History of the Crusades. Episode 64, the Third Crusade Roman numeral 12.

Hello again.

Last week we saw King Richard lead the victorious crusading army into Jaffa, only to lose momentum as he spent

days, then weeks, trying to decide what to do next. His men wanted to march inland and take Jerusalem, but Richard

knew that this would mean almost certain defeat as his access to the coast would be cut off by Sulladin.

The obvious choice on paper would be to move the army further down the coast by passing

Jerusalem and attack Ascalon, but his men would have none of it.

In a desperate move, Richard commenced peace negotiations with sulladin. Although these negotiations

were highly entertaining, they didn't produce any tangible outcome for the

Latin Christians. Richard wasn't the only Latin Christian negotiating

with Saladin at this time. Conrad of Monfra, who was still safely entire, sent Reynold of Sidon to negotiate on his behalf.

Reynold was an excellent choice for negotiator.

He had spent some time in captivity after the battle at the horns of Hatin and was fluent in Arabic.

Saladin had spent many months besieging Rheldin. Arabic. had taken the opportunity to hold lengthy and detailed discussions with the Muslim leader

on subjects as varied as music, religion and the like, so the two men already knew each other quite well.

Rainold also represented the type of Latin Christian who was gravitating towards Conrad of Monfra.

Increasingly, local Latin Christians, who called the Kingdom of Jerusalem

home, were becoming concerned that their interests weren't being adequately protected.

While they had no issue at all with the European Latin Christians breezing in

and attempting to defeat Saladin, they were worried about what would happen when the European

Crusaders returned home. For them, King Richard and his Crusaders were focusing too much on the short-term goal of retaking Jerusalem,

whereas the locals wanted to look to the future, namely how they were going to be able to recreate a stable

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