A History of the Crusades-Vol 3 (10 page)

Richard had already disposed of King Guy.
He had understood at last that no one in Palestine had any use for the
ineffectual ex-monarch. But there was the future of Cyprus to be considered. He
had no desire to maintain officers there when he returned to Europe; nor were
the Templars, to whom he had sold the government, wise in their treatment of
the Greek natives. They wished to return it to him; so he permitted Guy to buy
the government from them, himself demanding an additional sum, which, in fact,
Guy never fully paid him. Early in May, Guy landed in Cyprus with complete
authority to govern it as he pleased.

When all this was settled, Richard invited
Henry to join him at Ascalon. There was a rumour that one of Saladin’s nephews
in Mesopotamia had begun a dangerous revolt against the Sultan. So Richard,
whose treaty with the Saracens was not yet ratified, decided on a sudden attack
on Daron twenty miles down the coast. But Henry, with the French army, dallied
at Acre. Without waiting for them Richard advanced by sea and land on Daron;
and on 23 May, after five days’ fierce fighting, the lower town was stormed and
the garrison in the citadel surrendered. Richard had learned little from
Saladin’s courtesy. Some of the garrison were killed by the sword of flung over
the battlements, or taken away bound into perpetual captivity.

The easy capture of Saladin’s last
fortress on the Palestinian coast so heartened the Crusaders that they planned
once more to march on Jerusalem. Henry and the French arrived at Daron the day
after its capture, in time to spend Whitsun there with the King. The army
returned to Ascalon immediately afterwards, and the French and English alike
urged an immediate attack upon the Holy City. Richard had just heard more
disquieting news from England, and he was doubtful whether the expedition was
militarily feasible. He took to his bed in perplexity, and was only aroused by
a stirring address given him by one of his Poitevin chaplains. He then vowed to
stay in Palestine till the following Easter.

On 7 June the Christian army set out again
from Ascalon. Bypassing Ramleh by marching on the road through Blanchegarde, it
reached Latrun on the 9th and Beit-Nuba on the 11th. There Richard halted, and
there the army remained for a month. Saladin waited at Jerusalem, where his
reinforcements from the Jezireh and Mosul had just arrived. Without better
stores and baggage-animals it would be folly for the Christians to advance
further into the hills. Both sides settled down to skirmishing, with varying
success. One day as he was riding out over the hills above Emmaus King Richard
suddenly saw a distant view of the walls and towers of Jerusalem. Hastily he
covered his face with his shield, that he might not fully behold the City which
God had not allowed him to deliver. But there were compensations. The Syrian
Bishop of Lydda came one day to the camp with a portion of the True Cross that
he had saved. A little later the Abbot of the Greek Convent of Mar Elias, a
venerable man with a long white beard, told the King of a spot where he had
buried another portion of the Cross, to save it from the infidel. It was dug up
and given to Richard. These fragments consoled the army for its failure to
retrieve the major part of the relic, which, it seems, Saladin had now restored
to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

On 20 June, when the army leaders were
hesitating whether to abandon the attempt on Jerusalem and march instead into
Egypt, news came of a great Moslem convoy making its way from the south towards
the Holy City. Three days later Richard fell on it by the Round Cistern, the
wells of Kuwaifa, in the barren country some twenty miles south-west of Hebron.
The Moslems were ill-prepared for the onslaught. After a short battle the whole
caravan was captured with its rich merchandise, its plentiful supplies of food
and some thousands of horses and camels. The Christian army returned in triumph
to the camp at Beit-Nuba.

1192: Richard retreats to Jaffa

Saladin was horrified by the news. Richard
would now surely march on to Jerusalem. He hastily sent men to block up all the
wells between Beit-Nuba and the city, and cut down all the fruit trees. On 1
July he held an anxious council in Jerusalem, to discuss whether he should
retire eastward. He himself wished to stay there, and his assembled emirs
supported his decision, protesting their loyalty to him. But the Turkish and
Kurdish troops were quarrelling, and he was unsure how well they would stand up
to a vigorous attack.

