The Strategy of Saladin 5: The Third Crusade (1187-1193)

 

The Strategy of Saladin 5 

The Third Crusade (1187-1193)

 

Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. In the last video, we saw how Saladin had taken advantage of the Crusaders’ external and internal troubles, and in 1187 launched what would turn out to be a wildly successful campaign: destroying the Crusader army at Hattin, capturing the Holy City of Jerusalem, and conquering almost the entire Crusader Levant. Now, in the twilight of his life, he would have to hold all that he had gained against the might of the Third Crusade.

 

1. The Call to Crusade, 1187-90

Saladin’s victories shook European leaders out of their long apathy towards the Crusader Levant, and the Pope immediately proclaimed a new Crusade to recapture Jerusalem. De-emphasizing the ‘mass movement’ aspects that had characterized previous expeditions, this Third Crusade sought to raise well-funded and disciplined forces that could fight an overseas campaign effectively for 2 to 3 years.

To achieve this, the Pope mediated the various disputes that plagued Europe’s military aristocracy, from the noble infighting within the Holy Roman Empire to the longstanding rivalry between France and Angevin England. Nevertheless, these efforts could only do so much against the defects of the feudal system: notably, both Sicily and Angevin England underwent succession disputes after 1187, which respectively diminished and delayed their contributions.

Still, Europe’s leading monarchs heeded the call to Crusade. For the Holy Roman Empire and France, this was a chance to demonstrate leadership over Latin Christendom. And Angevin England, who shared blood ties with Jerusalem’s Queen and vassalage ties with its King, had the most at stake out of them all.

The first monarch to act was Emperor Friedrich ‘Barbarossa’. A mere 4 months after the Crusade was called, Barbarossa left Germany in early 1188 with 20 thousand men. This force achieved many feats: braving the unstable Balkans, cowing an unfriendly Byzantium, and sacking the hostile Turkish capital. But it ended abruptly in mid-90, when the Emperor drowned and his soldiers fell victim to disease. The survivors straggled their way to the Levant, but they had little influence on subsequent events.

Only now did the French and Angevin forces, numbering about 8 thousand each, jointly leave for the Levant, under the leadership of their Kings, Philip and Richard ‘the Lionheart’ respectively. Their year-long journey was similarly eventful and chaotic: they rampaged through Sicily, upstaged and humiliated one another, and Richard then seized Cyprus from the Byzantines. The French arrived in the Levant in early 91, with the Angevins following shortly thereafter.

The movement of such large armies inevitably had geopolitical consequences. From Serbia to Armenia, local rulers offered safe passage to the Crusaders in return for Papal recognition, marking a major advance in the statehood of many peoples. Most of this would come at the expense of the collapsing Byzantine Empire, which probably suffered more from the Third Crusade than any Muslim state.

 

2. The Siege of Acre, 1189-91

On the other side of the Mediterranean, Saladin braced himself for the enormous challenge that lay ahead. By 1189, he had conquered the entire Crusader Levant, save for the cities of Tyre, Tripoli and Antioch. But that was enough to make all the difference, as these cities were excellent entry points for any incoming Crusader army. And a Crusade was definitely coming, not least because Barbarossa himself had announced it in his ultimatum to Saladin.

Saladin did what he could to reduce these Crusader footholds. Militarily, Saladin lacked a large navy and so had little chance of capturing these ports. Instead, he decided to politically disrupt the Crusader leadership, specifically that of the early arrival Conrad of Montferrat, who had successfully defended Tyre and then appointed himself as overall commander. Against him, Saladin released the actual King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, from his post-Hattin captivity, hoping that the two would fight and destroy themselves in the process.

Saladin also hoped that other states would slow the Crusaders’ advance. Surprisingly, the Christian Byzantines made the most effort here, holding up Barbarossa for a few months despite heavy military pressure. The Turks were too deep in their succession crisis to put up serious resistance, while the Almohads remained unmoved, despite Saladin renouncing all claims to their lands. Least helpful of all was the Abbasid Caliph, the nominal leader of all Muslims: threatened by Saladin’s power and prestige, the Caliph infamously responded to the capture of Jerusalem with a list of grievances against him, and now would spend the Third Crusade actively destabilizing his realm.

