of Mategrifon. Tancred was sorry to see him go, with good reason. That same day Pope Clement III died at Rome; and four days later the Cardinal of Santa Maria in Cosmedin was consecrated as Celestine III. Henry of Hohenstaufen was in Rome at the time; and the new Pope’s first action, under pressure, was to crown him and Constance of Sicily as Emperor and Empress.

The French fleet made a good passage to Tyre where Philip was gladly welcomed by his cousin, Conrad of Montferrat. He arrived with Conrad at Acre on 20 April. At once the siege of the Moslem fortress was tightened. To Philip’s patient and ingenious temperament siege-warfare was attractive. He reorganized the engines of the besiegers and built towers for them. But an attempt to assault the walls was postponed till Richard and his men should arrive.

Richard’s voyage was less peaceful. Strong winds soon separated the flotilla. The King himself put in for a day at a Cretan port, from which he had a tempestuous passage to Rhodes, where he stayed for ten days, 22 April to 1 May, recovering from his seasickness. Meanwhile one of his ships was lost in a storm, and another three, including the ship carrying Joanna and Berengaria, were swept on to Cyprus. Two of the ships were wrecked on the south coast of the island, but Queen Joanna was able to reach an anchorage off Limassol.

Cyprus had for five years been under the rule of the self-styled Emperor Isaac Ducas Comnenus, who had led a successful revolt against Byzantium at the time of Isaac Angelus’s accession, and who had maintained his independence by volatile alliances, now with the Sicilians, now with the Armenians of Cilicia, now with Saladin. He was a truculent man, who hated Latins, and he was not popular on the island owing to the exorbitant taxation that he raised. Many of his subjects still considered him a rebel and an adventurer. The appearance of great Frankish fleets in Cypriot waters alarmed him; and he faced the problem unwisely. When Richard’s shipwrecked men made their way ashore he arrested them and confiscated all the goods that could be salvaged. Then he sent a messenger to Queen Joanna’s ship, inviting her and Berengaria to land. Joanna, who had learned from experience of her value as a potential hostage, replied that she could not leave the ship without her brother’s permission; but her request to be allowed to send ashore for fresh water was rudely refused. Indeed, Isaac came himself to Limassol and built fortifications along the shore to prevent any landing.

On 8 May, a week after Joanna’s arrival off Limassol, Richard and his main fleet hove in sight. It had undergone a ghastly passage from Rhodes; and Richard’s own ship had narrowly escaped destruction in the Gulf of Attalla. Sea-sickness had not improved Richard’s temper; and when he heard of the treatment given to his sister and his betrothed he vowed vengeance. At once he began to land men near Limassol and marched on the town. Isaac made no resistance but retired to the village of Kilani on the slopes of Troodos. Not only did the Latin merchants settled in Limassol welcome Richard, but the Greeks in their dislike of Isaac showed themselves friendly to the invaders. Isaac therefore said that he was ready to negotiate. On receiving a safe-conduct he came down to Colossi and went on to Richard’s camp. There he agreed to pay compensation for the goods that he had stolen, to allow the English troops to buy provisions free of customs dues and to send a token force of a hundred men to the Crusade, though he refused to leave the island himself. He offered to send his daughter to Richard as a hostage.

1191: Richard conquers Cyprus

Isaac’s visit to the camp convinced him that Richard was not quite as formidable as he thought. So, as soon as he returned to Colossi, he denounced the agreement and ordered Richard to leave his land. He made a foolish mistake. Richard had already sent a ship to Acre to announce his approaching arrival in Cyprus; and on 11 May, the day that Isaac saw Richard and returned to Colossi, ships put in at Limassol with all the leading Crusaders opposed to Conrad on board. There was King Guy and his brother, Geoffrey, Count of Lusignan, one of Richard’s leading vassals in France, there was Bohemond of Antioch with his son Raymond, there was the Roupenian Prince Leo, who had recently succeeded his brother Roupen, there was Humphrey of Toron, Isabella’s divorced husband, and there were many of the leading Templars. As Philip had taken Conrad’s side, they had come to secure Richard’s support for their party. This accession of strength decided Richard to undertake the conquest of the whole island. His visitors doubtless pointed out to him its strategic value for the defence of the whole Syrian coast and the danger that might follow should Isaac enter into too close an alliance with Saladin. It was an opportunity too good to be missed.

On 12 May Richard ceremoniously married Berengaria in the chapel of Saint George at Limassol, and she was crowned Queen of England by the Bishop of Evreux. Next day the remaining vessels of the English fleet arrived. Isaac, aware of his danger, moved to Famagusta. The English followed him there, some of the army going by land and the rest by sea. The Emperor made no attempt to defend Famagusta but retired to Nicosia. While Richard rested at Famagusta, envoys reached him from Philip and the Palestinian lords, urging him to hurry to Palestine. But he replied angrily that he would not move until he had taken Cyprus, whose importance to them all he emphasized. One of Philip’s envoys, Pagan of Haifa, was then supposed to have gone to Isaac, to give him further warning. Isaac sent his wife, a princess of Armenia, and his daughter to the castle of Kyrenia, and then marched down towards Famagusta. Richard’s troops met him by the village of Tremithus and defeated him after a sharp skirmish, in which he was said to have used poisoned arrows. He fled from the battlefield to Kantara; and Richard entered Nicosia without opposition. The Cypriot population showed itself indifferent to Isaac’s fate and was even prepared to help the invaders.

At Nicosia Richard fell ill; and Isaac hoped that his four great northern castles, Kantara, Buffavento, Saint Hilarion and Kyrenia, could hold out till Richard tired of the war and sailed away. But King Guy, in command of Richard’s army, marched on Kyrenia and captured it, taking the Empress and her child prisoner. He then began to blockade Saint Hilarion and Buffavento. Bereft of his family, with his subjects apathetic or hostile, Isaac lost his nerve and made an unconditional surrender. He was taken before Richard and loaded with silver chains. By the end of May the entire island was in Richard’s hands.

The booty that Richard obtained was huge. Isaac had amassed a vast treasure by his extortions; and many of his notables bought their new master’s good-will by lavish donations. Richard soon made it clear that his chief interest was money. A fifty per cent capital levy was taken from every Greek, but in return Richard confirmed the laws and institutions that had existed in the days of Manuel Comnenus. Latin garrisons were installed in all the castles of the island, and two Englishmen, Richard of Camville and Robert of Turnham, were appointed justiciars and given charge of the administration, till Richard should decide on its ultimate fate. The Greeks soon found that their pleasure in Isaac’s fall was ill-founded. They had no more part in their government; and as a symbol of their new subservience they were ordered to shave off their beards.

