Acre? An acre? I’ll take it in less time than it takes to travel a mile!

‘To Palestine we will sail!

This is a mission which with God’s help we cannot fail!

I have an almighty , dedicated, Christian military host!

With these true men  I will disembark on the Palestinian coast!’

So far so good!  Richard’s conquest of Cyprus would provide him with a vital base close to Palestine for supplies of both men and materials en-route from Europe.  Indeed, Richard’s initial foray as a crusader would prove to be very successful.  Richard’s first blood against the Saracens was an important one and it happened at sea by sheer chance.  The crusaders sank a large Saracen supply ship that they encountered on the ocean whilst sailing to Palestine.

‘The crusader ship whilst on its holy trip, did cause a vital Saracen ship to take an almighty dip!

Richard’s men sent the vessel to the ocean floor, thereby inflicting on Saladin a  wound which he felt sour and sore!’

Therefore Richard’s reputation preceded him and would be consolidated when he stepped on to dry land near Acre on June 8th 1191.  Acre was a Muslim stronghold located in what is now northern Israel.

The crusaders projected plan for a path of progress.

Acre had been a vital port for centuries and was already under siege by the Frankish crusaders. The Frankish besiegers were overjoyed at Richard’s arrival as their hope of capturing Acre had proved to be an agonisingly elusive one.  The forces defending Acre were the cream of Saladin’s army and indeed had been personally selected by him for the task.  Richard pitched his camp north of Acre, as Philip Augustus had already established himself to the east of the city.

The siege of Acre.

Saladin had come across a good many crusaders, but this most astute of Islam’s warriors would soon recognise and eventually acknowledge that Richard was somewhat different from the rest of the Christian military ensemble.

Salah al-Din Yusuf (Righteousness of the Faith).

At first the prospects of a crusader victory appeared somewhat slim.  The garrison defending Acre were a crack outfit endowed with impeccable military and religious credentials; the latter being every bit as important as the former as far as Saladin was concerned. The plight of the besieging Franks was an unfortunate one.  The harsh winter of 1190/91  and an outbreak of disease had reduced the size of their  army quite considerably. Those still standing were being sustained by a diet of putrid horse flesh and sewage infused drinking water, a form of sustenance hardly calculated to enhance military performance.  There was also the uncomfortable fact that Saladin had positioned his formidable forces a mere six miles away ready to attack the Christians whenever the opportunity arose.  As a result, the crusader besiegers of Acre were themselves besieged by Saladin who kept his army at a convenient distance.  To make matters worse, illness dogged both Richard and Philip Augustus early on on, but this did not stop the Lionheart from assuming overall military command.  It is not unreasonable to imagine Richard being ferried around the city’s perimeter on a stretcher in order to plan the next move in the long siege.

‘Despite a really debilitating illness, Dick proved himself to be a hardy old stick!’

Throughout June and into July the crusaders attacked the city with catapults, siege machines and sappers working away at the foundations of the wall.  The forces under Philip Augustus concentrated their catapult on the city’s famous Cursed Tower.  As massive stones shipped by Richard from Sicily, courtesy of… well, “thank you, Tancrad” were catapulted into the city, infantry attempted to reach the battlements with scaling ladders.

Acre’s defences as they are today.

The siege engines made breaches in the walls, but when this occurred the defenders used smoke signals to alert Saladin’s forces who would then attack the crusaders from the rear and flanks. This allowed the garrison time to repair the damage while the Christians were preoccupied with fending off the attack from Saladin.

Nevertheless, the garrison were feeling the strain and on July 7th they requested immediate help from Saladin, warning him that they would surrender if it was not forthcoming.  Unfortunately, no such undertaking was given by the Sultan and the garrison commanders reluctantly asked  the crusaders for terms of surrender on July12th 1191.  The garrison were assured that their lives and that of their families would be spared.  Of course nothing in life is free and many of them were to be ransomed and others were to be exchanged for Christians held captive by Saladin.  In addition, Saladin promised to hand over the ‘True Cross’ upon which Christ had been crucified as part of the settlement.

The siege was now over, but the appalling bloodshed was not.  The surrender was finalised with an unusually high degree of unpleasantness wrought by both protagonists.  Whether this was the fault of Richard, or of Saladin, or indeed was the responsibility of each, has been debated down the centuries.

The city of Acre now taken, Richard was eager to march south to Jaffa and wished to conclude the surrender settlement as swiftly as possible.  However, Sultan Saladin did not as promised hand over the ‘True Cross’ and it appears that he was in no rush to exchange prisoners, or pay the ransoms.  Richard believed that this tardiness was a deliberate ploy to delay the crusaders journey south, and took the view that time was more important than money or lives.  The Lionheart decided to take extreme action.

‘These two warrior princes so clever, mighty and grand!

Their lasting legacy at Acre was to leave a surfeit of blood in the sand!’

On August 20th, Richard had around 2,700 prisoners marched into sight of Saladin’s forces and  slaughtered.  The victims included women and children, who with their menfolk were roped together and killed with a good deal of cruelty.  The savagery wrought was not only physical but had a psychological aspect as well. The victims were forced to watch as their loved ones were put to the sword before they too suffered the same fate. As many of the victims would have swallowed their gold and silver, the soldiers cut their stomachs open before tossing their bodies on to bonfires specifically constructed for their disposal.  Observing the butchery from his vantage point some distance away, the Sultan resolved to return the compliment in kind. The Christian prisoners that he held were similarly dispatched shortly afterwards.

An image of the execution of the prisoners from 1491, some three hundred years later. The Lionheart watches from left.

This particular episode concluded, Richard departed for Jaffa on August 25th.