His worries soon were settled. There had
been anxious debates in the Christian camp also. The French soldiers were eager
to press on now that food and transport were abundant. But Richard’s scouts had
warned him of the lack of water; and there was still the problem how to hold
Jerusalem when the Western Crusaders returned home. To the jeers and insults of
the French, Richard once again ordered the army to retreat from Beit-Nuba. On 4
July news reached Saladin that the Christians had broken camp and were
beginning to move down towards the coast. He rode out to a neighbouring hill at
the head of his men to watch the distant procession.

As soon as he was back at Jaffa Richard
again sought a truce that would leave him free to go home. Henry of Champagne
sent Saladin an arrogant message announcing that he was now heir to the kingdom
of Jerusalem and that it all should be given to him. Richard’s ambassadors, who
came to Jerusalem three days later, were more conciliatory. Richard recommended
his nephew to Saladin’s good graces and urged a friendly arrangement. With the
approval of his council, Saladin agreed to treat Henry as a son, to allow Latin
priests in the Holy Places, and to cede the coast of Palestine to the
Christians, provided only that Ascalon was dismantled. Richard refused to
consider the dismantling of Ascalon, even when Saladin offered Lydda in
exchange. While the argument was still being carried on by messengers going to
and fro, Richard moved to Acre, planning to sail away even if the treaty was
not yet signed. His scheme was to march suddenly on Beirut and seize it and
embark there for Europe.

His absence gave Saladin an opportunity.
Early on 27 July he took his army out from Jerusalem and arrived that evening
before Jaffa, and at once began the assault of the city. After three days of
bombardment his sappers made a breach and the Saracen army poured in. The defence
was heroic but vain. The garrison was forced to capitulate on the understanding
that their lives would be spared. The negotiations were conducted for the
Christians by the new Patriarch, who happened to be in the city. Saladin’s
troops were now out of hand. Kurds and Turks rushed through the streets seeking
plunder and slaughtering the citizens who tried to defend their houses. So
Saladin advised the garrison to shut itself in the citadel till he could
restore order.

1192: Richard’s last Victory

A swift message had brought news of the
attack on Jaffa to Richard as soon as Saladin approached the walls. He at once
set out to its rescue, going himself by sea, with Pisan and Genoese help, and
sending his army by land. Contrary winds held him up off the point of Carmel,
and his army, reluctant to arrive at Jaffa before him, delayed on the road to
Caesarea. On the 31st, when Saladin had pacified his troops sufficiently to
allow him to evacuate forty-nine of the knights of the garrison, with their
wives and baggage, from the citadel through the town, Richard’s fleet of fifty
galleys sailed into sight. The garrison at once resumed the battle and in a
desperate charge almost drove the disorganized Moslems from the town. Richard,
not knowing what was happening, hesitated to land till a priest swam out to
tell him that the citadel was untaken. He beached his ships at the foot of the
citadel and waded ashore at the head of his men. The garrison in despair had
already sent new envoys to treat With Saladin, who was talking with them in his
tent when Richard launched his attack. The Saracens, many of them still
scattered about the streets, were taken by surprise. The ferocity of Richard’s
onslaught, himself fighting furiously in the fore, combined with another attack
from the garrison, drove them into headlong flight. A secretary came to Saladin’s
tent and whispered to him of the rout. As he tried to detain his visitors with
pleasant conversation, the torrent of Moslem fugitives revealed the truth. The
Sultan was obliged to order the retreat. He was able to remain in his camp
himself, with a handful of cavalry, but his main army fled to Assir, five miles
inland, before it reassembled its ranks. Richard had recaptured Jaffa with some
eighty knights and four hundred bowmen, and perhaps two thousand Italian
marines. His whole force had only three horses.

The very next morning Saladin sent his
chamberlain, Abu-Bakr, to resume the peace talks. He found Richard joking with
some captive emirs, both about Saladin’s swift capture of Jaffa and about his
recapture of it. He said he had been unarmed and not even had time to change
his shoes. But he agreed at once with Abu-Bakr that the war must stop. Saladin’s
message suggested, as a bargaining point, that as Jaffa was now half ruined the
Frankish frontier should stop at Caesarea. Richard countered by offering to
hold Jaffa and Ascalon as a fief under Saladin, without explaining how the
vassaldom would work when the King was in Europe. Saladin’s answer was to offer
Jaffa, but to insist on keeping Ascalon. Once again Ascalon proved the
stumbling-block. Negotiations were broken off.

