Chronograph Русский Open the atlasAtlas

Third Crusade

The crusade called after Saladin's victory at Hattin and capture of Jerusalem in 1187. Frederick Barbarossa's army set out first but broke up after he drowned in Anatolia in June 1190; Richard I of England and Philip II of France, who left Vézelay together in July 1190, came by sea and helped take Acre in July 1191. Richard beat Saladin at Arsuf but twice turned back short of Jerusalem, and the Treaty of Jaffa (September 1192) left the crusaders the coast from Tyre to Jaffa and Christian pilgrims access to Jerusalem, which stayed in Saladin's hands.

Date
11 May 1189 – between 1 September and 2 September 1192start: exact date; end: exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 3 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
Place
Vézelaytoday: Vézelay, Yonne, France · Western and Central Europe
Route
Vézelay → Marseille → Ligurian Sea → Tyrrhenian Sea, off Tuscany → Tyrrhenian Sea, off Campania → Messina → Strait of Messina → South of the Strait of Messina → Ionian Sea → Cape Matapan → South of Crete → East of Crete → South of Rhodes → Limassol (Cyprus) → Acre → Arsuf → Jaffa
Participants
Richard I of England, Philip II Augustus, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of France, Holy Roman Empire, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Ayyubid dynasty
Threads
Western and Central Europe (11th–12th c.)
Also known as
Kings' Crusade; Крестовый поход королей; Battle of Arsuf; Битва при Арсуфе; Treaty of Jaffa (1192); Яффский договор; Saladin tithe; Саладинова десятина; Massacre at Ayyadieh; Резня у Айядийе

After the defeat at Hattin on 3–4 July 1187 and the surrender of Jerusalem in October, Pope Gregory VIII at once proclaimed a new crusade, and the kings of France and England levied the "Saladin tithe", a tax of a tenth on income and movable goods. At Gisors on 21 or 22 January 1188 Philip II and Henry II of England put aside their quarrel for a time and resolved to go, and on 27 March 1188, at the "Court of Christ" in Mainz, Frederick Barbarossa took the cross. The emperor left Regensburg on 11 May 1189, crossed the Balkans and Anatolia and beat the Turks at Iconium, but on 10 June 1190 he drowned in the Saleph; most of his men went home, and only a remnant under his son Frederick of Swabia reached Acre in October 1190. Henry II died on 6 July 1189, and his son Richard I, crowned on 3 September, took his place.

Richard and Philip set out together from Vézelay on 4 July 1190 — Richard marching to Marseille, Philip to Genoa — and wintered in Sicily, where Richard took Messina by force on 4 October. Philip sailed on 30 March 1191 and on 20 April joined the siege of Acre, begun by Guy of Lusignan in 1189. Richard left Messina on 10 April; after a storm scattered his fleet he conquered Cyprus from its ruler Isaac Komnenos, married Berengaria of Navarre at Limassol on 12 May and landed at Acre on 8 June. The city surrendered on 12 July 1191. Philip went home in August, and on 20 August Richard had about 2,700 Muslim prisoners beheaded in sight of Saladin's army.

Marching south along the coast, Richard defeated Saladin at Arsuf on 7 September 1191 and took Jaffa. Twice, in the winter of 1191–1192 and in June 1192, his army advanced on Jerusalem — once to Beit Nuba, 12 miles from the city — and twice turned back. Conrad of Montferrat, just elected king of Jerusalem, was murdered by Assassins in Tyre, and the crown passed to Richard's nephew Henry of Champagne, who married Queen Isabella. In July 1192 Saladin took Jaffa, and Richard won it back. The Treaty of Jaffa, concluded on 1 or 2 September 1192, set a three-year truce: the crusaders kept the coast from Tyre to Jaffa, Ascalon's fortifications were to be demolished, and Jerusalem stayed under Muslim rule but open to Christian pilgrims. Richard sailed on 9 October 1192, was captured near Vienna in December by Duke Leopold V of Austria, whom he had slighted at Acre, and was released only on 4 February 1194, after a ransom of 150,000 marks had been demanded.

Open in the interactive atlas

Connections

Causes and preconditions

  • Battle of Hattin3–4 July 1187 · Middle East and Egyptnews of Hattin prompted Pope Gregory VIII's bull Audita tremendi (October 1187), which called the Third Crusade
  • Saladin takes Jerusalem20 September – 2 October 1187 · Middle East and Egyptthe loss of Jerusalem made its recovery the goal of the Third Crusade

Includes

Related events

  • First Crusade1096 – 12 August 1099 · Western and Central Europethe crusade tried to win back Jerusalem, taken by the First Crusade in 1099 and lost to Saladin in 1187
  • Second Crusade31 March 1146 – 1149 · Western and Central Europeboth crusades were launched from Vézelay: Bernard preached the Second there in 1146, and Richard and Philip set out from there in 1190

Same participants

Adjacent events in the thread

Meanwhile in the world

Other regions, within a year of this event

Balkans and Anatolia

Middle East and Egypt

Africa

Central and Northern Asia

South Asia

East Asia

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Latin America

The same period

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Third Crusade
  2. Wikipedia (English): Treaty of Jaffa (1192)
  3. Wikipedia (English): Richard I of England
  4. Wikipedia (Russian): Третий крестовый поход
  5. Wikipedia (German): Dritter Kreuzzug
  6. Wikipedia (Russian): Яффский договор (1192)
  7. Wikipedia (Russian): Ричард I Львиное Сердце
  8. Tyerman C. God's War: A New History of the Crusades. — London: Allen Lane, 2006.
  9. Gillingham J. Richard I. — New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.
  10. Wikidata: Q51655