History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 62, the Third Crusade Roman numeral 10.

Hello again and welcome back to the history of the Crusades. In the final episode of last year we saw King Richard

eager to wrap up any loose ends in Acre so he could move on and take the rest of the kingdom of Jerusalem back from Sullardin.

As part of this desire to conclude things quickly,

King Richard ordered 2,700 soldiers of the Muslim garrison to be killed when

Saladin stalled when carrying out the terms of the surrender of Acre.

In the meanwhile, King Philip has had enough of the crusading caper

and has headed back to France.

Right, are we all up to speed? Good, let's continue. King Richard is now the

undisputed leader of the crusade and he knows that he won't win back the Holy Land by staying in Acre, so straight

after the massacre of the Islamic prisoners he makes preparations to march south to Jaffa. From Jaffa he can either

march inland to Jerusalem or continue down the coast to Ascalon. Trouble is the Latin Christian Army really don't want to

leave Acre. After the hardships of the siege they are having a brilliant time in the city. the the wine is flowing, there are games of dice to while away the hours, and there are women.

Lots of women.

One crusader summed up his impression of Aka by stating that it was, and I quote,

delightful with good wines and girls, some very beautiful, end of quote.

So the first real test of Richard's abilities as sole leader of the Crusade is whether he is

able to convince the Crusaders to leave the comforts of Acre and resume their dangerous mission to win back the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Does he attempt to cajole and appease the soldiers by telling them that the women can accompany them in their journey south?

No, he doesn't.

In fact, he does the opposite.

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