1191: Richard reaches the Crusader Camp

To Richard himself the conquest of Cyprus seemed of value because of the unexpected riches that it brought him. But in fact it was the most far-sighted and the most enduring of all his achievements on the Crusade. The possession of Cyprus by the Franks prolonged the life of their lands on the mainland; and their establishments in the island outlasted those in Syria by two centuries. But it boded ill for the Greeks. If Crusaders were ready and able to annex an Orthodox province, would they not be tempted soon to launch the long desired Holy War against Byzantium?

On s June the English fleet sailed out from Famagusta for the Syrian coast. The Emperor Isaac was on board, a captive in King Guy’s charge; and his little daughter was attached to Queen Joanna’s court, to learn there the Western way of life. King Richard’s first sight of the Syrian coast was the castle of Marqab. After making the landfall he turned south, past Tortosa, Jebail and Beirut, and landed on the evening of 6 June near Tyre. He was refused admission into the town by the garrison, acting on the orders of Philip and Conrad; so he continued his way by sea to Acre, watching as he went the glad sight of a great Saracen galley being sunk by his ships. He arrived in the camp by Acre on 8 June.

To the weary soldiers besieging Acre, King Richard’s arrival with twenty-five galleys brought confidence and hope. Bonfires were kindled to celebrate his coming, and trumpets sounded through the camp. The King of France had built many useful siege-machines, including a great stone catapult which his soldiers called the Evil Neighbour, and a grappling ladder known as the Cat. The Duke of Burgundy and the two Military Orders each had their catapult, and there was one built from the common funds called God’s Own Sling. These had been hammering at the walls with some effect; but a leader was needed to spur the besiegers on to a final effort. The King of France was too cautious for such a role, and the other local or Crusader princes were too tired or discredited. Richard brought new vigour to it all. Almost as soon as he landed, he sent an envoy with a confidential interpreter, a Moroccan captive whom he trusted, to Saladin’s camp to suggest an interview. He was curious to see the celebrated infidel, and he hoped that same peaceful settlement could be made if he could only talk with so chivalrous an enemy. But Saladin replied cautiously that it was not wise for enemy kings to meet till they had signed a truce. He was, however, ready to allow his brother, al-Adil, to meet Richard. Three days of respite from fighting was arranged, and it was agreed that the meeting should take place on the plain between the camps, when the Kings of England and France both fell suddenly ill. It was the sickness that the Franks called arnaldia, a fever that caused the hair and the nails to fall out. Philip’s attack was mild, but Richard was seriously ill for some days. But he directed operations from his sick-bed, instructing where the great catapults that he had brought should be placed, and ordering the construction of a great wooden tower, like the Mategrifon that he had built at Messina. While he was still barely convalescent he insisted on visiting his soldiers’ lines.

1191: Disputes in the Camp

Saladin on his side received reinforcements at the end of June. The army of Sinjar arrived on 25 June, closely followed by a fresh Egyptian army and the troops of the lord of Mosul. The lords of Shaizar and of Hama brought companies early in July. In spite of this accession of strength he was unable to drive the Crusaders from their camp. They had used the lull in the winter, when the rain had softened the soil, to surround themselves with earthworks, ramparts protected by ditches which were easy to defend. Throughout June and early July the order of battle remained much the same. The Frankish engines kept up their bombardment of the walls of Acre; but if they made a slight breach and the Franks rushed in to try to force it, the garrison would signal to Saladin who at once launched an attack on the camp, thus drawing the aggressors away from the walls. There were occasional sea-battles. The coming of the English and French fleets had taken the command of the sea from the Saracens, and it was rare now for their ships to be able to break through with supplies into the harbour. Food and war material were running short in the beleaguered city, and there was talk there of surrender.

Sickness and quarrels continued within the Christian camp. The Patriarch Heraclius died, and there were intrigues over the election of a successor. The dispute over the Crown was continued. Richard had taken up the cause of King Guy, while Philip supported Conrad. The Pisans had joined Richard’s party, so when a Genoese flotilla arrived it offered its services to Philip. When Philip planned a fierce assault upon the city, towards the end of June, Richard, probably because he was not yet well enough to fight in person and feared that he might therefore lose the spoils of victory, refused to let his men co-operate. The attack failed because of the absence of his followers and friends; and Saladin’s counter-attack on the camp was only repulsed with difficulty. Relations between Richard and Philip had been complicated by the death on 1 June of Philip, Count of Flanders, the reluctant Crusader of 1177. He left no direct heirs; and while the King of France had some claim on the inheritance, the King of England was unwilling to let so rich and strategically placed a province fall into his rival’s hands. When Philip, citing the terms made at Messina, demanded half of the island of Cyprus, Richard countered by demanding half Flanders. Neither side pursued the demand, but each was left with a grievance.

On 3 July, after Saladin’s nephew Taki had vainly tried to break through into the city, the French made a serious breach in the wall, but were forced to retire. Eight days later the English and Pisans, using a moment when the other Crusaders were at dinner, tried their luck with the same initial success but ultimate failure. By this time the garrison had already decided to give up the struggle. They had sent envoys to the Crusader camp on 4 July, but Richard rejected their proposals; though that same day his ambassadors visited Saladin, asking to be allowed to buy fruit and snow, and hinting that they were ready to discuss peace terms. Saladin was shocked to hear that his men inside Acre had given up hope. He promised them immediate help; but he could not stir his army into making the great attack on the Christian camp that he had planned for 5 July. On 7 July a swimmer brought him a last appeal from the city. Without aid the garrison could hold out no longer. The battle on the 11th was the final effort of the besieged. Next day they offered to capitulate; and their terms were accepted. Acre was to be surrendered with all its contents, its ships and its military stores. Two hundred thousand gold pieces were to be paid to the Franks, with an extra four hundred for Conrad in person. Fifteen hundred Christian prisoners, with a hundred prisoners of rank, to be specifically named, were to be liberated and the True Cross was to be restored. If this were done the lives of the defenders would be spared.

A swimmer left the harbour to tell Saladin what was agreed, for it was for him to implement the clauses. He was horrified. As he sat in front of his tent composing an answer forbidding the garrison to submit to such terms, he saw the Frankish banners being unfurled on the city towers. It was too late. His officers had made the treaty in his name, and as a man of honour he abode by it. He moved his camp to Shafr’amr on the road to Sephoria, further from the city, now that he could do nothing more to help it, and he steeled himself to receive the ambassadors of the victorious Franks.

