The Third Crusade was very influential. King Richard I got his title "the Lionhearted" from it, an important truce was made between leaders, and it was all rapped up nicely by a slightly ironic ending. But I'm getting ahead of myself. It's important to know all the main facts of what happened like who fought, where they conquered or lost, when it happened, and how it was accomplished. First of all, though,
why was the Third Crusade started?
In 1187,
Saladin, the leader of Muslims who had already conquered Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. Jerusalem's capture in 1065 was the reason for the
First Crusade, so Saladin knew how bad for the Christians it would be to capture the "Holy City". He quickly defeated the forces there and held control of Jerusalem. Because of this, King Philip Augustus the French King, King Richard I of England, and the German Emperor Fredrick Barbarossa united to create the Third Crusade. (
SOURCE, and
googlebook, the first chapter)
The first major event to happen was the death of
Frederick Barbarossa. On June 10th, 1190, he was leading his troops across the Saleph River in Anatolia and drowned trying to cross it along with some of his men. The rest proceeded under Frederick VI on a different route to Acre. Then the
siege of Acre took place when the main body of the crusaders reached it in 1191. It is guessed that some 600,000 men participated in this siege. Finally, Acre was won over in the same year, but King Philip went home shortly after due to the arguments between him and King Richard. (same source as the one at the end of the previous paragraph)
For the next year, King Richard tried over and over to take back Jerusalem but just couldn't do it. Finally, a truce was made between Richard and Saladin. Jerusalem belonged to Saladin, but no longer would Christians have to pay taxes to him and they could visit freely. When King Richard left, he shipwrecked on a shore off of the Adriatic Sea. When he passed through Austria in disguise, the Duke of Austria who was in charge of Acre caught him and made him pay a ransom for his own release! The attack on Acre, which ended up being seemingly unnecessary, ended up in Richard 1 having to pay for his own release! How ironic. (same source as the last)
By the time King Richard got home, he had been given the title of "Richard the Lionhearted" for his endeavors. All in all, while the Third Crusade didn't seem to accomplish much, it still gave Christians some freedom they didn't have, which is good. It wasn't a win or loss, so it can be classified as a 'tie'. The Fourth Crusade, however, is a totally different story. (
googlebook, pages 114 to 118)
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