Essay: History of the Crusades

History of the Crusades
3.1 Background
Prophet Muhammad introduced the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh and eight centuries to Islam. This helped to unify the Arabs and also helped them expand their territory and influ-ence, which stretched from the Iberian Peninsula over northern Africa to the west of India. Relations between the Christian and Muslim states stayed tense. Christians were allowed to partake in pilgrimages to their sacred sites.
In the 8th century began the Reconquista which resulted in Alfonso VI of León and Castile retaking Toledo in 1085 from under the Muslim rule. During the 10th century crusading was used by the Germans to gain Land and expand Christianity.
Europe was torn by many power struggles in these years. The attempts of the Latin Church to gain supremacy over the eastern European Patriarchs led to a division of the Christian Church known as the East-West Schism. The power struggle between the Holy Roman Empire and the Christian Church about who could rightfully appoint church officials and clerics started in 1075 and continued for the most part of the first crusade. During Pope Urbans office, the pa-pacy started to force their independency from secular rulers and arranged guidelines for the proper use of armed forces by the Christians. As the result of those actions was intense piety and religious propaganda advocated a “just war” to reclaim the Holy Land form the Muslims.
3.2 The First Crusade (1096 – 1099)
The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos requested military aid from the Christian Church, in 1095, to fight the Turks. He greatly exaggerated the danger facing the Eastern Empire during his appeal. One year later at Council of Clermont Pope Urban II raised the is-sue and preached for a crusade, in hopes that it would lead to the reunion of the Eastern and Western Church under his leadership.
Immediately after the Council, Peter the Hermit preached to thousands of poor Christians, who later joined him in the fight against the Muslims in the Holy Lands in what is known as the People’s Crusade. On their way to the Middle East, the Crusaders plundered and de-stroyed Jewish land and property , in what was later to be known as the Rhineland massacres.
In August and September of 1096 the noble armies, with a total strength of approximately 100,000 men, embarked on their way to Byzantium, where they received a welcome from the Emperor. The mostly Norman and French army pledged to restore territories seized by the Great Seljuk Empire. They proceeded to besiege Antioch. Immediately after that a large army led by Kerbogha besieged the city. Bohemond of Taranto managed to successfully rally the Crusaders and defeat Kerbogha keeping the city for himself instead of returning it to the Easter Empire as promised. The remainder of the crusader army proceeded along the coast to Jerusalem. They pillaged and massacred the city.
As the direct result of the Crusades, four crusader states have come into existence: The Coun-ty of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the County of Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusa-lem.
3.3 The Second Crusade (1147 – 1149)
After County of Edessa was lost to the Muslims, Pope Eugenius III called upon a second cru-sade. Shortly after that, Germany, France and England had assembled large armies. They were led by Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany. After arriving in Constantinople, they planned out how they would retake the county of Edessa, whilst securing the pilgrim pass. First, they would go to Anatolia and destroy the Turkish forces.
Upon arrival in Anatolia both armies were defeated because of lack of communication be-tween the two kings. Whilst the Germans were attacking the Turkish forces directly, the French stayed back to deal with some other smaller targets. Conrad IIIs army was defeated and he himself almost lost his life, while the French sounded the retreated earlier, to avoid complete obliteration.
The failure of the second crusade weakened the Crusader States and had a negative effect on Europe. Its economy was weakened, there was a lack of recruits and internal turmoil. It also left Jerusalem poorly protected, which directly resulted in the later call for the Third Crusade. Saladin managed to unite the Egyptians and Syrians fully surrounding the Crusader States and Jerusalem.
3.4 The Third Crusade (1189 – 1192)
In 1187 Jerusalem was captured by Saladin. The three kings, Philip II of France, Barbarossa and Richard I of England ended their disputes with one another and marched their armies, with the Popes blessing, towards the Holy Lands.
Barbarossas army was too big to travel by see and had to take the land route through the Bos-porus. On their way to the Holy Lands, Barbarossa was able to capture the capital of the Sul-tanate of Rum, Iconium. Later Barbarossa unable to swim in his heavy armor, drowned after being thrown off his horse into a river. The majority of his army went back home. The remain-der of his army marched, under the command of Barbarossas son, on Antioch, but only to lose more men.