1191: The Crusaders enter Acre

No sooner had the capitulation been accepted than the Saracen garrison marched out of Acre. The conquerors were moved to see it pass by into captivity, for they admired its courage and tenacity, worthy of a better cause. When the last Saracen had left the Franks moved in, headed by Conrad, whose standard-bearer carried his personal standard and the standards of the Kings. King Richard took up his residence in the former Royal Palace near the north wall of the city, King Philip in the former establishment of the Templars, on the sea near the tip of the peninsula. Unseemly quarrels marred the assignment of quarters in the city. The Duke of Austria, as head of the German army, claimed a position equal to the Kings of France and England and set his standard up beside Richard’s, only to see it taken down by the English and hurled into the fosse below. It was an insult that Leopold of Austria never forgave. When he returned home a few days later, it was with hatred for Richard in his heart. The Frankish merchants and nobles who had previously held property in Acre asked for their possessions to be given back. They were nearly all of them supporters of Conrad, and therefore appealed to King Philip when the visiting Crusaders tried to displace them. He insisted that their claims should be honoured.

The first task to be done was to clean and reconsecrate the churches of Acre. When this was done, under the direction of the Papal Legate, Adelard of Verona, the princes met together to settle finally the question of the kingship. After some debate it was agreed that Guy should remain king till his death, when the crown would pass to Conrad and Isabella and their issue. In the meantime Conrad would be lord of Tyre, Beirut and Sidon, and he and Guy would share the royal revenues. Having secured the future for Conrad, King Philip talked of going home. He had suffered from almost continuous illness since he came to the Holy Land; he had done his Christian duty in helping to reconquer Acre; and he would leave the Duke of Burgundy and the larger portion of the French army behind him. Richard in vain pressed for a joint declaration that the two Kings would remain for three years in the East. The most that Philip would promise was that he would not attack Richard’s French territories till Richard came home, a promise that was not entirely kept. Then on 31 July he left Acre for Tyre, accompanied by Conrad, who said that he must see to his lands there, but who in reality did not wish to serve in an army dominated by King Richard. Three days later King Philip set sail from Tyre for Brindisi.

Philip’s departure was regarded by the English as a cowardly and traitorous desertion. But it seems that his health was really bad; and there were problems at home, such as the Flanders inheritance, for whose solution he was personally responsible. He moreover suspected that Richard was plotting against him and that his life was in danger. A curious story went round that when he was lying very ill Richard came to see him and told him falsely that his only son Louis was dead, either as a piece of heavy buffoonery or in the sinister hope that the shock would prove too much for him. There were many in the Christian army ready to sympathize with Philip in his anxieties. Though Richard commanded the devotion of his own men and the admiration of the Saracens, to the barons of the Frankish East the King of France was the monarch whom they respected and whom they felt to understand their needs.

1191: Richard massacres the Saracen prisoners

With Philip gone, Richard took full command of the army and of the negotiations with Saladin. The Sultan agreed to abide by the treaty made by his officers at Acre. While the Crusaders set about rebuilding and strengthening the walls of Acre, Saladin began to collect the prisoners and the money demanded from him. On 2 August Christian officers visited his camp bearing Richard’s consent to his suggestion that the payments should be made and the prisoners returned in three monthly instalments. The Saracen prisoners would be liberated after the first instalment had been paid. The visitors were shown the Holy Cross, which Saladin had kept with him, and paid it reverence. On 11 August the first instalment of men and money was sent down to the Christian camp; and Richard’s ambassadors returned to say that the figures were correct, except that the prisoners of rank specially named had not all been handed over. For that reason they would not free the Sultan’s soldiers captured at Acre. Saladin requested them either to accept the instalment with hostages for the missing lords, and send him his men, or to accept the instalment and leave hostages with him to guarantee the release of his men. The ambassadors rejected both suggestions. They demanded the instalment and only offered to give a pledge about the Saracen prisoners. Saladin, distrusting their word, refused to give anything unless his men were released.

Richard was now eager to leave Acre and march on Jerusalem. The Saracen prisoners were an embarrassment to him; he was glad of an excuse to rid himself of them. Cold-bloodedly, on 20 August, more than a week after his ambassadors had returned to him, he declared that Saladin had broken his bargain and ordered the massacre of the twenty-seven hundred survivors of the garrison at Acre. His soldiers gave themselves eagerly to the task of butchery, thanking God, so Richard’s apologists gleefully tell us, for this opportunity to avenge their comrades who had fallen before the city. The prisoners’ wives and children were killed at their side. Only a few notables and a few men strong enough to be of use for slave-labour were spared. The Saracen outposts nearest to Acre saw what was being done and rushed up to save their countrymen, but though they fought till nightfall they could not penetrate through to them. When the slaughter was over the English left the spot with its mutilated and decaying corpses; and the Moslems could come and recognize their martyred friends.

On Thursday, 22 August, Richard led the Crusading army out of Acre. Conrad and many of the local barons were absent, and the French, under the Duke of Burgundy, followed grudgingly in the rear. None of the soldiers had wanted to leave the city where they had lived so comfortably for the last month, with food in plenty and wanton women to gratify their lusts; nor were they pleased to hear that the only female camp-followers permitted to march with them were washerwomen. But the force of Richard’s personality overrode them. Saladin was still at Shafr’amr, commanding the two main roads from the coast, the road to Tiberias and Damascus and the road through Nazareth to Jerusalem. But Richard moved south along the coast road, where his flank would be protected by the sea and his fleet. The Sultan therefore followed him on a parallel course and encamped at Tel-Kaimun, on the slopes of Carmel. From there he rode out to inspect the country by the shore south of Carmel, to choose a site for a battle.

1191: The Battle of Arsuf

The Christians journeyed past Haifa which Saladin had dismantled shortly before the fall of Acre, and round the spur of Carmel. Their progress was slow, to let the fleet keep up with them; and Richard believed that the soldiers should be allowed to rest almost every other day. For the wind was in the west, and the ships had difficulty in rounding the point. Saracen light horsemen from time to time swooped down from Carmel on the marching army, cutting off stragglers, who were taken to Saladin, cross-questioned and then slain, in vengeance for the massacre at Acre. Only the washerwomen were spared. Meanwhile Richard led his main army over the ridge of Carmel and encamped inland from Caesarea.

On the 30th the two armies came into closer contact, as the Christians approached Caesarea. Thenceforward there was sharp fighting every day. But Richard led his army doggedly on. He was at his best, usually fighting in the van, but now and then riding down the whole line to encourage the men onward. The heat was intense, and the Westerners, heavily armed and unused to the sun, lost many lives from sunstroke, and many fainted and were killed where they lay. The Duke of Burgundy and the French troops were nearly annihilated as they lagged in the rear, behind the provision-wagons, but they extricated themselves. The whole host trudged steadily on, crying out at intervals the prayer, Sanctum Sepulchrum adjuva, ‘Help us, Holy Sepulchre’.

