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.