The Siege of Acre, Part 2

A couple weeks ago I mentioned the events that led to Saladin coming to power in Egypt. From there he had two choices: stay in Egypt and try to bring the entire country under his control, or try to surpass all the other Muslim rulers in the Eastern Mediterranean. Ten years later he was making good on that goal, one milestone being the Battle of Hattin, in which he defeated the largest army the Kingdom of Jerusalem had ever put together under the command of King of Jerusalem Guy of Lusignan. Guy was captured during Hattin.

Jerusalem after a five-day siege fell to Saladin. Pope Urban III died on 19 October 1187, supposedly of sadness that Jerusalem was lost. Pope Gregory VIII proposed a new Crusade; this would become the Third Crusade.

Saladin was unable to conquer Tyre, which was held by Conrad of Montferrat. Saladin tried to negotiate rather than fight when he saw that reinforcements from Europe were arriving to aid Conrad. As part of negotiation, Saladin released Guy, but Conrad would not allow Guy to enter Tyre; everyone blamed Guy for mismanaging the defeat at Hattin. (Also, Conrad was the closest male relative to Baldwin V of Jerusalem and saw himself as the man who should be King of Jerusalem.)

Saladin left Tyre and turned his attention to Acre.

Acre was an important port city, and would be a natural target for Christians. Muslim records tell that they debated destroying the city to make it unusable versus reinforcing the defenses.

News of the loss of Jerusalem galvanized Christian leaders. In early 1188, reinforcements from Europe started arriving. William II of Sicily sent ships with 200 knights. The Archbishop of Pisa arrived with 52 ships. They contacted the King of Jerusalem, still camped outside of Tyre, and pledged to support him. Conrad still would not let Guy into Tyre.

Guy needed a city for a base, and Hattin had destroyed most of the fighting men from Jerusalem, but now he had allies from the Mediterranean—between 7000 and 9000 infantry and between 400 and 700 knights—so he decided to go to Acre (30 miles away in the south; see illustration) to use it as his base against Saladin.

Saladin had left thousands of men in Acre, so this attack would not be easy. West and south of Acre was a sea wall; east was the only approach. Guy tried an attack on the walls that failed thanks to Saladin reinforcing it. Guy set up camp east of the city and waited for reinforcements from Europe.

A few days after setting up camp, reinforcements started to arrive. Things were looking up for Guy...or were they? We'll continue tomorrow.