Philip II of France and Richard I of England marched together in 1190 from France to Siscily. Philip II joined King Guy in the Siege of Acre shortly after reaching Sicily. Even with the help of the French army they were unable to take the city, as Sultan called in reinforcements that were now besieging the original besiegers. A year later Richard I decides to come to help his fellow Christians and Acre finally falls.
Shortly after Philip II left the Holy Land, leaving his army behind. Richard I marches on to Jaffa from where he plans to attack Jerusalem. Saladin tried to intercept Richards army, but was not able to as the English got help from the Templars and the Hospitallers. Richard was not able to reclaim the Holy City. But he was able to strike a deal with Saladin, enabling Christian pilgrims to enter the city.
3.5 The Fourth Crusade (1201 – 1204)
After a failed attempt to conquer Jerusalem by the English the new Pope, Pope Innocent III, ordered a new crusade in 1199. The hopes of reclaiming the Holy Land where low, but the Pope insisted, that the Christian territory had to be reclaimed. Only the French acted upon the request and made their way to Venice. In Venice, they were expected to pay for their further transport via ships to the capital of Egypt, Cairo. They did not have the 85,000 silver marks that the Venetians demanded, so they had to go on a detour to reclaim the port of Zara as a form of payment.
The army of 15,000 Crusaders and several thousand Venetians captured the port with ease. They proceeded to the capital of Byzantine, Constantinople. Although the city had a garrison of 30,000 men, they were unorganized and leaderless, the Crusaders and Venetians were able to capture Constantinople in 1204. Thousands of paintings and work of art were either de-stroyed or stolen during the capture.
The Pope was outraged by the Crusaders attack on fellow Christians. This would lead to many conflicts between the Pope and the French in the future. Most of the crusaders returned home, with their spoils of war, after the pillage of Constantinople, not even attempting to reclaim Jerusalem.
3.6 The Fifth Crusade (1213 – 1221)
The Ayyubid state in Egypt now had gained control of Jerusalem and most parts of the prior Christian territories. The Fifth Crusade was an attempt at getting back Jerusalem under Chris-tian control, by conquering the Ayyubid state in Egypt.
Pope Innocent III called upon a new crusade in 1213. But most of Europe was busy fighting each other, so the Popes request was ignored. After the defeats in the last three crusades the Christians were not keen on going on another crusade, just to be defeated again. But the Pope found a way to start the crusade. He appealed to regular Christian citizens and peasants, by promising them indulgence for joining the crusade or helping the cause through contributions.
The crusaders left their homes in 1217 and marched towards Acre, where they would be joined by Prince Bohemund IV of the Kingdom of Antioch and John of Brienne, king of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, to fight off the Ayyubids state of Egypt. After some successful bat-tles in the Holy Lands large armies from Holland and Germany, led by William I, the count of Holland, and Oliver of Cologne, came to join the crusaders in counquering Egypt. An alliance with the Seljuk Sultan of Rum allowed them to attack the Ayyubids state of Egypt from the north.
The crusaders attacked the Damietta Ayyubids state of Egypt in 1218. Although the city was not prepared for an attack, it was able to withstand several months of crusader attacks, costing the crusaders thousands of lives, but eventually the crusaders were able to enter the city. Upon entering the city, they began looting everything they found. The amount of loots that they found inspired them to push on towards Cairo, the capital of Egypt, the last obstacle to re-claiming Jerusalem for the Christians.
Sultan Al-Adil of the Ayyubids state of Egypt was waiting outside Damietta to ambush the crusaders. However, the crusader got informed about the ambush, but it did not discourage them and they still proceeded with their attack on Cairo. The Egyptians fled towards Cairo next to the Nile river, after seeing the size of the crusaders army. The crusaders chased the Egyptians. But because of their careless leaders who did not take enough provisions, and did not take the Nile floods into account, they were trapped, without food and water, behind a flooded canal. The crusaders sounded their retreat. But on their way back they were captured by the Sultan. He demanded Damietta back in exchange for the release of the crusaders. The garrison of Damietta agreed to surrender themselves and so put an end to the fifth crusade.
3.7 The Sixth Crusade (1228 – 1229)
The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick II, felt guilty for not helping the Chris-tians in the Fifth Crusade and decided to start a new crusade, funded entirely by the Holy Roman Empire.
The Pope was displeased by Fredericks growing popularity amongst the Holy Roman Empire, and so decided to excommunicate him, for him not keeping his vow to start a crusade. The Pope’s allegations were false, but effective. After the excommunication, Frederick quickly started to lose popularity amongst his people. But his following was still large enough to let him recruit a large army and start his crusade.
