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