In our previous videos on the Third Crusade we discussed the two-year long grinding siege
of Acre. The arrival of both Philip Augustus and Richard the Lionheart tipped the balance
in favour of the Christian forces, and they managed to secure the surrender of this commercial
hub in the Levant. However, this did not conclude the war for Jerusalem, and as the Islamic
forces under Saladin licked their wounds and prepared for more battles to come, the crusaders
under Richard the Lionheart turned south. The third chapter of this series will culminate
in the Battle of Arsuf.
We are excited to announce that this video is being sponsored by MagellanTV! We've been
working with Magellan for a while, and we cannot recommend them enough. Magellan is
a new type of documentary streaming membership founded by filmmakers, their team of producers
and curators that bring together premium content with a deeper dive. With a subscription to
MagellanTV, you have access to featured genres of history, space, science, nature, as well
as individual documentary movies and series. Magellan even has different specific history
playlists, like Ancient History, Current History, and Military History. Our new favorite is
the series of documentaries called the Empire Builders, which describes the formation of
many empires through history, from the Ancient Egyptians all the way to the British. You
can stream Magellan from anywhere on any device without any ads and no limited access. Many
new programs are added on a weekly basis, and a wide selection is available in 4k. To
support our channel, go to magellantv.com/KingsAndGenerals to get a one-month free trial of MagellanTV,
an offer extended especially for Kings and Generals viewers.
His crushing defeat in July of 1191 immeasurably damaged Saladin’s martial reputation. His
image as the triumphant and undefeatable champion of Islam had been utterly destroyed, and he
retreated with his army to Saffaran. Back in captured Acre, churches were reconsecrated
and the entirety of the city was swiftly re-Christianised, but there was no time for laxity after this
success. On July 22nd, within days of the victory, Richard the Lionheart sought to issue
a joint statement with his French counterpart, Philip Augustus, proclaiming that the two
sovereigns would remain in the East until Jerusalem was conquered.
However, Philip instead revealed that he intended to sail back to Europe, considering his crusading
duties complete. Some sources state that Philip was very ill, while others merely profess
his cowardice as the reason he abandoned his Latin brothers. However, it is probable that
he wished to return to France in order to press his claim to the prosperous County of
Flanders, whose ruler had perished in the siege that summer. Whatever the case, his
departure was humiliating and he would be condemned for it the rest of his life.
This shock turnaround made Richard the uncontested leader of the Third Crusade, and he had the
financial resources to fund such an endeavor. With ultimate authority now his, the Lionheart
would waste no time in seizing the initiative. Acting swiftly to secure his control, the
Angevin monarch forced a now politically isolated Conrad of Montferrat to submit to him on July
26th. The succession of the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem was also settled. Guy of Lusignan
would remain king for life, and the revenues of his realm were to be shared with Conrad.
In addition, Conrad would become the heir to the throne of Jerusalem after Guy’s death.
To solidify this promise, he would formally be awarded the city of Tyre immediately, though
in reality he had possessed it for years. To guarantee his Angevin realm’s security
in Europe, Richard coerced Philip Augustus into swearing an oath on Christian icons that
he would not attack Richard’s realm while the crusade continued. Eager to continue the
war with haste, the English king also sought to swiftly resolve the terms of Acre’s surrender
with Saladin. However, the sultan played a dangerous game of delay with Richard, knowing
that if his force could be immobilised until winter due to the prisoners he had taken at
Acre, the winter weather would give him more time to prepare. This diplomatic maneuvering
was to have grim consequences. After Saladin began to deliberately equivocate,
seeking to insert more conditions into the deal, Richard was disgusted and decided to
take a drastic step. On the 20th of August 1191, Richard and his army marched out of
the city and set up a temporary camp beyond the old trenches. The king then showed his
hand - marching some 2,700 prisoners out of the city and herding them onto the open ground
beyond the Frankish tents, their hands bound by ropes. As the Muslim advanced guard watched
in horror, the Christian forces slashed and stabbed their helpless prisoners to death.
A small group of Muslims tried to counterattack in order to stop the massacre, but they were
repelled. It was a stark political message to the sultan.
This was how the Lionheart would play Saladin’s game. In response, the sultan executed all
of the latin prisoners he himself had taken. Despite its apparent barbaric nature, many
recent scholars argue that Richard was motivated by the military necessity of swiftly moving
onto further campaigns and saving resources which would have been needed to maintain the
prisoners. Whatever the case, the crusade was now able
to move on. After much deliberation with his fellow commanders, the Lionheart decided on
a combined approach - a fighting march to the south, during which the 15,000 strong
army would hug the coast, being closely supported and shadowed by the Latin navy, carrying most
of the supplies. Richard’s strategic objectives during this time were obscured to Saladin
just as they are unclear to us now. This misdirection appears to have worked,
as the sultan felt the need to garrison both Jerusalem and Ascalon with 20,000 men each,
rather than being able to focus on just one of these potential targets. It is likely that
Richard himself had not decided on his objective yet, as he could easily carry on to Ascalon
once he reached Jaffa, giving him the ability to cut off Saladin’s lines of communication
and supply from the wealthy Ayyubid Egyptian core. However, he could just as easily pivot
east to threaten Jerusalem itself - his ultimate objective.