In 1228 he sailed off with his army towards Acre. On the way, he stopped on the island of Cyprus. But he was forced to leave early due to a prior dispute with John of Ibelin, which made Frederick very unpopular amongst the islands residents. Frederick sailed with his army to Acre. There he realized, that attacking the Ayyubids Empire head on, with an army smaller than the one of the Fifth Crusade, would be a mistake. So, he decided to march his men to-wards Egypt, in the hopes that his army would intimidate the Sultan and let him claim Jerusa-lem through diplomacy. His hopes have been fulfilled. The Sultan, who was busy with rebel-lions in Syria, gave Frederick Jerusalem, Nazareth and other small towns in exchange for a 10-year truce.
The Crusade was a success. Frederick managed to do what the past four crusades did not, to reclaimed Jerusalem for the Christians. His popularity in Europe started to rise again and the Pope lifted his excommunication.
3.8 The Seventh Crusade (1248 – 1254)
In 1244 the Khwarezmians captured Jerusalem putting it again under Muslim rule. So the King of France, Louis IX, decided to launch a crusade to reclaim the Holy Land once again. In 1245 his two brothers Alphonse of Poitiers and Charles I of Anjou joined him. Together they were able to raise approximately 1.500.000 livres tournois for the crusade.
They started their journey in Aigues-Mortes, a French commune, and sailed to the island of Cyprus. There they stayed over the winter. The Principality of Antioch and the Templars asked for help in Syria, whilst the Latin Empire wanted help fighting the Byzantine Empire of Nicea. Nevertheless, the objective of the crusade did not change, and in spring the three brothers sailed with their armies to Egypt. In 1249 they landed in Damietta and took it soon after, without much resistance from the Egyptians. For the next six months, they were not able to proceed to Cairo due to floods. After the floods, as they marched on Cairo, the Ayyubids Sultan as-Salih Ayyub died. Robert Of Artois captured the Egyptian camp at Gideila and marched on Al Mansurah. The attack was a failure and Robert himself was killed. Louis IX of France was attacked, during his siege of Al Mansurah, by the Mameluk Baibars, who were led by the soon to be Sultan. Louis did not withdraw for months loosing many men to the attack and starvation. In March of 1215 Louis IX of France finally decided to withdraw his forces and retreated to Damietta. Later, at the Battle of Fariskur, he was taken captive, and his army was killed. In captivity he fell ill with dysentery, but was cured by an Arab physician. A month later in may he was ransomed for 800.000 bezants and the surrender of Damietta. He then left Egypt and headed to Acre, one of the last remaining crusader territories in Syria.
From Acre, he helped build up destroyed crusader cities like Saida and Jaffa. In 1254 his money ran out and his mother died in France. So, he established a French garrison in Acre, which remained there until the fall of Acre in 1291, and left for France.
3.9 The Eight Crusade (1270)
Louis IX of France was displeased about the outcome of his last crusade. Additionally, he was disturbed by the unrest in the middle east. These circumstances led to him calling for a new crusade in 1267. At first the plan was, to attack cities on the coastline of Outremer, with the goal to eventually recapture Jerusalem. However, Charles of Anjou, Louis IX his brother, convinced him to attack Egypt first, which, if they would succeed, give them a good staging point to attack Egypt from.
After sailing off from the south of France, they arrived at the African coast in July of 1270. The siege did not go as planned. Much of the army got sick due to the poor quality of drink-ing water. Louis IX himself died on the 25th of August, one day after the arrival of his brother Charles, to dysentery. Soon after Louis’s son, Philip III was crowned the new king, but be-cause of Philips young age, Charles became the leader of the crusade.
Shortly before the retreat of the French army, on the 30th of October, Edward of England ar-rived with his small army of approximately 1000 men to help the crusade. Seeing as it was too late to help, Edward joined Charles on his voyage to Acre.
On the 1th August of 1297 Louis IX of France was canonized and gained saintly status in the Christian church, for his achievements during the crusades.
3.10 The Ninth Crusade (1271 – 1272)
After the Mamluks led by Sultan Qutuz and his general Baibars defeated the Mongold in 1260 in the Battle of Ain Jalut, the Sultan was assassinated, which left Baibars as the new Sultan. He proceeded to attack crusader cities. Taking Ascalon, Jaffa, Safad, Haifa, Athlith, Arsuf and Caesarea one by one.