A few days later Saladin chose his battle-ground. It was to be just north of Arsuf, where the plain was wide enough for the use of cavalry but well veiled by the forests which came down within two miles of the sea. On 5 September, Richard asked for a parley, and met the Sultan’s brother, al-Adil, under a flag of truce. But, weary though he was of fighting, he demanded nothing less than the cession of all Palestine. Al-Adil at once broke off the negotiation.

On Saturday morning, 7 September, it was clear to Richard that the Moslems were going to force a battle, and he drew up his men in preparation. The baggage train was spread out along the coast, with Henry of Champagne and part of the infantry to guard them. The bowmen were in the front line and behind them were the knights. The Templars were on the right, at the southern end of the line. Next were the Bretons and the men of Anjou, and next to them the troops of Guienne, under Guy and his brother, Geoffrey of Lusignan. In the centre was the King himself, with his English and Norman troops, then the Flemish and the native barons, under James of Avesnes, and the French under Hugh of Burgundy, and on the extreme left the Hospitallers. When all was arranged, Richard and the Duke of Burgundy rode along the lines, giving words of encouragement.

The Saracen attack began in the middle of the morning. Wave after wave of lightly armed negro and Bedouin foot-soldiers rushed on the Christians, hurling arrows and darts. They flung the first line of infantry into disorder but could make no impression on the knights in their heavy armour. Suddenly they divided their ranks and the Turkish horsemen charged through, flashing sabres and axes. They drove their fiercest attacks against the Hospitallers and the Flemings and native barons next to them, hoping to turn the Christian left flank. The knights held their ground and after each wave the bowmen reformed their line. Despite his soldiers’ pleading Richard would not allow any part of his army to attack till all were ready and the Turkish charges showed signs of weariness and till the main Saracen army was closer. Several times the Grand Master of the Hospital sent to beg him to give the signal. His knights, he said, would have to yield unless they could take the offensive. When Richard still ordered patience, two of the knights, the Marshal of the Order and Baldwin Carew, took matters into their own hands and rode out into the enemy, and all their comrades galloped after them. At the sight of the charge the knights all down the line spurred their horses on. There was confusion at first, for the bowmen were unprepared and were in the way. The King himself rode into the midst of the turmoil to restore some order, and took command of the onslaught. Saladin’s secretary, watching from a nearby hill, gasped at the splendour of the spectacle as the Christian cavalry thundered towards him. It was too much for the Moslem soldiers. They broke their ranks and fled. Saladin rallied them in time to defend his camp and even to lead another charge against the enemy. But it was in vain. By evening the Christian army was in command of the field and was continuing its southward march.

1191: Richard’s Victory

The battle of Arsuf was not decisive, but it was a great moral victory for the Christians. Their losses had been surprisingly small, though among the dead was the great knight James of Avesnes, who lay with fifteen Saracen corpses round him. But the Saracen losses had been almost as small. No emir of note had fallen; and by next day Saladin had gathered together all his men and was ready to try another encounter, which Richard refused and which he was not quite strong enough to force. The value of the victory lay in the confidence that it gave to the Christians. It was the first great open battle since Hattin, and it showed that Saladin could be defeated. Coming so soon after the capture of Acre, it seemed to indicate that the tide had turned and that Jerusalem itself could be liberated once more. Richard’s repute was at its height. The victorious charge had, it is true, been launched against his orders, but only a few minutes before he was ready; and his patient restraint beforehand and his direction of the charge when it came had shown superb generalship. It promised well for the future of the Crusade.

Saladin, on the other hand, had suffered a personal and a public humiliation. His army had been ineffectual at Acre, and now it had been defeated in open battle. Like his great predecessor Nur ed-Din, Saladin as he grew older lost something of his energy and his command of men. His health was poor; he suffered from recurrent malarial attacks. He was less able than in his younger days to force his decisions on the quarrelsome emirs who were his vassals. Many of them still regarded him as an upstart and a usurper, and were quick to show insubordination if his star seemed to be declining. He could ill afford to be out-generalled by Richard. Above all, he must not lose Jerusalem, whose capture had been his most glorious triumph. He took his army in good order to Ramleh, on the road to Jerusalem, to await Richard’s next move.

1191: Richard negotiates with al-Adil

The Crusading army marched on to Jaffa and set about rebuilding its fortifications. Hitherto Richard had had the fleet on his flank, to keep him in supplies. He was not prepared to march inland to the Holy City without a strong base on the coast. Moreover, after its long march down the coast his army was tired and needed a rest. His caution and delay have puzzled many historians; for had he moved swiftly against Jerusalem he would have found it poorly garrisoned and its walls in bad repair. But Saladin’s army had only been defeated, not destroyed. It was still formidable; and even had Richard broken through to Jerusalem, it could have cut him off from the sea. It was prudent to make certain of Jaffa before starting on the greater adventure. Nevertheless the delay was over-long. It enabled Saladin to strengthen the defences of the Holy City. Then, fearful lest Richard should move on Ascalon and establish a base there that would cut off the road to Egypt, his main source of man-power, he took part of his army from Ramleh to Ascalon and methodically demolished the whole city, rich and prosperous though it was. Meanwhile the Christian army enjoyed the comforts of Jaffa. Life was pleasant there. Fruit and vegetables abounded in the gardens round the town, and the ships brought ample provisions. They brought, too, gay ladies from Acre to divert the men. The Saracens kept at a distance. There were only a few chivalrous skirmishes in the plain of Lydda, on the outskirts of the camp. The army grew indolent and soft. Many soldiers found their way back to Acre. Richard sent King Guy to urge them to return to the camp, but they took no notice of him. It needed Richard’s own visit to Acre to gather them together again. Richard had his own worries. He was not happy about affairs at Acre and further north, where Conrad’s party was powerful. There was trouble in Cyprus, where Richard of Camville had died and Robert of Turnham had difficulty in suppressing a revolt; and he feared what King Philip might do on his return to France. He solved his trouble in Cyprus by selling the island to the Templars. But he was also anxious to start negotiations with Saladin. Saladin was ready to listen to his proposals and empowered his brother, al-Adil, to treat for him.

