But Saladin answered, ‘If they come from across the sea,
they’ll be far from home and they won’t win.’
In 1188 Saladin, now fifty, said that King Guy could go free
if he promised never to fight the Muslims again. But Guy broke
his promise in 1189 and attacked Acre, beginning a long
and terrible siege. By then there were many more European
knights in Palestine. After the fall of Jerusalem, the Franks told
European kings that they needed help to win back the Holy
Land. Many answered the call for a new crusade.
In 1191, the King of France arrived in the Holy Land, and two
months later Richard, King of England, came too. The Muslims
knew that King Richard was brave and strong.
Acre was a dirty town, and King Richard was ill the minute
he arrived, but he went on telling his men what to do from his
bed. He was a good commander and the town, already in great
trouble after two years of endless war, couldn’t fight any more.
People were dying of hunger because the Franks had the town
under siege, and they stopped all food getting into it by land or
by sea. Richard told his men to make better siege engines and
the new attacks from these never stopped. The falling stones
killed twelve men at a time, and the Muslim generals knew that
this was the end.
They sent a letter to Saladin saying that they couldn’t fight
any longer. Saladin thought that one last fight could win the
day. He asked all of his men to attack, but the emirs said, ‘We
can’t win now. There are too many Franks.’
In July 1191, the town surrendered. Saladin asked King
Richard to treat his Muslim prisoners well, but the English king
wanted to win back other towns in Palestine that the Muslims
held. Most of all he wanted Jerusalem, so all Richard’s prisoners
– Muslim soldiers of Acre, their wives and their children – died
under the swords of the Frankish knights that day.
The Franks now marched towards Jerusalem, but it was
summer and it was hot. They tried to stay near their ships which
were sailing down the coast. But Saladin’s men never stopped
attacking them. Richard’s men were brave and they went on,
but the army could march only five miles a day. At Arsuf the
Franks won a small battle, but the war wasn’t over.
The next year saw a lot of fighting, but no real victory for
either army. Saladin knew that time was on his side. Richard
needed to go home. In the end, they agreed to stop fighting.
The Franks kept the land between Tyre and Jaffa, but Saladin
kept Jerusalem and the other towns in Palestine that he held.
European pilgrims could visit the holy city without danger, and
many European knights travelled there to pray, but Richard
never went. He left for England without ever seeing Jerusalem.