After the two armies arrived in Acre, Edward of England realized the dire situation in the Holy Lands and turned away from Acre to sail to Tripoli, the last standing city of the County of Tripoli, to help them fight off the Mamluk Empire. But his army was too small to take the Mamluks head on, so he went on several raids. First, he captured Nazareth, taking the garrison by surprise and then arming the inhabitants. After the arrival of additional forces from Eng-land and Hugh III of Cyprus, led by Edmund, Edwards younger brother, they began to raid larger towns and cities. With the help of the three major chivalric orders they were able to suc-cessfully raid the town of Qaqun, killing 1500 and looting 5000 animals.
4 Chivalric Orders
A Chivalric Order is a society of knights typically founded during one of the seven Crusades. They can be divided into three main Orders: The Templars, the Order of Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order.
4.1 Hierarchy within the Orders
Like all organizations, the Chivalric Orders have a precarious hierarchy at their base, to most efficiently carry out their task as a group. At the top of the hierarchy is the Grandmaster, who is entitled to 13 servants, ranging from cooks to knight brothers as companions. Right below the Grandmaster is the Seneschal. He is like an advisor and assistant for important matters of the Grandmaster. The Marshal is in charge of the recruitment and training of the knights. The Under Marshal was there to help the Marshal with his tasks. Together they are also in charge of protecting the Order and leading the knights into battle. The Commander of the Lands is in charge of the administration and taxation of the Orders territories. The Draper provides all members with clothes. The fighting units of the Order are divided into Knights and Sergeants. Knights were of noble birth and were entitled to 3 horses and 1 squire. Sergeants were the rest and they are only entitled to one horse in battle.
4.2 Templars
The Templar Order was established during the First Crusade in the year 1118. The Full name of the Order is “Order of Solomon’s Temple”, but it rarely finds any use. The Templar Order was also the first Order to unite the best traits of knights and monks.
The name was coined by King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, since the Order was placed in his palace which was at the foundation of Solomonic Temple. The knights of this Order followed the motto “Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam” (lat. “Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give glory”). Their Seal pictures two knights equipped with lance and shield riding a horse on the left side and the Temple of Solomon on the right side. Around the pictures are the words “Pauperes commilitiones Christi Templique Salomonici Hierosolymi-tanis” (lat. “Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christi and of the Temple of Solomon”) inscribed. Some speculate that the two knights riding one horse depicts the trial someone has to complete to join the Order. Others say it points out the dualism between monk and knight. One could rec-ognize a Templar by the white coat, which had a red cross since the second crusade. he wore over his religious habit. The Templars banner is split into two parts. The upper half, which was black and symbolized war, and the lower half which was white and symbolized peace. Over time the design of the banner changed to a checker style with a big red cross in the middle. The main function of this Order was to provide safety for merchants and pilgrims. The Tem-plars were the best organized Order, which in return made them to the most powerful Order. However this changed rapidly, as the Templars where accused of heresy. On the 22 of march in 1312 Pope Clement V disbanded the Order.
4.3 Order of Hospitallers
Till this day the exact origins of the Order of Hospitallers are unknown. Its full name is “Or-der of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem”, but same as with the Templar Or-der its full name is rarely used. The Journey of the Order has three major stops. In 1306 they moved their settlement from Jerusalem to the Greek island Rhodos. In 1503 they moved again this time to Malta where they reside till this day. This is also the reason why some people only know the Order of Hospitallers as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The main goal of this Order is to help the ill and injured. Although they have built the castle Belvoir and taken over the castle of Krak des Chevaliers and the castle margat in Syria. On the 2nd of may in 1312 all of the Templars property was taken over by the Order of Hospitallers. The particulari-ty of the Hospitallers was that they let not noble laypeople join their Order. The most well-known leader of the Hospitallers is Raymond du Puy. The Hospitaller usually were dressed in monk robes, but during their more militant times they wore the same clothes as the Templars. Till this day, the Order of Hospitaller helps out the red cross with the transport of the wound-ed and ill.