As soon as he reached Jaffa, Richard sent Humphrey of Toron, who was the best Arabic scholar in his army, and for whom he had a deep affection, to Lydda, where al-Adil was in command, to discuss preliminaries for a truce, but nothing was decided. Al-Adil was a skilled diplomat, and restrained his brother’s longing for a settlement. His diplomacy was given a wonderful opportunity when in October envoys came to him from Tyre, asking if he would receive an embassy from Conrad. Richard’s first demand was for nothing less than Jerusalem with the whole country west of the Jordan, and the return of the Holy Cross. Saladin sent back a reply that the Holy City was holy to Islam too; and he would not return the Cross without some counter-concession. A few days later, on 20 October, Richard made fresh proposals. Like all the Crusaders, he admired al-Adil, whom they called Saphadin, and suggested that al-Adil should receive the whole of Palestine at present owned by Saladin, and that he should marry the King’s sister, Queen Joanna of Sicily, who should be endowed with the coastal cities conquered by Richard, including Ascalon. The married couple should live at Jerusalem, to which the Christians should be given full access. The Cross should be restored. All prisoners on each side should be released, and the Templars and the Hospitallers should be given back their Palestinian properties. Saladin, when his secretary visited him with the offer, treated it as a joke and gaily agreed. But Richard may have been quite serious about it. Queen Joanna, who, with Queen Berengaria, had joined him at Jaffa, was horrified when she heard the suggestion. Nothing, she said, would induce her to marry a Moslem. So Richard next asked al-Adil whether he would consider becoming a Christian. Al-Adil politely refused the honour, but invited Richard to a sumptuous banquet at Lydda on 8 November. It was a happy festivity and they parted with protestations of affection and each with many gifts from the other. But at the same moment Saladin was entertaining in his camp close by the ambassador sent by Conrad, the charming Reynald of Sidon, whose trickery over Beaufort the Sultan had forgiven.

Next morning Saladin received Richard’s envoy, Humphrey of Toron. He brought an offer that al-Adil should be recognized as ruler of all Palestine so long as the Christians might have a share of Jerusalem. It was hoped that the marriage with Joanna might be arranged, though Richard admitted that Christian public opinion was somewhat shocked by the idea. A Papal dispensation might, Richard thought, make Joanna change her mind. If not, al-Adil could have his niece, Eleanor of Brittany, who as the King’s ward could be married off without Papal interference. When all this was settled Richard would return to Europe. Conrad’s offer was less sensational. In return for Sidon and Beirut he would break with the other Crusaders and even suggested returning Acre to the Moslems. But when asked if he would actually take up arms against Richard, his ambassador prevaricated.

Saladin held a council to decide with which Frankish party talks should continue. Al-Adil and the other emirs voted for Richard’s party, less, perhaps, from any liking for the King than because he would soon be leaving Palestine, whereas Conrad, for whom they all felt some awe, meant to stay permanently there. Richard’s proposals were accepted in principle; but Humphrey’s suite were distressed one day to see Reynald of Sidon out hunting with al-Adil and on obvious terms of intimacy with him. Indeed, al-Adil kept the negotiations spinning out till winter came. Fighting between the armies had meanwhile been desultory and sporadic. One day in late November Richard, when out hawking, fell into a Saracen ambush, and might have been taken had not the valiant knight, William of Preaux, shouted out that he was the King and let himself be taken prisoner. Some other knights fell that day; but apart from that small skirmish there were no engagements of note.

1192: Richard at Beit-Nuba

When the November rains began Saladin disbanded half his army and retired with the rest to winter-quarters at Jerusalem. Reinforcements were on the way from Egypt. But Richard refused to be discouraged by the weather. In the middle of the month he led his army, increased by fresh detachments from Acre, out of Jaffa as far as Ramleh, which he found deserted and dismantled by the Saracens. He waited there for six weeks, looking for a chance to move on to Jerusalem. There were frequent Saracen raids on his outposts. He himself was nearly captured when reconnoitring near the castle of Blanchegarde. In another skirmish the Earl of Leicester was taken but subsequently released. During the last days of the year the weather was so bad that Saladin withdrew his raiders. Richard spent Christmas at Latrun, on the edge of the Judaean hills; and on 28 December his army moved up into the hills unopposed by the enemy. The rain fell in torrents. The road was deep in mud. A high wind broke down the tent-poles before any tent could be erected. By 3 January the army had reached the fort of Beit-Nuba, only twelve miles from the Holy City. The English and French soldiers were full of enthusiasm. Even the discomforts of the camp on the wet windy height and the ruin by the rain of the stores of biscuit and pork that were their main food, the loss from cold and under-feeding of many of their horses and their own weariness and chills were bearable if they were so soon to attain their goal. But the knights that knew the country, the Hospitallers, the Templars and the native-born barons, took a wiser and a sadder view. They told King Richard that even if he penetrated over the muddy hills through the storms to Jerusalem and even if he could contain Saladin’s army there, there was a Saracen army from Egypt encamped on the hills outside. He would be caught between the two. And if he captured Jerusalem, they added, what then? The visiting Crusaders when they had paid their pilgrimage would all return home to Europe; and the native soldiery was not numerous enough to hold it against the forces of united Islam. Richard was convinced. After five days’ hesitation he sounded the retreat.

Angrily and dejectedly the army marched back through the sleet to Ramleh. The English bore the disappointment sturdily, but the French, with their mercurial temperament, began to desert. Many of them, including the Duke of Burgundy, retired to Jaffa, some even to Acre. Richard saw that to restore his men’s spirits some activity was needed. He held a council on 20 January and with its support gave orders to the army to move from Ramleh through Ibelin to Ascalon. There he set about repairing the great fortress that Saladin had dismantled a few months before. Like Saladin, he well understood its strategic importance. He persuaded the French to rejoin him there.

Apart from a visit to Acre, Richard spent the next four months at Ascalon, making it the strongest castle on all the coast of Palestine. His men worked well, in spite of much discomfort. There was no harbour there, and the food supplies, which came by sea, could often not be landed. The weather that winter was consistently bad. But Saladin did not molest them. Some of Richard’s followers thought that he chivalrously refused to attack them when they were so vulnerable, to the discontent of his emirs. But in fact he wished to rest his army and to wait for reinforcements from the Jezireh and Mosul. It may well be that some of his emirs were discontented, though not because of his inaction. While they were in such a mood he would not risk a battle.

1192: Fresh Negotiations

Moreover, news from Acre showed him that the Franks were disunited. In February Richard summoned Conrad to help in the work at Ascalon, and Conrad brusquely refused to come. A few days later Hugh of Burgundy and many of the French deserted and went to Acre. King Philip had left the Duke with very little money for his troops, and their pay had hitherto been provided out of loans made by Richard. But even Richard’s huge treasury was running low. He would not finance them any longer. At Acre the eternal rivalry between the Pisans and the Genoese, both of whom now had many men and ships quartered there, had blazed into open war. The Pisans, claiming to act in King Guy’s name, seized the city in the teeth of Hugh of Burgundy who had just arrived. They held it for three days against Hugh, Conrad and the Genoese, and sent to Richard to come to their aid. On 20 February Richard arrived at Acre and tried to make peace. He had an interview with Conrad at Casal Imbert on the road to Tyre; but it was unsatisfactory. Conrad still refused to join the army at Ascalon, even when Richard threatened that unless he did so all his lands would be forfeited. It was a threat that could not be carried out. When Richard returned to Ascalon, having patched up a precarious truce, he was more than ever convinced that peace must be made with Saladin.