So Saladin was largely left to face Europe alone: and even worse, he soon lost the strategic initiative. Ironically, this was a direct result of his decision to politically disrupt the Crusaders, as Guy, desperate to upstage Conrad, laid siege to the city of Acre in mid-1189. Saladin quickly rushed to the scene, but by then, thousands of Crusaders had joined the siege, turning Guy’s camp into a fortified base.

Thus began 2 years of grinding warfare, where both sides battled, blundered and starved before Acre’s walls. Despite having the numerical advantage, Saladin repeatedly failed to break the siege: partly because of Crusader resistance, and partly because he had to detach forces to deal with first Barbarossa and then the Caliph. As a result, Saladin became just as stuck before Acre as the Crusaders were until, in mid-91, his men mutinied over the lack of progress and plunder, and refused to help the city any further.

The Siege of Acre also took its toll on the Crusaders, but European newcomers continuously replenished their ranks. This all culminated in the arrival of the French and English Kings in mid-91, who launched a major assault that finally forced the city to surrender. In doing so, Acre’s garrison offered terms that Saladin had not agreed to: he tried to change them, but in doing so triggered Crusader suspicions of double-dealing. So their commander, King Richard, committed one of the most savage acts of the war: he gathered the surrendered Muslim prisoners and then killed them all.

3. Richard’s Campaign, 1191-93

Richard’s massacre was characteristic of medieval brutality and intolerance, but it was also done to emphasize his authority over the Crusaders. For they had not learnt the political lessons of Hattin, and instead had divided again into factions supporting either Conrad or Guy. If anything, these splits only intensified during the grueling Siege of Acre, as Guy’s wife died and took his blood link to Jerusalem’s dynasty with her. Conrad seized on this by forcibly marrying the last surviving heiress to the throne, but Guy’s supporters remained defiant.

The arriving European monarchs failed to solve this, as France’s King Philip supported Conrad, while England’s King Richard stood by his ex-vassal Guy. Eventually a compromise was struck, where Guy then Conrad would be King of Jerusalem; but this was only a prelude to Richard’s real solution, where he bullied first the Germans, then Philip out of the Third Crusade. Now Richard, at least in his own mind, had finally assumed unparalleled and supreme leadership.

But supreme leadership came with its own burdens: Richard and his 10 thousand men were now solely responsible for recapturing the lands lost to Saladin. And while Philip had been a major rival on Crusade, his return to France also made Richard fear for the safety of his Angevin lands, and the news that his own brother was plotting against him didn’t help matters. Richard was therefore under severe time pressure to win the Third Crusade before his own realm fell to pieces.

On the other side, Saladin wasn’t having an easy time confronting Richard either. The effort to relieve Acre had ultimately cost Saladin his fleet, much of his resources, and the goodwill of his men. Its failure also showed that Saladin still had no consistent counter to the armored, disciplined soldiers fielded by European forces. And to top it all off, Richard’s massacre had dealt a huge psychological blow against Saladin’s men, who now refused to garrison cities for fear of sharing the same fate as Acre’s defenders. Faced with all this, Saladin had little choice but to employ a ‘scorched earth’ policy to the Levant, hoping to deny supplies, shelter and defences to Richard’s army.

Richard began his campaign in late 1191. His force was made up of Angevin soldiers, Crusader remnants under Guy, and the French army whom Philip graciously kept in the Levant – Conrad, by contrast, chose to stay in Tyre. The force operated similarly to Crusader practice, marching in a single column comprised of three divisions, each with infantry on the outside protecting the knights on the inside. But military lessons had been learnt from Hattin, as Richard paid special attention to logistics, discipline and fatigue: he kept to the coast in sight of his supply ships, rotated his infantry in and out of combat, and marched at a measured pace.

Richard intended to stick to the coast up to the port of Jaffa, where he would then turn inland for Jerusalem. Saladin’s army went before him, destroying the land as it went, while cavalry archers futilely shot at the armored infantry. This failed to stop Richard, and after two weeks Saladin finally made a stand at Arsuf, sending waves of cavalry against Richard’s divisions. The Crusader infantry held, their knights counter-charged, and Saladin’s army was routed.

