History of the Crusades. Episode 57 the Third Crusade Roman numeral 5.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the recently released King Guy come up with a crazy plan to take a small army and attack

the fortified city of Acre.

This week we will see how his plan played out as we continue our look at the military campaign known as the Siege of Acre.

Right, well as we heard last week, King Guy and his few thousand strong army arrived at

Acre on the 28th of August 1189, and set up camp on a hill outside the city known as Mount Toron.

Now we heard last week that there were a couple of problems facing King Guy at this stage.

To start with, he didn't have enough men to effectively attack Acre, and even if he did manage to storm the city his army would be outnumbered by the

Muslims inside the city and would most likely be defeated.

Then there was the fact that the only Latin Christian fighters

available in the vicinity at the city of Tyre were hostile to his cause. And finally, there was the very real likelihood that Saladin would move in with his massive army,

and King Ghe's forces will be crushed between Saladin's forces approaching from the inland and the Muslim forces inside acre.

Yet this didn't seem to phase Gee. Three days after he arrived outside Acre with support from the Italian ships whose men had disembarked and had made camp on a beach near the city, King Guy launched his attack.

King Guy hadn't bought any catapults or siege engines with him, so the only way to attack the city was to place ladders against the city walls,

climb them, and attempt to fight their way in.

Unsurprisingly, this didn't work. Neither did his attempt to properly besiege the city,

as he didn't have enough men to effectively encircle the walls.

Again, this didn't seem to concern the perpetually optimistic King Guy.

Instead of retreating before Saladin's forces arrived, which would have been the most sensible

course to take, King Guy settled in to await reinforcements. Now at this stage King Guy seems confident that reinforcements from Europe will arrive at any moment

and that they will flock to his side and not fall in with Conrad of Monfra entire.

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