He was still in touch with al-Adil. An English envoy, Stephen of Turnham, visited Jerusalem to see the Sultan and his brother, and was shocked on his arrival at the gate of the city to see Reynald of Sidon and Balian of Ibelin emerging. Saladin’s negotiations with Conrad had not been broken off; and Balian’s presence was sinister, for he was a knight whom the Sultan greatly esteemed. However, on 20 March al-Adil rode down to Richard’s camp with a definite offer. The Christians should keep what they had conquered and have the right of pilgrimage to Jerusalem, where the Latins could maintain priests. The Holy Cross should be restored to them. They might annex Beirut also, if it were dismantled. The embassy was well received by the King. Indeed, as a mark of peculiar honour, one of al-Adil’s sons was girded with the belt of knighthood, though doubtless the usual Christian elements in the ceremony were omitted. When al-Adil rejoined his brother early in April it seemed that a settlement had at last been reached.

The need for the settlement was emphasized a few days later, when the Prior of Hereford arrived from England, to tell Richard that things were going ill in England. The King’s brother John was usurping more and more authority, and the Chancellor, William, Bishop of Ely, begged Richard to come home at once. Richard had spent Easter, 5 April, in the camp, furious because the remaining Frenchmen had just left him, summoned north by Hugh of Burgundy. Now, more than ever, the quarrels of the Crusaders must be stilled. A Council of all the knights and barons of Palestine was called by the King. He told them that he soon must leave the country, and that the question of the crown of Jerusalem must be decided; and he offered them the choice of King Guy and the Marquis Conrad. To his shocked surprise no one spoke up for Guy. It was Conrad whom everybody wanted.

Richard was wise and magnanimous enough to abide by the decision. He agreed to recognize Conrad as King. A mission, headed by his nephew Henry of Champagne, set out for Tyre to give the good news to the Marquis.

When Henry arrived at Tyre, on about 20 April, there was great rejoicing. It was decided that the coronation should take place within a few days at Acre; and then it was understood that Conrad would at last consent to join the camp at Ascalon. Henry left Tyre for Acre at once, to prepare the city for the ceremony.

On hearing the news Conrad had fallen on his knees and asked God that if he were unworthy of the kingship it should not be granted to him. A few days later, on Tuesday, 28 April 1192, he was kept waiting for his dinner by his wife, the Princess Isabella, who was lingering too late in her bath. He decided to go round and dine with his old friend, the Bishop of Beauvais. He found that the Bishop had finished his meal, so, though he was pressed to stay while food was prepared for him, he walked gaily homeward. As he passed round a sharp corner two men came up, and while one of them gave him a letter to read, the other stabbed him in the body. He was carried dying to his palace.

1192: Murder of Conrad

One of the murderers was struck down on the spot. The other was taken and confessed, before he was executed, that he and his comrade were Assassins sent to do the task by the Old Man of the Mountains, the Sheik, Sinan. The Assassins had preserved a quiet neutrality throughout the Crusade, which had given them an opportunity to strengthen their castles and amass greater wealth. Conrad had offended Sinan by an act of piracy against a merchant ship, laden with a rich cargo that the sect had bought. Despite Sinan’s remonstrances, he had not returned the goods or the crew, who, indeed, had all been drowned. It is possible that Sinan also feared that the establishment of a strong Crusader state on the Lebanese coast might eventually endanger his territory. It was said that the two murderers had been for some time in Tyre awaiting their chance, and that they had even accepted baptism, with Conrad and Balian of Ibelin as their sponsors. But public opinion sought deeper causes. Some said that Saladin had bribed Sinan to murder both Richard and Conrad; but Sinan feared that Richard’s death might leave Saladin free to march against the Assassins, so would only undertake the latter task. Another theory more generally held was that Richard himself had arranged the assassination. Saladin’s connivance is not to be credited; while Richard, much as he disliked Conrad, never made use of such a weapon. But his enemies, headed by the Bishop of Beauvais, refused to believe in his innocence.

The death of Conrad was a blow to the renascent kingdom. Harsh, ambitious and unscrupulous, yet trusted and admired by the native Frankish nobility, he would have been a strong and cunning king. Yet his disappearance had its compensations. The heiress of the kingdom, Isabella, was free to marry and bring the crown to some less controversial candidate. When Henry of Champagne heard of the murder he hurried back from Acre to Tyre. There the widowed Princess had shut herself up in the castle and refused to hand over the keys of her city to any but the representative of the King of France or the King of England. Henry on his arrival was at once acclaimed by the people of Tyre as the man that should marry their princess and inherit the throne. He was young and gallant and popular, and the nephew of two Kings. Isabella yielded to the public clamour. She gave herself and her keys to Henry. Two days after Conrad’s assassination their betrothal was announced. There were some who thought that a longer delay would have been seemly; and it was doubtful whether remarriage within a year could be canonically legal. Henry himself was a little lukewarm. Isabella was a very lovely young woman of twenty-one, but she had been twice married already, and she now had an infant daughter, who would be her heir. It seems that Henry insisted that the engagement should be ratified by Richard. Messengers had brought Richard up to Acre, and there he met his nephew. It was rumoured that Henry told him of his doubts and of his longing to go home to his fair lands in France. But to Richard the solution seemed admirable. He advised Henry to accept election to the throne and promised that some day he would return with fresh help for his kingdom. He refused to give advice about the marriage; but Henry could not become king except as Isabella’s husband. On 5 May 1192, after just one week of widowhood, Isabella entered Acre with Henry by her side. The whole population came out to greet them, and the marriage was celebrated with pomp and general delight. The Princess and her husband then took up their residence in the castle of Acre.

It was a happy marriage. Henry soon fell deeply in love with his wife and could not bear her out of his sight; and she found his charm irresistible, after the grimness of the ageing Piedmontese to whom she had been forcibly united.

1192: Richard captures Daron

Richard had already disposed of King Guy. He had understood at last that no one in Palestine had any use for the ineffectual ex-monarch. But there was the future of Cyprus to be considered. He had no desire to maintain officers there when he returned to Europe; nor were the Templars, to whom he had sold the government, wise in their treatment of the Greek natives. They wished to return it to him; so he permitted Guy to buy the government from them, himself demanding an additional sum, which, in fact, Guy never fully paid him. Early in May, Guy landed in Cyprus with complete authority to govern it as he pleased.

When all this was settled, Richard invited Henry to join him at Ascalon. There was a rumour that one of Saladin’s nephews in Mesopotamia had begun a dangerous revolt against the Sultan. So Richard, whose treaty with the Saracens was not yet ratified, decided on a sudden attack on Daron twenty miles down the coast. But Henry, with the French army, dallied at Acre. Without waiting for them Richard advanced by sea and land on Daron; and on 23 May, after five days’ fierce fighting, the lower town was stormed and the garrison in the citadel surrendered. Richard had learned little from Saladin’s courtesy. Some of the garrison were killed by the sword of flung over the battlements, or taken away bound into perpetual captivity.

