The Siege of Acre: The Last Battle of the Crusades
Dan Snow's History Hit
History Hit
4.7 • 13.7K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The desperate, violent last stand that ended two centuries of crusading in the Holy Land. We hear how, outnumbered, divided and desperate, the Christian defenders decided to fight to the bitter end against the Mamluk forces of Al-Ashraf Khalil at the Siege of Acre
For this series, we're joined by Steve Tibble, author of many books on the Crusades, including 'The Crusader Strategy: Defending the Holy Land'.
Produced by James Hickmann and McKenna Fernandez, and edited by Jhenelle White.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Have you been enjoying my podcast and now want even more history? |
| 0:03.0 | Sign up's history and watch the world's best history documentaries on subjects like How William Conquered England. |
| 0:09.0 | What it was like to live in the Georgian era. |
| 0:11.0 | And you can even hear the voice of Richard III. |
| 0:14.0 | We've got hundreds of hours of original documentaries, plus new releases every week, |
| 0:18.0 | and there's always something more to discover. |
| 0:21.2 | Sign up to join us in historic locations around the world and explore the past. |
| 0:26.2 | Just visit history.com slash subscribe. |
| 0:29.6 | It is the ultimate medieval siege. |
| 0:32.6 | Catapults, batter, battlements, flames of naphtha engulfulf screaming defenders, walls are brought crashing down |
| 0:40.1 | by miners who fight savage hand-to-hand battles in underground tunnels. |
| 0:45.1 | There is no quarter given here. This is total war. This is jihad. It is May 1291, and these are |
| 0:53.8 | the besieged walls of Aker, the last great crusader stronghold in the Holy Land. |
| 0:59.0 | The forces of Al-Ashraf Khalil, the Mamluk Garmie commander, Titan like a noose. |
| 1:06.0 | The defenders, Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller, alongside Teutonic Knights, they'll fight |
| 1:12.8 | with a desperation of men who know there can be no surrender, no retreat, men whose fate |
| 1:19.1 | is martyrdom. |
| 1:21.3 | This is not just a massive, closely contested siege. |
| 1:26.2 | It is the endgame of two centuries of conflict. It is the last |
| 1:30.3 | battle for the Holy Land, the last crusade. Before we dive into this story, make sure you check |
| 1:37.1 | out the first two episodes in our series on the complete history of the Crusades and |
| 1:42.6 | come back here when you're done. |
... |
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