Third Crusade - Bring in the Big Guns

Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Cleanup on aisle seven. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a mess in 1187.

(this is part five of twelve about The Crusades as a movie series)

Stupid is as stupid does, and newly crowned King Guy of Jerusalem, a fourth-rate military commander, decided to fight Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and the greatest general of his time, head on at the Horns of Hattin in July 1187. Guy’s soldiers were dying of thirst before they were dying of the swords and arrows of Saladin’s army.

The army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem was wiped out. Guy was captured. It was a rout. With no major obstacles now in his way, Saladin took the city of Jerusalem in October 1187. Saladin saw King Guy as a useful idiot, so he set him free. Guy immediately marched south and besieged Acre. This coastal port is where all the crusaders would meet up.

Things only got messier. The Byzantine Emperor Isaac made an alliance with Saladin, where the Byzantines were expected to slow down the crusaders on the sly, but not openly oppose them. This infuriated the western powers.

Europe freaked out about the loss of Jerusalem. Pope Celestine III called the Third Crusade (1189-1192), received an enthusiastic response, and set Easter 1189 as the departure date.

The Third Crusade was led by the three greatest monarchs in Europe: Richard the Lionheart of England, Philip II Augustus of France, and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Just from the names, you can tell these are The Big Guns of Europe. Only there aren’t any guns yet. Each of the kings brought a huge army, and each had a very different crusade.

Zee Germans

Frederick Barbarossa set out towards Constantinople with the German army in May 1189. This was tricky because he had been off-and-on fighting with the Byzantine Empire all his life.

Emperor Frederick and Emperor Isaac may have shot daggers from their eyes at each other, but they kept their real daggers in their pockets and did not get into any big fights.

The Germans passed into Asia Minor, where Frederick drowned while trying to cross a river. The German forces split up and mostly went home, but Duke Leopold V of Austria continued on to Acre with his forces.

Les Francais

Philip Augustus was more of a schemer than a warrior, and he didn’t really want to go on the crusade. Pressure from his nobles, clergy, and peasants made him take up the cross.

He sailed to Acre, which was under siege when he arrived in June 1189. King Richard arrived in Acre shortly after Philip and took over the siege. King Philip was happy to step aside.

Having done little more than sail across the Mediterranean and eat a nice lunch, he considered his crusading vows fulfilled. So he packed his bags and headed back to Paris.

His crusading days behind him, Philip turned his attention to edging in on Richard’s French territories, which covered pretty much the entire western half of France. Priorities, yo.

The English / L’Anglais

King Richard Lionheart pledged to go on crusade without hesitation. He was pumped. He was born for this. On his way to the crusade, he meddled in a civil war with his Norman cousins in Sicily and conquered Cyprus, a Byzantine possession. He was in his element.

Players gonna play, and Richard was definitely a player. Landing in Acre, Richard elbowed aside both Philip and Leopold, took over the siege, and captured Acre in July 1190. (Leopold was humiliated, so remember that, but put a pin in it for now. His revenge is another story.)

With Richard Lionheart now firmly in charge of the crusade, thus began the long series of back-and-forth / one-upmanship / chivalric gesture / violent battle between Richard and Saladin. This is one of the most famous aspects of the Third Crusade, with Richard and Saladin each trying to outdo the other, both on the battlefield and in demonstrations of chivalry.

Imaginary battle between Richard and Saladin
(who, unfortunately, was NOT a blue devil)

Saladin was the model of chivalry. When Richard got sick, Saladin sent him his personal physician to speed his recovery. Richard’s horse got killed? Saladin sent him two new horses. It was a bromance for sure.

By May 1192, the Third Crusade had retaken most of the coast of the Levant. The crusader troops wanted to march on Jerusalem, but Richard realized that 1) he didn’t have enough resources to take the city and 2) he needed to get back home to prevent Philip from claiming his territory in France.

In September 1192, the Third Crusade ended when Saladin and Richard signed a treaty to maintain the territorial status quo: Christians could keep all the coastal towns and ports they had captured. Saladin guaranteed that Christian pilgrims could visit Jerusalem, but the holy city would remain under Muslim rule. There would be a five-year armistice to end the fighting.

While the crusaders had many small wins during the Third Crusade, they didn’t win the big one. Saldin lost some territory, but held onto the main prize, Jerusalem. Call this one a draw.

In a movie trilogy, it’s standard for the first film to be fantastic, the second to be downright awful, and the third to be somewhat mixed.

Number three is chasing the glory of the first, running from the failure of the second, and trying to tie up loose ends and make sense of it all in the end. It’s hard for the writers to set it up on the page, and even harder for the director to make it land on the screen.

Sometimes the producers will bring in a whole bunch of stars. You’ve seen the first two movies, and now look at the poster for the third: jam packed with celebrities. When a famous person makes a cameo, the audience loves it.

But when the film has too many A-listers, their outsized personalities can get in the way of the story and their outsized paychecks can blow the budget out the door.

While it’s probably best for the art to stop at three, they call it the movie business for a reason. If there’s money to be made, you can count on a Movie IV and Movie V to follow, or maybe sequels and prequels that stay in the world that’s been created.

No matter how they extend the franchise, it’s rare that the films get better after the third one. And just like modern movie franchises, the Fourth Crusade was when the wheels really started to come off the crusades…