The easy capture of Saladin’s last fortress on the Palestinian coast so heartened the Crusaders that they planned once more to march on Jerusalem. Henry and the French arrived at Daron the day after its capture, in time to spend Whitsun there with the King. The army returned to Ascalon immediately afterwards, and the French and English alike urged an immediate attack upon the Holy City. Richard had just heard more disquieting news from England, and he was doubtful whether the expedition was militarily feasible. He took to his bed in perplexity, and was only aroused by a stirring address given him by one of his Poitevin chaplains. He then vowed to stay in Palestine till the following Easter.

On 7 June the Christian army set out again from Ascalon. Bypassing Ramleh by marching on the road through Blanchegarde, it reached Latrun on the 9th and Beit-Nuba on the 11th. There Richard halted, and there the army remained for a month. Saladin waited at Jerusalem, where his reinforcements from the Jezireh and Mosul had just arrived. Without better stores and baggage-animals it would be folly for the Christians to advance further into the hills. Both sides settled down to skirmishing, with varying success. One day as he was riding out over the hills above Emmaus King Richard suddenly saw a distant view of the walls and towers of Jerusalem. Hastily he covered his face with his shield, that he might not fully behold the City which God had not allowed him to deliver. But there were compensations. The Syrian Bishop of Lydda came one day to the camp with a portion of the True Cross that he had saved. A little later the Abbot of the Greek Convent of Mar Elias, a venerable man with a long white beard, told the King of a spot where he had buried another portion of the Cross, to save it from the infidel. It was dug up and given to Richard. These fragments consoled the army for its failure to retrieve the major part of the relic, which, it seems, Saladin had now restored to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

On 20 June, when the army leaders were hesitating whether to abandon the attempt on Jerusalem and march instead into Egypt, news came of a great Moslem convoy making its way from the south towards the Holy City. Three days later Richard fell on it by the Round Cistern, the wells of Kuwaifa, in the barren country some twenty miles south-west of Hebron. The Moslems were ill-prepared for the onslaught. After a short battle the whole caravan was captured with its rich merchandise, its plentiful supplies of food and some thousands of horses and camels. The Christian army returned in triumph to the camp at Beit-Nuba.

1192: Richard retreats to Jaffa

Saladin was horrified by the news. Richard would now surely march on to Jerusalem. He hastily sent men to block up all the wells between Beit-Nuba and the city, and cut down all the fruit trees. On 1 July he held an anxious council in Jerusalem, to discuss whether he should retire eastward. He himself wished to stay there, and his assembled emirs supported his decision, protesting their loyalty to him. But the Turkish and Kurdish troops were quarrelling, and he was unsure how well they would stand up to a vigorous attack.

His worries soon were settled. There had been anxious debates in the Christian camp also. The French soldiers were eager to press on now that food and transport were abundant. But Richard’s scouts had warned him of the lack of water; and there was still the problem how to hold Jerusalem when the Western Crusaders returned home. To the jeers and insults of the French, Richard once again ordered the army to retreat from Beit-Nuba. On 4 July news reached Saladin that the Christians had broken camp and were beginning to move down towards the coast. He rode out to a neighbouring hill at the head of his men to watch the distant procession.

As soon as he was back at Jaffa Richard again sought a truce that would leave him free to go home. Henry of Champagne sent Saladin an arrogant message announcing that he was now heir to the kingdom of Jerusalem and that it all should be given to him. Richard’s ambassadors, who came to Jerusalem three days later, were more conciliatory. Richard recommended his nephew to Saladin’s good graces and urged a friendly arrangement. With the approval of his council, Saladin agreed to treat Henry as a son, to allow Latin priests in the Holy Places, and to cede the coast of Palestine to the Christians, provided only that Ascalon was dismantled. Richard refused to consider the dismantling of Ascalon, even when Saladin offered Lydda in exchange. While the argument was still being carried on by messengers going to and fro, Richard moved to Acre, planning to sail away even if the treaty was not yet signed. His scheme was to march suddenly on Beirut and seize it and embark there for Europe.

His absence gave Saladin an opportunity. Early on 27 July he took his army out from Jerusalem and arrived that evening before Jaffa, and at once began the assault of the city. After three days of bombardment his sappers made a breach and the Saracen army poured in. The defence was heroic but vain. The garrison was forced to capitulate on the understanding that their lives would be spared. The negotiations were conducted for the Christians by the new Patriarch, who happened to be in the city. Saladin’s troops were now out of hand. Kurds and Turks rushed through the streets seeking plunder and slaughtering the citizens who tried to defend their houses. So Saladin advised the garrison to shut itself in the citadel till he could restore order.

1192: Richard’s last Victory

A swift message had brought news of the attack on Jaffa to Richard as soon as Saladin approached the walls. He at once set out to its rescue, going himself by sea, with Pisan and Genoese help, and sending his army by land. Contrary winds held him up off the point of Carmel, and his army, reluctant to arrive at Jaffa before him, delayed on the road to Caesarea. On the 31st, when Saladin had pacified his troops sufficiently to allow him to evacuate forty-nine of the knights of the garrison, with their wives and baggage, from the citadel through the town, Richard’s fleet of fifty galleys sailed into sight. The garrison at once resumed the battle and in a desperate charge almost drove the disorganized Moslems from the town. Richard, not knowing what was happening, hesitated to land till a priest swam out to tell him that the citadel was untaken. He beached his ships at the foot of the citadel and waded ashore at the head of his men. The garrison in despair had already sent new envoys to treat With Saladin, who was talking with them in his tent when Richard launched his attack. The Saracens, many of them still scattered about the streets, were taken by surprise. The ferocity of Richard’s onslaught, himself fighting furiously in the fore, combined with another attack from the garrison, drove them into headlong flight. A secretary came to Saladin’s tent and whispered to him of the rout. As he tried to detain his visitors with pleasant conversation, the torrent of Moslem fugitives revealed the truth. The Sultan was obliged to order the retreat. He was able to remain in his camp himself, with a handful of cavalry, but his main army fled to Assir, five miles inland, before it reassembled its ranks. Richard had recaptured Jaffa with some eighty knights and four hundred bowmen, and perhaps two thousand Italian marines. His whole force had only three horses.