4.4 Teutonic Order
The Teutonic Order was established at the end of the 12th century in the Holy Land, as the east expansion of the Germans. Crusaders from Bremen and Lübeck founded the Order dur-ing the siege of Acre. The headquarters of the Order were supposed to be transferred to Jeru-salem after the Muslims were driven out, but they stayed in Acre to function as a sort of bridge for the Crusaders coming from Europe. Pope Clement III gave the Order the status of a Chivalric Order. The members of the Order weared similar clothes to the Templars, but with a black cross pattée instead of the red cross. The motto of the Teutonic Order is “Helfen, Wehren, Heilen” (Ger. “Help, Defend, Heal”). In 1291 Acre was taken over by the Muslims, so the headquarters of the Order have been disbanded. The Order persists till this day more as an organization of Faith without Leadership from one source.
5 The siege of Acre
In 1187 Saladin had great success conquering the Holy Land. He captured land and killed crusader garrisons. The culmination of his conquers was the capture of Jerusalem in the siege in October of the same year. One of the few cities that Saladin did not manage to take by force was Tyre, under the rule of Conrad of Montferrat. Saladin tried negotiating, he offered the release of Guy of Lusignan, the king of Jerusalem, whom he captured in Hattin. Conrad refused the proposition and Guy was later released anyway, under the oath not to take up arms. Guy then went to a priest to declare the oath invalid, and went to Tyre. The reinforce-ments of the third crusade were slowly started gathering outside of Tyre. Conrad was not go-ing to give up control of his city to Guy, Guy decides to march on Acre. Saladin, discouraged by illness amongst his forces, decides not to intercept the crusaders on their way to Acre.
He arrives on the 28 of august in 1189 and immediately launches a direct assault on the city, despite knowing that he had half the manpower of the cities garrison. The attack was not suc-cessful, so the crusaders started a siege. In the beginning of September, the Flemish and French contingents and the Danish fleet arrived. Later in the month a small German army also arrived. The main army was not going to arrive until 1190, but their current number, after the small reinforcements, was enough to alarm Saladin, who later attacked their camp on the 15th of September. The attack failed, but Saladin was able to set up camp near the city. Soon Con-rad of Montferrat comes to aid the crusaders. Saladin again attacks the crusaders. Due to mis-communication between Saladin and his nephew Taki, the commander of the right wing, the Muslim were not able to break the Christian siege. Later that year word, that Frederick I Bar-barossa was marching with a large army to the Holy Land, reached Acre. Saladin, seeking to end the standoff before the Christian reinforcements arrived, doubled the size of his army and started to besiege the besiegers. The double siege started the struggle for control over the wa-ters around Acre. The control shifted back and forth between the crusaders and the Muslims, making it possible for both the city and the crusaders to receive supplies. On the 5th of May 1190, the crusaders attempted again to claim the city but did not come far. As a response to that, Saladin launched an attack on the crusaders. The crusaders managed to hold their posi-tion and force Saladin back to his camp. In the following months, Barbarossa arrived with his army.
The number of the crusaders grew, but at the same time the conditions in their camp were de-teriorating, due to limited clean water and food. This led to diseases, killing many. Amongst the victims of the disease was Queen Sibylla, the queen of Jerusalem. This led to tensions un-der the crusaders, as Guy and Conrad were arguing who was to be the successor to the queen. They suffered through the winter, as the land way was blocked by Saladin and the weather did not allow for ships to bring them supplies. They attempted twice to take Acre, on 31st of December and 6th of January, by force, but failed.
On the 13th of February Saladin finally managed to breach the crusaders siege and bring sup-plies and reinforcements to Acre. But the crusaders sealed the breach. As the weather got bet-ter ships could now reach the crusaders position outside of Acre. They brought supplies and additional troops commanded by Duke Leopold V of Austria. Leopold also brought word that King Philip II Augustus and King Richard I the Lionheart of England were on their way to the Holy Land with two big armies. Philip II arrived on the 20th of April. Immediately after his arrival he ordered the building of siege engines to assault Acre’s walls. On the 8th of June Richard arrived. He took control over the siege, ordering the siege engines to attack the city’s wall. Saladin diverted the crusaders attention with small attacks, from the damage to the wall, so it could be repaired. But on the 3rd of July the crusaders managed to create a major breach in Acre’s walls. Seeing little possibilities to get out of this situation the garrison offered to surrender. Richard declined and continued the attack. After a couple days of fighting the gar-rison on one side and Saladin on the other the crusaders accepted the renewed offer of the garrison to surrender. The victorious crusaders entered the city and hung banners of England, Austria, France and Jerusalem over the city.
In the aftermath of the capture the leaders began to quarrel with one another. This made Leo-pold return to Europe as the other kings did not treat him as equal. Soon after on the 31st of July Philip II left to resolve some pressing issues in France. Richard was left in charge of the crusader army and the city.
6 Richard Lionheart
Richard I, born on the 8th of September of 1157, deceased on the 6th of April in 1199, ruled over England as the King between 1189 and 1199. He was seen as a Hero after his achieve-ments during the third crusade and often referred to as Richard the Lionheart or Coeur de Lion in France.
6.1 Early life
Richard was King Henry II’s third legitimate son, and was never expected to take over his father Kingdom. Being the favorite son of his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, he soon changed his residency from his birth city Oxford to France. He remained in his mother’s care after his parents’ divorce, and became invested with her duchy of Aquitaine in 1168, and of Poitiers in 1172. These were his consolation prizes for the fact that his eldest brother, Henry the Young King, being crowned as Henry III in 1170. Richard, as well as being well educated in French, was also not lacking in his physical appearance, with a height of approximately 1.93 meters.
The three brothers Richard, Henry and Geoffrey joined their efforts in a revolt against their father Henry II in 1173. Their plan was to dethrone their father, leaving Henry III as the only King of England. Richard was the last of the brothers to still be holding out against his father. But Richard refused to fight him face to face and begged for his pardon. After the end of the revolt in 1174 Richard gave an oath of subservience to his father.
After his failed revolt against his father, Richard began concentrating on putting down revolts by the unsatisfied nobles of Aquitaine. The increasing cruelty of his reign led to a major revolt of Gascony in 1183. Over the years, Richard had gained a terrible reputation, as he was being accused of several rapes and murders. A group of rebels tried to overthrow Richards rule with the help of Richards brother, Henry. Henry II feared, that the war between his sons would lead to split of his kingdom. So, he gathered his men in France and set off to support Richard. On the 11 of June 1183 Henry the Young King died in battle. With his death, the conflict halted and Richard remained on the throne.
Henry the Young King’s death left Richard as Henry II oldest son and the natural heir.  How-ever, Henry II’s intentions were uncertain. After Geoffrey’s death, Richard was the only pos-sible heir, as his younger brother John was too weak and inexperienced to take over the throne. In 1188 the current King Henry II was planning to concede Aquitaine to his youngest son John Lackland. Richard allied himself with King Philip II of France, the son of his moth-er’s ex-husband Louis VII, in opposition to his father’s plans. In exchange for Philip’s help overthrowing Henry II, Richard promised to give Philip the rights to Normandy and Anjou. They set of on their expedition in 1189. They were victorious and Henry II agreed to name Richard his heir. Henry II died on the 6th of July in 1189 in Chinon. Richard succeeded him and was officially crowned as the Duke of England, Normandy and Count of Anjou on the 20th of July and King on the 3rd of September.
6.2 Reign
Due to an incident during Richard’s coronation ceremonies Jews were being persecuted throughout the kingdom. Richard was being accused of doing little for the country and ap-pointing Jewish moneylenders to help fund his tirade on the Holy Crusade. Only one half of his ten years as King he actually spent in England, claiming the weather there was always bad.
Henry, Richard’s father, appropriated Princess Alice, the French King’s daughter and Rich-ard’s betrothed, as his mistress, which made the marriage between Richard and Alice techni-cally impossible in the eyes of the church. But Henry, not wanting to cause a diplomatic inci-dent, evaded the topic and never confessed to his transgression. Richard was discouraged from denouncing Alice, as she was Philip’s sister.
Richard left the control of the country to various officials designated by him, whilst he left the country to take care of his possessions in now French territory and to lead the crusaders into battles in Palestine. He never saw the need to learn English, as he grew up on the main-land of Europe in France. Not long after Richard’s ascension to the throne, he joined the third crusade, inspired by the loss of Jerusalem to the Muslim “infidels”. Worried that Philip would usurp his territories in France, he persuaded him to also join the crusade.
Richard was not concerned with the future of England, and instead focused on his adven-tures, that would later make the troubadours, French medieval poets, immortalize his name, as well as guaranteeing him a place in heaven. Richard had deep spiritual needs, and swore an oath to leave behind his past of wickedness, so he would show himself, that he is worthy to take the cross. He began gathering troops for his English crusader army, although most of the warriors were Normans. He freed King William I of Scotland from his oath of subservience to Richard for 10.000 marks, sold official positions, sold land and took most of the money from his father’s treasury, all to equip his crusader army with weapons, build a big navy and buy supplies for the journey to the Holy Land. Richard left a part of his army behind to guard his French possessions. He started his expedition to the Holy Land in 1190. He appointed Hugh the Bishop of Durham and William de Mandeville as regents for the period of his adventure. They died soon and were replace by William Longchamp, Richard’s chancellor. John, Rich-ard’s younger brother was not happy about the regents and started plotting against William.
6.3 The struggle for Sicily
Richard and Philip arrived in September of 1190 in Sicily. One year earlier in 1189 King Wil-liam II of Sicily died. His aunt Constance, who was married to Emperor Henry IV, was sup-posed to be his heir. But William’s cousin Tancred was displeased with that fact and rebelled to seize control of the island for himself. He was successful, and was crowned in early 1190 as King Tancred I of Sicily. The Pope and the people of Sicily favored him as the King, but the nobles were displeased. The Arrival of the two crusader armies only escalated the problems. Queen Joan Plantagenet, William II’s widow and Richard’s sister, had been imprisoned by the new king, and refused her inheritance from William II, as stated in his will. Richard demand-ed the immediate release of his sister and the return of her inheritance. Meanwhile unrest has started spreading amongst the islands residents, caused by the presence of two foreign armies. They demanded that Richard and Philip leave the island, by starting uprisings in Messina. In response to the demands Richard attacked and captured the city, and after looting it and burning it to the ground he established his base in its place. In March of 1191 Tancred finally agreed to Richard’s demand. They drafted a treaty with the main terms being:

• Release of Queen Joan and the return of her inheritance along with the dowry her fa-ther paid to William.
• Recognition of Tancred as the legal King of Sicily by Richard and Philip and their vow to keep peace between their nations.
• Proclamation of Richard’s nephew Arthur of Brittany, Geoffrey’s son, as his heir, and Tancred’s promise to marry one of his daughters to Arthur when he came of age.After signing the treaty, Richard and Philip left the island. The treaty hurt England’s relations with the holy roman empire and caused a revolt of Richard’s brother John, who hoped to be Richard’s heir instead of their nephew. The revolt failed, but John continued plotting against his brother.
  6.4 Richard on the Third Crusade
  Richard stopped on the Byzantine island of Rhodes to avoid a storm in April. He continued his journey in May, but another storm drove Richard’s fleet of its course towards Cyprus. He arrived at Lemesos on the 6th of May 1191 and immediately went on to capture the city. Upon arrival Isaac Dukas Comnenus, the island’s despot, realized, that he was too late and he re-tired to Kolossi. Richard tried to negotiate the fate of Lemesos, but Isaac demanded the im-mediate departure of Richard and his army. But Richard was not going to retreat, so he or-dered his men to follow him in a direct attack on Isaac’s army in Temetusia. The islands no-bles, displeased by Isaac’s tyrannical rule, and roman catholic Christians joined forces with Richard.  Isaac’s men fought bravely, but they were overrun by Richard’s bigger and better equipped army. Isaac did not give up and continued to resist the attack from the castles of Pentadactylos and Kantaras. But Richard managed to capture those to castles with ease and thus forced Isaac to surrender. Richard had now become Cyprus’s new leader.
  Meanwhile, Richard’s mother brought his betrothed Princess Berengaria of Navarre, King Sancho VI of Navarre’s first born daughter, to join him on his crusade. They got married on the 12th of May in 1191 in Limassol.
  In Early June Richard left Cyprus with most of his army for the Holy Land. During his cru-sade, Cyprus was governed by Richard Kamvill. The army arrived just in time at Acre, to help the other crusaders fight Saladin’s siege and capture the city. Abandoned by Philip and hav-ing publicly insulted Duke Leopold V of Austria, Richard found himself without allies.
  Richard’s disciplined tactics guaranteed the successful capture of Acre and left Saladin no possibility to harass the army on its march south. However, without Philip and Leopold Rich-ard had no chance of capturing and holding Jerusalem. He realized that in time and ordered a retreat. During his absence in England John was getting more and more powerful. Richard finally realized that his return could not be postponed any longer.
  Richard planned for Conrad of Montferrat to take control over Jerusalem and Cyprus, but he was assassinated a couple of days before his coronation ceremony. He was replaced by Rich-ard’s nephew Henry I of Champagne.