The Third Crusade in History

“The Third Crusade was unsuccessful but was still very important to history, with the death of King Frederick Barbarossa and Richard’s reign over Egypt. Saladin, after the Second Crusade, decided to invade Damascus in 1174 CE and Aleppo in 1183 CE. After these victories Saladin decided to attack Jerusalem, and he surprisingly won. After this victory, he easily took over the entire Latin East in the Battle of Hattin, in which only Tyre remained for Christians. These events lead to Frederick I Barbarossa, Philip II of France and Richard I of England deciding to try and team up to take back Jerusalem.

With these being the three most powerful men in western Europe, they decided to launch the Third Crusade.

King Frederick l Barbarossa was the first king to take action, mobilizing his army through Thrace in 1190 CE. The Emperor of Byzantine, Isaac ll was wary of the transition and Frederick knew that Isaac had teamed up with Saladin. Their suspicions were proven correct when Isaac tried to delay their arrival. However, a terrible fate laid upon King Frederick, and he drowned in a river.
While this was happening, Richard l took the more eastern route, traveling through the sea. He had 100 ships and 60,000 horses ready. Richard, in 1191CE, arrived and invaded Cyprus with 17,000 soldiers and took it over. Richard decided to raise the tax by 50% after the invasion so he would have enough money for the Crusade. Later on, Richard also took over Sicily.

The Siege of Acre was the first really important war in the Crusade. A man named Guy of Lusignan was in charge of an army of the French and was unprepared when Saladin sent an army to invade France. However, reinforcements arrive composed of the rest of Frederick’s army. This delayed Saladin’s invasion, and by the time they arrived, armies of Richard and Philip ll were ready to fight. Even with the army, Saladin eventually took over the City and had 2500 soldiers executed. After this defeat, the Crusaders set off to go to Jaffa, but Saladin interfered. Even with the upper hand however, Saladin’s army had to retreat and the Crusaders continued to venture into Jaffa. However, Richard set his eyes upon Jerusalem.

Richard marched his army to Jerusalem, but Saladin counterattacked them. Richard however kept marching to Jerusalem until his army couldn’t survive another counterattack. While this was happening, Saladin attacked Jaffa which was taken over in 1192 CE. This resulted in a stalemate, where Saladin controlled Jaffa and Jerusalem, and both Richard and Philip were ready to attack. Instead of attacking Philip went back to England and Richard decide to make peace with Saladin. While this was happening, Richard took advantage and took over Egypt. They later set their eyes on Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade.”

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