ABSTRACT

The Third Crusade can justly lay claim to being the greatest crusading expedition ever. No other crusade would boast the participation of the three most powerful secular rulers of the West: Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, King Richard I of England and King Philip II Augustus of France. The ultimate goal of the Third Crusade was plainly the recapture of Jerusalem. King Richard's suspected involvement in the murder of Conrad of Montferrat meant that he had to travel home in disguise, but as the king moved through Austria he was recognised and captured by Duke Leopold in December 1192. News of the disasters at Hattin and Jerusalem soon reached the West and in October 1187 Pope Gregory VIII issued Audita tremendi, the call to preserve the holy city in Christian hands. Saladin had swept all before him after Hattin, but the defeats at Acre, Arsuf and Jaffa cumulatively damaged his reputation and morale in the Muslim Near East.