Setting off on August 22nd 1191 in the direction of Jaffa, the Lionheart’s crusading army
advanced at an unexpectedly slow pace, around 6 kilometres per day. He did this both to
prevent his army from becoming strung out due to exhaustion, and to protect his armoured
warriors from the intense heat of summer. On August 25th, Saladin broke camp and began
marching parallel to the crusader army. To the left of the Christian force, Muslim troops
began to assault the strung-out crusader rearguard, manned by the French contingent. Hearing of
their peril, the Lionheart rode to his rear lines and drove the Muslims away, after which
they reached Haifa on August 26th. During their stay at Haifa, Richard reorganised
his marching column. Elite Templar and Hospitaller knights held the van and rearguard, while
the king and a central mass of knights were screened on their landward left side by dense
ranks of well-armoured infantry, whose panoply made them almost immune to missile fire.
Another consequence of Richard’s irregularly slow march was that Saladin did not have the
supplies to keep his men in the field, presuming that Richard would march as fast as possible.
Now in increasing need of a decisive clash, the Ayyubid leader began seeking a suitable
battlefield by performing reconnaissance on the coastal route in front of the crusader
column. On September 3rd, the coastal route became impassable and forced the crusaders
to turn inland for a time, where they would be separated from their supply ships. Saladin
chose this moment to seek battle. He personally led three divisions of troops
against the massed Christian infantry, bombarding them with arrows before charging their line
with cavalry. This brief but indecisive engagement saw the sultan escape unscathed, but Richard
had been struck in the side by a crossbow bolt, though his armour absorbed much of the
blow. By the end of September 3rd, the Lionheart’s
army reached the River of Reeds and pitched its tents, unaware that a mile upstream the
Muslims done the same. Now only 25 miles from Jaffa, the English king allowed his men a
day of rest on the 4th. Ahead of them at this point was the Forest of Arsuf, one of Palestine’s
rare woodlands, and a site which the crusaders feared to pass through due to fear of Muslim
ambush. Beyond the forest was ground prime for a camp called the Rochetaille, followed
by a large open plain. Seeking safe passage through the dangerous
woods, the Lionheart dispatched envoys to request faux peace talks with Saladin’s
brother - Saphadin. Instructing his brother to prolong the talks for as long as possible,
Saladin allowed his men to forage in the woods and rest. However this was a ruse, and Richard
was in no mood for actual negotiation. The talks were neither prolonged nor cordial,
and they quickly broke off. No sooner had this happened than the king ordered his army
to march through the woods. Thanks to the king’s cunning strategy of misdirection,
the crusaders managed to reach the limits of the forest unhindered and unharmed.
As they reached the Rochetaille, the crusaders pitched their tents and rested for the night.
The next morning, preparations were different, as the king seemed to be readying his men
for a potential battle as they crossed the plains. Instead of a marching column, the
crusader army formed up as if its marching flank facing inland would be its front in
an upcoming battle, so it could turn and fight in formation with ease. Shortly before dawn
on the 7th of September 1191, the crusader army set off in its battle-ready formation,
seeing enemy scouts in all directions. The main Christian infantry contingent, melee
infantry, archers and crossbowmen, protected the ‘front’ and ‘flanks’ of the battle-formation
- screening all of the marching column not shielded by the sea. This contingent, as well
as the baggage train to the rear of the formation, was commanded by Henry of Champagne. In the
column’s vanguard - the right wing of the battle formation - four squadrons of elite
Templar knights, followed by Bretons and Angevin cavalry were led by the Order’s Grandmaster
Robert de Sablé. On the left wing, Flemish, French and Jerusalem knights, led by veteran
Hospitaliers, formed up under the leadership of their own Grandmaster, Garnier de Naples.
Finally in the centre, another four squadrons of Poitevin, Norman and Anglo-Norman horsemen
marched under Guy of Lusignan, and were under the ultimate authority of Richard the Lionheart
himself. Overall, the crusading army probably numbered around 15,000 soldiers, of which
2,000 troops were the lethal, heavily armoured Latin knights.
As this force passed a forested area to their left, Saladin’s army emerged and arrayed
in battle formation. The sultan himself lined up immediately in front of the treeline to
the left side of the crusader marching column, accompanied by his elite personal guard. Drawn
up in front of him were the mixed infantry and cavalry contingents of Syria, Damascus
and Saladin’s elite guard, led by his son - al-Afdal. On the Ayyubid right flank, Egyptian
cavalry and Nubian infantry under the sultan’s brother Saphadin opposed the Hospitallers.
