Saladin reacted swiftly, with a proclamation of the long-awaited jihad (Holy War) against the Christians. By May of 1187, he had crossed the Jordan River and was laying siege to the Castle of Raymond III at Tiberias (Raymond, in addition to his Countship, was lord of that castle; however, he was absent at the time: his wife was in nominal "command" there).

True to chivalric tradition, King Guy called together his constituents to relieve the beleaguered castle. It was the largest Latin army in the Levant since the First Crusade, literally scraping the bottom of the European manpower barrel. Contemporary chroniclers estimate its size at about 2,200 mounted knights, 4,000 Turcopoles (local mercenary cavalry), and 35,000 footmen, whose value was variable.

King Guy marched his troops to the nearest watering area, the town of Tiberias, and held council there on the army's future course of action. Raymond, probably the most competent of the Latin leaders, advised that the Crusaders should not go on because of the lack of water between Tiberias and Sephoria; he argued that if Tiberias fell, he had the most to lose: then why would he give the King bad advice?

"As for my wife and children," he is purported to have said, "I will ransom them afterward, and as for the castle, we can recapture that later... If you go there, all is lost!" Nevertheless, Guy decided to continue (probably through the machination of Raynauld of Chatillon and Gerard of Ridifort Grand Master of the elite Knights Templar contingent).

The army moved on and spend a miserable waterless night encamped on the hills of Hattin. Morning found the Franks surrounded by Saladin's legions, unable to break out for the desperately needed water.

By the end of the day (July 4th), thirst and combat had destroyed the Latin army. King Guy was taken prisoner, Raynauld was executed; among the leaders of the Franks, Raymond alone succeeded in escaping the disaster at Hattin, and he later died of wounds.

The importance of the battle was quickly apparent. The Frankish army had been destroyed at Hattin and the Christian Levant consequently was defenseless. In quick succession, Tiberias, Acre, and Ascalon fell; and on October 2nd, 1187 the event that sparked the Third Crusade took place: the capitulation of Jerusalem.

The news electrified Europe: Pope Gregory VIII and his successor, Clement III, called for a Crusade against the Saracen to rescue the Holy Land. The great leaders of the continent took the Cross: Frederick I "Barbarossa", the Holy Roman Emperor; Henry II of England and his son Richard; and King Philip II "Augustus" of France.

Frederick was the first to depart (1189), but after a successful march through Hungary, Constantinople, and Seljuk Anatolia (the deployment of crossbowmen in his marching column had proved particularly effective against the harassing horse-archer attacks of the Turkish cavalry in the latter area), he drowned in Cilicia in the waters of the Cydnus River, evidently of heart failure while taking a bath after a hot march.

On hearing of his death, the German army dispersed. Some did continue under the leadership of his son (also named Frederick), but the latter was not so able a leader as his farther: of those who followed him and suffered the consequent disease, starvation and Muslim harassment, only about 1,000 arrived at Acre. Once there, many left by sea for home. Thus the Germans formed only a small part of the European reinforcements arriving in the levant.

Meanwhile, King Richard (Henry had died and Richard now had the throne) and King Philip had taken the sea route, starting in 1190. They wintered in Sicily, constantly haggling, for Richard had large fiefs on the continent, and Philip was accordingly cautious with him. Philip was the first to arrive in Palestine, on April 20th, 1191. Meanwhile, Richard had landed in Cyprus to secure it as a forward base for a seaborne supply route, and did not get to Acre until June 8th, 1191.

The siege of Acre had begun long before the arrival of Richard and Philip. The city itself, now occupied by Muslim forces, had been invested in August of 1189; on its landward side by the Christian forces of King Guy (who had been released by Saladin on parole) and Conrad of Montferrat, whose timely arrival at Tyre in 1187 kept that city as the sole survivor of the Frankish Kingdom out of the hands of the Muslims; and on its seaward side, by the Genoese and Pisan fleets. Months of see-sawing combat took place, with Saladin trying to relieve the city and the Crusaders trying to fend off his attacks while keeping the Acre garrison pinned in. Time was on the side of Guy and Conrad: when Philip arrived, the writing was on the wall plain enough for all to see.

Still, the matter was not pressed: at first, Philip waited for Richard, and the wait only worsened the condition of the Acre garrison, much to the chagrin of Saladin's forces, which were in leaguer outside the Christian camp. Finally, Richard arrived with much pomp and splendor, all very visible to the Muslim garrison, and having an ill effect on their morale. Still, no attack was pressed, this time because of Philip and Richard falling prey to illness.

Philip recovered first, and on July 3rd, 1191 made an attack with his own forces against the Acre citadel. The assault was not a complete success, but decreased the already low morale of the defenders. Their situation was now truly critical: the walls were in some places completely breached by the bombardment of the Crusaders; siege weaponry. and food was running out. Not to be outdone by Philip, Richard kept up the pressure by personally participating in the bombardment.

By now, the defenders of the city were at their breaking point: negotiations were commenced, with Conrad of Montferrat as the intermediary. On July 12th, 1191, the city of Acre capitulated after a siege of nearly two years.

Once Acre had been secured, Philip considered his part of the Crusade as through, and returned home, leaving his men, and, for that matter, the Crusade, under Richard's command.

The English King's plan was to make for Jerusalem by way of the coast road through Arsouf and Ascalon. Accordingly, he marched from Acre on August 23rd with a well-organized, if conglomerate, force of some 50,000 men. The formation of march included bowmen being placed along the perimeter of the march column to ward off Muslim harassing attacks. The King himself rode with his own household elements, but reserved no march position for himself exclusively.

The march column itself was organized within the infantry perimeter; within that line were the mounted elements of the army; furthest in, on the protected seaward flank., were the Crusader baggage elements. The vanguard of the column was formed by Normans, and the Duke of Burgundy, with the French contingent, brought up the rear. No sooner had the army pulled itself out of Acre than crisis struck.

With the surrender of Acre, the Muslim commander had determined to fall back in front of Richard, while constantly annoying him with the hit-and-run attacks of the Turkish horse-archers. Meanwhile, his army was constantly growing, particularly in bowmen-infantry with the arrival of Bedouin and African Negro troops. However, if the opportunity presented itself for a successful attack en masse, he was ready to take it; this tendency and the fact that Richard had massacred some 5,000 Muslim prisoners when Saladin defaulted on a ransom to be paid for them, thus spurring a will for vengeance among the Muslim troops, contributed to the abortive attack of August 25th.

It seems that when the Crusader column was pulling itself together, the Duke of Burgundy and his French contingent fell somewhat behind the main column, and the Turkish cavalry immediately moved in to exploit the error in a rapidly escalating attack; elements of the rearward baggage and packhorse train were over-run and things began to look grim when Richard appeared on the scene with timely reinforcements. The Muslims withdrew, and the skirmish ended inconclusively.

Once the column reformed, the march continued. Richard had taken great pains not to overstrain his men: they marched only on alternate days, and only during the early morning hours. Still, they suffered from the intense heat by day and the sting of the Tarantula spiders by night.

Caesarea was taken without a fight on August 30th, and the march continued uneventfully until the morning of September 7th, when it became apparent that Saladin was about to offer battle on the gently rolling plain north of Arsouf.

A Military History of the Third Crusade

Introduction
Jihad
Battle of Arsouf 1191
Conclusion and Bibliography
The Crusader Army
The Muslim Army
Ordnance of Siege Warfare
Crusader Kings