The very next morning Saladin sent his chamberlain, Abu-Bakr, to resume the peace talks. He found Richard joking with some captive emirs, both about Saladin’s swift capture of Jaffa and about his recapture of it. He said he had been unarmed and not even had time to change his shoes. But he agreed at once with Abu-Bakr that the war must stop. Saladin’s message suggested, as a bargaining point, that as Jaffa was now half ruined the Frankish frontier should stop at Caesarea. Richard countered by offering to hold Jaffa and Ascalon as a fief under Saladin, without explaining how the vassaldom would work when the King was in Europe. Saladin’s answer was to offer Jaffa, but to insist on keeping Ascalon. Once again Ascalon proved the stumbling-block. Negotiations were broken off.

The Frankish army which Richard had summoned to rescue Jaffa was advancing past Caesarea. Saladin, well aware now how small was Richard’s force at Jaffa, determined to strike at his camp outside the walls before the fresh army could arrive. At daybreak on Wednesday, 5 August, a Genoese, wandering about outside the camp, heard the neighing of horses and the tramp of soldiers and saw afar off steel glistening in the light of the rising sun. He roused the camp; and when the Saracens appeared Richard was ready. His men had not had time to arm themselves. Each took what was at hand. There were only fifty-four knights fit for battle and only fifteen horses, and about two thousand infantrymen. Behind a low palisade of tent-pegs, designed to disconcert the enemy horses, Richard set his men in pairs, their shields fixed as a fence in front of them and their long spears planted in the ground at an angle to impale the oncoming cavalry. Between each pair an archer was stationed. The Moslem cavalry charged in seven waves of a thousand men each. But they could not pierce the wall of steel. These charges continued till the afternoon. Then, when the enemy horses seemed to be tiring, Richard passed his bowmen through to the front line and discharged all his arrows into the oncoming host. The volley checked the enemy. The archers passed back again behind the spearmen, who charged with Richard on horseback at their head. Saladin was lost in angry admiration at the sight. When Richard’s horse fell under him, he gallantly sent a groom through the midst of the turmoil with two fresh horses as a gift to the brave King. Some Moslems crept round to attack the town itself, and the marines guarding it fled towards their ships, till Richard rode up and rallied them. By evening Saladin called off the battle and retreated to Jerusalem, adding to the fortifications there lest Richard still might pursue him.

1192: Treaty between Saladin and Richard

It was a superb victory, won by Richard’s tactics and his personal bravery. But it was not followed up. Within a day or two Saladin was back at Ramleh, with a fresh army of levies from Egypt and northern Syria; while Richard, worn by his exertions, lay seriously ill of a fever in his tent. Richard now longed for peace. Saladin repeated his former offer, still insisting on the cession of Ascalon. It was hard for Richard to bear. He wrote to his old friend al-Adil, who himself was on a sick-bed near Jerusalem, to beg him to intercede with Saladin to leave him Ascalon. Saladin held firm. He sent the fevered King peaches and pears and snow from Mount Hermon to cool his drinks. But he would not yield Ascalon. Richard was in no position to bargain. His health, as well as his brother’s misdeeds in England, demanded his swift return to his home. The other Crusaders were weary. His nephew Henry and the Military Orders showed that they distrusted his politics. Of what use would Ascalon be to them if he and his army had left? He had made public too often his determination to leave Palestine. On Friday, 28 August, al-Adil’s courier brought him Saladin’s final offer. Five days later, on 2 September 1192, he signed a treaty of peace for five years, and the Sultan’s ambassadors added their names to his. The ambassadors then took Richard’s hand and swore on their master’s behalf. Richard as a King refused to take an oath himself, but Henry of Champagne, Balian of Ibelin and the Masters of the Hospital and the Temple swore for him. Saladin himself signed the treaty next day, in the presence of Richard’s ambassadors. The war of the Third Crusade was over.

The treaty gave the coastal cities as far south as Jaffa to the Christians. Pilgrims might freely visit the Holy Places. Moslems and Christians might pass through each other’s lands. But Ascalon was to be demolished.

As soon as Saladin had made arrangements for their escort and lodging, parties from the Crusading army went up unarmed, with a passport from the King, to pay their homage at the shrines of Jerusalem. Richard himself would not go and refused to give any of the French troops a passport, but many of his own knights made the journey. One party was led by Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salisbury, who was received there with honour and given an audience with the Sultan. They talked of many subjects and in particular of Richard’s character. The Bishop declared that he possessed every good quality, but Saladin thought that he lacked wisdom and moderation. When Saladin offered the Bishop a parting present, the prelate asked that two Latin priests and two Latin deacons might be allowed to serve at the Holy Sepulchre, and also at Bethlehem and Nazareth. Saladin consented; and a few months later the priests arrived and were allowed to perform their duties unmolested.

Rumours had reached Constantinople that Richard was pressing for the latinization of the Holy Places. While Saladin was still at Jerusalem an embassy arrived there from the Emperor Isaac Angelus, asking that the Orthodox might be given back the full control of the Orthodox Church that they had possessed in the days of the Fatimids. Saladin refused the request. He would not allow any one sect to be dominant there, but, like the Ottoman Sultans after him, he would be arbiter of them all. He also refused at once a request made by the Queen of Georgia to purchase the Holy Cross for 200,000 dinars.

1199: Death of Richard

When the treaty was signed Richard journeyed to Acre. There he set his affairs in order, paying the debts that he owed and trying to collect those owed to him. On 29 September Queen Berengaria and Queen Joanna sailed out from Acre, to reach France safely before the winter storms. Ten days later, on 9 October, Richard himself left the land where he had fought so valiantly for sixteen bitter months. Fortune was against him. Bad weather forced him to call in at Corfu, in the territory of the Emperor Isaac Angelus. Fearing that he might be taken prisoner, he took passage at once, disguised as a Templar knight, with four attendants, in a pirate boat that was bound for the head of the Adriatic. This boat was wrecked near Aquileia; and Richard and his companions went on by land through Carinthia and Austria, intending to hurry quietly on to the territory of his brother-in-law, Henry of Saxony. But Richard was not a man to wear disguise convincingly. On ii December he was recognized when he paused at an inn near Vienna. He was at once led before Duke Leopold of Austria, the man whose banner he had thrown down at Acre. Leopold accused him of the murder of Conrad of Montferrat and cast him into prison. Three months later he was handed over to Leopold’s suzerain, the Emperor Henry VI. His long friendship with Henry the Lion and his recent alliance with Tancred of Sicily made him odious to the Emperor, who kept him captive for a year and only released him in March 1194, on the payment of a huge ransom and an oath of vassaldom. During the weary months of his captivity his lands had been exposed to the intrigues of his brother John and the open attacks of King Philip. When he returned to them he had far too many tasks to do ever to contemplate another journey to the East. For five years he fought brilliantly in France defending his inheritance against the cunning Capetian, till, on 26 March 1199, a stray arrow shot from a rebel castle in the Limousin brought his life to a close. He was a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier.