Hello and welcome to the History of England episode 48, Richard and the Third Crusade.

So we arrived at Acre, and before Philip of France arrived at Acre, the phrase Christian

the Seijing Force was a bit of a joke in fact. The Seijing Force was in fact more besieged

against them besieging. Things have got so bad that by March 1191, if you were a Christian

stuck in your camp outside Acre, I had a silver penny. You could buy a mere 13 beans.

A sack of corn was going to put you back 100 gold pieces. Truth to say though, things

weren't a lot better within Acre itself. The Italian maritime trading cities planing

increasingly important part in the life of Ultramar. The peasants had provided the crusaders

with a fleet, on which the Christians absolutely relied to maintain the siege. Guy and Conrad

had managed to keep the pressure up for a long 16 months of the siege so far, and the peasants

had managed to prevent Saladans navy from getting out of Acre, or more supplies being

brought in. Philip arrived on the 20th of April 1191. The arrival was something of a double

edge sword. Yes, on the one hand, it brought heart to the Christians that help had arrived,

and Philip immediately set to work to build more siege engines to batter the walls.

But on the other hand, the most puissante king of France came in a poxie to a bit no good

cotton-picking six ships. So Saladans forces picked up a bit as well. It's just the best

they can do they ask themselves. Bear in mind also that by this stage the threat

from the north and from Frederick Barbarossa's crusade had disappeared. The Holy Roman Emperor

had fallen from his horse and drowned in a river, and almost all of his army had gone

home. Interestingly enough, Barbarossa himself did continue the journey. They popped his body

into a barrel of vinegar, as you do. Then, once they arrived in Antioch, someone had

a nice job of boiling the body until the flesh fell off, but a good mutton stew. Oh,

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