History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 61, the Third Crusade Roman numeral 9.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the Kings of England and France preside over a victory at the siege of Acre.

Now to get things into perspective we should keep in mind that strategically at least the Victoria Acre doesn't mean an awful lot.

Really it just adds an extra secure coastal port to the Latin Christian collection.

Instead of just having the city of Tyre to dock their ships and offload their supplies,

they now have two ports, Tyre and Acre a little further down the coast.

The vast expanse of the Kingdom of Jerusalem is still under Saladin's control.

Although having said that, while the loss of acre was of little strategic consequence to Saladin,

there was one big military impact and that concerned the Muslim Navy.

When the city surrendered, as many as 70 battleships had been docked inside the sheltered inner harbour at Acre,

and all these ships fell to the Latin Christians.

With such a loss, the balance of dominance on the sea between the two forces shifted.

Never again will Sulledin be able to contemplate a complete victory over the Latin Christians in the arena of naval warfare.

There was of course one other way in which the loss of Acre had a big impact.

Psychologically, the victory at Acre was massive.

For the Latin Christians, this was a huge morale boosting win.

They had taken on the might of the Muslim forces and had emerged victorious.

For King Gee in particular, it must have been a sweet success.

No doubt he felt a warm and fuzzy feeling every time he recalled that his mad plan to take Acre had actually succeeded.

For Sullidin, the defeat was devastating.

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