ABSTRACT
The Third Crusade could lay claim to being the greatest crusading expedition ever. It lacked the vast breadth and ambition of the Second Crusade, although in light of that campaign’s unsatisfactory outcome and the calamity that befell Jerusalem in 1187 a simple focus was perhaps unsurprising. 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 and, measured against this, it was a failure. But, as we shall see, in light of the political and strategic context in which the campaign took place, its achievements were highly significant for the future of the Latin East.