In pure military terms, this latest defeat meant little, as Richard’s force was too small and slow to annihilate Saladin like at Hattin. But strategically, it meant that Saladin was out of options in dealing with Richard: ‘the Lionheart’ had proven himself unbeatable in both siege and open battle. The only strategy the Muslims had left was to stall the Crusaders for as long as possible, and hope that Richard would leave the Levant before he reached Jerusalem.

Within this context, Saladin’s scorched earth strategy proved to be costly but successful. Unnerved by the coastal destruction, Richard’s army demanded that he fortify Jaffa first before pushing beyond the supply range of his ships. This process took several weeks, which meant that by the time the Crusaders finally saw Jerusalem, it was already deep winter and the weather was bad. There was little that Richard could do, but lamely summon an army council that parroted his desire to withdraw to Jaffa, which he did to great discontent in early 92.

Richard now intended to return home and leave Jerusalem for his next Crusade. Over the next few months, he focused on stabilizing the Crusader Kingdom and keeping it as an entry point for European forces: first, he re-fortified the southern castle of Ascalon to stop Saladin from threatening Jaffa; then, he finally abandoned the disgraced Guy, and gave Jerusalem’s throne first to Conrad, then after Conrad’s Assassin-ation, to a noble linked to both himself and the French King. Richard even asked his Angevin forces to stay in the Levant for a few more years, but they refused.

At the same time, Saladin also struggled to maintain his position in the Levant. Egypt and Syria were increasingly war-weary, the Caliph was again sponsoring unrest in his realm, and his emirs and even his family began to chase their own agendas. Aware of this, in June 92 Richard lunged again at Jerusalem, and again came within eyesight of the city. Saladin had great trouble convincing his men to hold the walls, but in any case Richard’s doubts again overcame him, and his army council now advised going for Egypt instead. Sullenly, the Crusaders turned back from Jerusalem for the last time.

4. Peace & Aftermath, 1191-97

As soon as Richard landed at Acre in mid-1191, he had begun negotiating with Saladin, though with varying degrees of seriousness. At first, Richard confidently demanded the return of all Crusader territory, but as he slowly recognized his military limitations, he began exploring alternative solutions to fulfill the Third Crusade. He even floated a radical proposal where a Muslim King and a Christian Queen would jointly rule the Kingdom of Jerusalem!

Saladin rejected all these initiatives, content to watch as Richard gradually lowered his demands until they were little more than a plea to keep what he had already captured, up to and including the strategic fort of Ascalon. In the meantime, Saladin also entertained other proposals: an alliance offer from Byzantium, and even one from Conrad in Tyre, asking for a joint attack on Richard!

In mid-92, the moment Saladin had been waiting for finally arrived, as a dejected Richard finally boarded a ship to Europe and the way was open for a counter-attack. The Muslims attacked Jaffa, but then Richard unexpectedly returned and repelled them. Unprepared to fight another long war with him, the Muslim soldiers began another mutiny, and Saladin quickly made peace before things got out of hand.

The resulting Treaty of Jaffa largely reflected the territorial control at the time, save for Ascalon which Richard reluctantly agreed to re-demolish. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was preserved as a long coastal strip, and Christian pilgrims could visit Jerusalem once again. Neither side was thrilled with the terms, but they at least ended a military stalemate that threatened to leave them open to their other enemies. Richard could now rush back to Europe and, unluckily, into German captivity, while Saladin could finally demobilize and prepare for the impending succession.

Despite its name, the Treaty was meant to only last until the campaign season of 1196. That was when Richard intended to return to the Levant, but when the time came, he was too busy fighting Philip in France. It was actually Barbarossa’s successor who went on Crusade, but he unexpectedly died in Sicily before the German army had even set sail. Even this did not mark the end of this Crusading generation, as Philip would play a major role in organizing the Fourth Crusade, which meant to target Egypt but then infamously veered off to sack Constantinople.

But all this was of no more concern to Saladin, who died in March 1193 at Damascus, the city where his career began. Back then, the Crusaders exploited Muslim disunity to become a major regional power. After Saladin’s death, they would again exploit Muslim disunity to survive for another century. But in between these periods, Saladin brought and held the region’s Muslims together, just enough to capture Jerusalem and bring it under Islam for most of the next 7 centuries.

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