Here is an essay on the third crusade:History Essay
By George Hay
In this period of the Middle Ages. People went on crusade for quite a few different reasons. For money, for a warmonger, for the third son, for experience, for trade, to get closer to god, to pay off a penance, to get healthier, for a better climate and to fight for your country. Also the pope at the time wanted the Christian armies to sweep through the areas controlled by the Greek Orthodox Church and force them to submit to Rome and her church.
If you were the third son, that was highly unlikely, you would go on crusade because you other two brothers had inherited your father’s land or had become a monk, so to go on Crusade would be an ideal thing to do.
Some people went on crusade to learn a new technique, for example an apprentice would try to become a knight (squire).
To fight for your country could also mean that you were a psychopath so you would go on crusade not exactly to fight for your country but to kill as many people as possible in war so at least it was “legal”. At the same time, you would also be doing your country a favour.
People went on Crusade to get healthier because the Saracens or Muslims were much better at creating medicines than the western scientists at the time.
To get closer to God could also mean that you were a pilgrim. If you had committed murder, you might want to be forgiven by God, so you would go and confess to a priest. The priest would then tell you that God had forgiven you and you had to go on crusade to pay your “penance”.
B: In the third crusade, there were many events. However there was also one or two events on the way to the Holy Land. One was the drowning of Frederick Barborossa and two was the capturing (on Richard’s part) many islands on the way to the Holy Land such as Crete, Rhodes, the Island of two Sicily’s and Cyprus. Philip was annoyed that he did not get any new territories as he had sailed straight to Tyre and Richard, what with loads of storms and shipwrecks had stopped in at certain places.
The third crusades real first event in the Holy Land was the defence of tyre. Ex King Guy of Jerusalem, Conrad of Montferrat and some of William of Sicily’s men defended the city of Tyre against the Saracens. They managed to hold out until reinforcements from the west arrived. Had this not been so, the third crusade might not have been as successful as it was.
From Tyre, Duke Leopold of Austria, Richard I, Philip II, Conrad of Montferrat and ex king Guy’s men marched towards Acre. As they were attacking the walls of the great city, Saladin tried to prevent the Christians from capturing Acre, so he attacked from the rear. However this did not stop the might of the Christian army. Eventually the crusaders broke into the huge city and took the entire of the cities garrison prisoner. For the release of these prisoners, Richard demanded from Saladin, 200 pieces of Gold and the true cross. Richard badly needed gold for he had said during the siege, “Whoever brings back one stone from the wall of Acre will receive one piece of gold.” Which was probably why the city fell. Unfortunately, Saladin did not have the Gold and he definitely did not have the true cross. So Saladin sent as much gold as he could muster to Richard, but what he sent was not enough, so the next day, Richard executed 2700 prisoners outside the walls of the city. When Saladin saw what was happening, he tried to rescue them. However the Crusader army defended them well and did not loose any ground while the prisoners were being killed. Now Saladin knew that he could not stop the crusaders.
Then, Richard marched south. Philip had gone back to France because he felt ill and Duke Leopold left because at Acre, a few English soldiers had chucked his flag into the mud, however Richard came to regret this later on. The fleet was accompanying the Crusaders on the coast so Richard decided to march next to the coast with all the knights defending them on the flank. The ships also supplied him with more food and if necessary, more men. The further they marched down the coast, the more of the Holy Land was re-captured. Again, Saladin tried to stop him with short, quick attacks on the Crusader army in an attempt to break, however in doing this he failed.
Eventually, Saladin was forced to have a pitched battle with Richard near a place called “Arsuf”. Saladin lost the battle because without orders two Christian knights charged, taking the entire crusading army with them that in the end proved to be too much for the Saracen army. At this battle, the Crusaders lost around 700 men and the Saracens lost around 7000 men.
Then, Richard marched on and lay siege to Jaffa. Eventually he broke through. Having fortified it, he and his army returned to Acre, hoping when he arrived there that he could make a truce with Saladin as there were rumours that John had overthrown Longchamp and Eleanor and was giving away land to Philip II. However, Saladin refused.
Instead, Saladin attacked Jaffa that only contained a few men. Immediately Richard sent an army to save Jaffa but soon realised that it would take several days for the whole army to travel back to Jaffa so he sent ahead 80 knights, 2000 infantry men and as many archers as he could muster. When they arrived by sea, they did not know whether they should move straight in or whether they should wait for some signal from the garrison. Fortunately, they had arrived at just the right time for the leaders of the garrison were just about to surrender the city to Saladin. So a priest swam out from the city to inform Richard about what was happening. When Richard heard this, he attacked immediately attacked. Richard overwhelmed the Saracens because of Surprise and soon re-took Jaffa.
The next day, Saladin attacked the fort with 30, 000 men. Richard lined up his men outside the castle walls with tent stakes, shields, lances and anything else available in front of the to stop the cavalry charge. He had only 50 knights who were able to fight with 15 horses between them so unfortunately most of them had to fight on foot. The Saracens charged in 7 waves each consisting of 1000 men each. However the Crusaders held their ground. At late afternoon, Richard felt he was strong enough to counter charge, so he did. Saladin was so amazed at this charge by such a small amount of men that his men dispersed in panic and in the confusion most of them fled.
Richard spent the next few months fortifying Jaffa. Richard knew now that his army was too weak to capture Jerusalem so he again returned to Acre, where through Saphadin (Saladin’s brother) he signed a treaty that would enable pilgrims to travel in and out of the city and worship freely. This truce would last for three years but in the end this never happened. This was because while Saladin was riding on a horse he caught a chill and shortly afterwards died. Richard left bound for England, but it took a long time for him to get there! (He was captured disguised as a knight by Leopold VI)
When he arrived home in England, he overthrew John, who immediately fled to Philip, in France. He then sailed over to France and regained all of the land that John had given away to Philip. Unfortunately for Richard, whilst attacking a castle, he was shot in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt. The English later captured the castle. On Richards death bed, he asked his knights who had captured the archer that shot him, to let him go because it was his duty to shoot him. The following evening, he died. When he died, all of the knights that had promised to him that they would not killed the archer killed in revenge for the death of Richard.
The End
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