The Frankish army which Richard had
summoned to rescue Jaffa was advancing past Caesarea. Saladin, well aware now
how small was Richard’s force at Jaffa, determined to strike at his camp
outside the walls before the fresh army could arrive. At daybreak on Wednesday,
5 August, a Genoese, wandering about outside the camp, heard the neighing of
horses and the tramp of soldiers and saw afar off steel glistening in the light
of the rising sun. He roused the camp; and when the Saracens appeared Richard
was ready. His men had not had time to arm themselves. Each took what was at
hand. There were only fifty-four knights fit for battle and only fifteen
horses, and about two thousand infantrymen. Behind a low palisade of tent-pegs,
designed to disconcert the enemy horses, Richard set his men in pairs, their
shields fixed as a fence in front of them and their long spears planted in the
ground at an angle to impale the oncoming cavalry. Between each pair an archer
was stationed. The Moslem cavalry charged in seven waves of a thousand men
each. But they could not pierce the wall of steel. These charges continued till
the afternoon. Then, when the enemy horses seemed to be tiring, Richard passed
his bowmen through to the front line and discharged all his arrows into the
oncoming host. The volley checked the enemy. The archers passed back again
behind the spearmen, who charged with Richard on horseback at their head.
Saladin was lost in angry admiration at the sight. When Richard’s horse fell
under him, he gallantly sent a groom through the midst of the turmoil with two
fresh horses as a gift to the brave King. Some Moslems crept round to attack
the town itself, and the marines guarding it fled towards their ships, till
Richard rode up and rallied them. By evening Saladin called off the battle and
retreated to Jerusalem, adding to the fortifications there lest Richard still
might pursue him.

1192: Treaty between Saladin and Richard

It was a superb victory, won by Richard’s
tactics and his personal bravery. But it was not followed up. Within a day or
two Saladin was back at Ramleh, with a fresh army of levies from Egypt and
northern Syria; while Richard, worn by his exertions, lay seriously ill of a
fever in his tent. Richard now longed for peace. Saladin repeated his former
offer, still insisting on the cession of Ascalon. It was hard for Richard to
bear. He wrote to his old friend al-Adil, who himself was on a sick-bed near
Jerusalem, to beg him to intercede with Saladin to leave him Ascalon. Saladin
held firm. He sent the fevered King peaches and pears and snow from Mount
Hermon to cool his drinks. But he would not yield Ascalon. Richard was in no
position to bargain. His health, as well as his brother’s misdeeds in England,
demanded his swift return to his home. The other Crusaders were weary. His
nephew Henry and the Military Orders showed that they distrusted his politics.
Of what use would Ascalon be to them if he and his army had left? He had made
public too often his determination to leave Palestine. On Friday, 28 August,
al-Adil’s courier brought him Saladin’s final offer. Five days later, on 2
September 1192, he signed a treaty of peace for five years, and the Sultan’s
ambassadors added their names to his. The ambassadors then took Richard’s hand
and swore on their master’s behalf. Richard as a King refused to take an oath
himself, but Henry of Champagne, Balian of Ibelin and the Masters of the
Hospital and the Temple swore for him. Saladin himself signed the treaty next
day, in the presence of Richard’s ambassadors. The war of the Third Crusade was
over.

The treaty gave the coastal cities as far
south as Jaffa to the Christians. Pilgrims might freely visit the Holy Places.
Moslems and Christians might pass through each other’s lands. But Ascalon was
to be demolished.

As soon as Saladin had made arrangements
for their escort and lodging, parties from the Crusading army went up unarmed,
with a passport from the King, to pay their homage at the shrines of Jerusalem.
Richard himself would not go and refused to give any of the French troops a
passport, but many of his own knights made the journey. One party was led by
Hubert Walter, Bishop of Salisbury, who was received there with honour and
given an audience with the Sultan. They talked of many subjects and in
particular of Richard’s character. The Bishop declared that he possessed every
good quality, but Saladin thought that he lacked wisdom and moderation. When
Saladin offered the Bishop a parting present, the prelate asked that two Latin
priests and two Latin deacons might be allowed to serve at the Holy Sepulchre,
and also at Bethlehem and Nazareth. Saladin consented; and a few months later
the priests arrived and were allowed to perform their duties unmolested.