Manning the opposite side of the battlefield, to the left, cavalry and infantry units from
the Jazira region and Mesopotamia opposed the infamous Templars. Overall, Saladin’s
force probably numbered around 25 to 30,000 troops, outnumbering their enemy two to one
and possessing significantly more mounted troops.
The crusader right wing, led by the Templar knights, reached the outskirts and plantations
of Arsuf at around 9am. At this point, Saladin saw that his enemy was tired and searching
for a good place to encamp, and made his decisive move. Lightly armoured Muslim infantry, wielding
bows and javelins, charged, while horse archers galloped forward. At this point, a shattering
cacophony of cymbals, gongs and war cries broke out as the Muslims tried to intimidate
their enemy. As they came into range, a devastating missile bombardment hit the left wing of the
crusader ranks, with the Ayyubid infantry shooting arrows and throwing javelins, while
their cavalry mounted lightning hit and run horse archery attacks.
The grizzled Hospitallers and other crusader units on this wing were heavily armoured,
and so not many of them were killed - their horses were not so lucky. However, the fact
that the Muslims vastly outnumbered them was causing a loss of cohesion and speed in their
ranks, making them slow down and split from the rest of the army. If this continued, they
would be in danger of encirclement and utter destruction as the column continued to slowly
march toward Arsuf. Richard the Lionheart still did not wish for a full-scale battle,
and instead wanted to regroup at Arsuf itself. On the crusader left, Saladin’s light cavalry
and skirmishers began to get around the seaward side of the crusaders, threatening them with
attack from the rear. Still, the crusaders did not retaliate, as Richard was initially
hesitant to get involved in a mass battle on Saladin’s terms. However the Hospitallers
were eager for a fight, and their grandmaster sent a messenger requesting permission to
attack, which was refused. With his entire army almost bursting with enthusiasm for the
charge and infuriated by the Ayyubid missile attacks, it took the Lionheart’s immense
will and charisma to keep them from charging without orders. Any break in troop discipline
and any gap in the orderly marching formation would be fatal.
As the pressure on the left mounted, the grandmaster of the Hospitaller order himself came to Richard
and pleaded for permission to attack, and was again refused. The king was now close
to his goal of safety at Arsuf, however now his hand was forced. On the heavily pressured
left wing, the Marshal of the Hospitaller order had been held back enough and charged
without orders. Driven by a mixture of rage, humiliation and sheer bloodlust, thousanders
of crusaders had followed his lead in a mere moment. Seeing this, Richard acted decisively.
The unordered charge was against his plans, but he instead commanded that the entirety
of his army now charge - and reinforce the left wing. The Lionheart himself and his personal
contingent swept around his army and charged along with the embattled Hospitaller cavalry.
The Muslim line on this part of the battlefield, incredibly close to that of the Christians,
were smashed by the brunt of the lethal knightly charge, and began to rout to the forest behind
them. The king himself supposedly fought with ferocity and valour, killing many Muslims
and acting like the proper medieval warrior monarch.
Much the same slaughter occurred in the other areas of the battlefield, with the Muslims
routing to the rear. However, they were not done, and as the Christian infantry slowly
caught up and again screened their cavalry, Saladin rallied his elite guard, and many
units who had retreated, into a usable battle formation. Richard the Lionheart, using the
momentum of his victory, now charged a second time with his entire army and destroyed Saladin’s
attempt at turning the battle around. Many Muslims were killed as they fled, however
Richard stopped his army before it reached the treeline, fearing a potential ambush.
With this victory won, the crusaders celebrated and encamped at a water-rich area near Arsuf.
It is not known exactly how many died in this battle, but it is widely believed that the
crusaders only lost 700 soldiers dead, while Saladin lost 7,000.
While the psychological impact of the crusader victory was once again shattering to Saladin,
his numerical losses were recoverable. Within days, he was sending messengers to his far
flung territories requesting reinforcements. The crusaders were jubilant at their victory,
as it was clear that Saladin had once again tried, and failed, to stop the Crusade in
its tracks. On the 9th of September 1191 the bruised Franks resumed their march south and,
the next day, reached the ruined city of Jaffa - which Saladin had destroyed in a scorched
earth strategy. This was not an immediate problem, as the crusader navy continued to
ferry them supplies. Now, as they turned inland, Jerusalem waited for their arrival.
The final chapter in our story of the Third Crusade is on the way, so make sure you are
subscribed to our channel and have pressed the bell button. We would like to express
our gratitude to our Patreon supporters and channel members, who make the creation of
our videos possible. Now, you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link
the description. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next
one.