A History of the Crusades-Vol 3 (7 page)

On 12 May Richard ceremoniously married
Berengaria in the chapel of Saint George at Limassol, and she was crowned Queen
of England by the Bishop of Evreux. Next day the remaining vessels of the
English fleet arrived. Isaac, aware of his danger, moved to Famagusta. The
English followed him there, some of the army going by land and the rest by sea.
The Emperor made no attempt to defend Famagusta but retired to Nicosia. While
Richard rested at Famagusta, envoys reached him from Philip and the Palestinian
lords, urging him to hurry to Palestine. But he replied angrily that he would
not move until he had taken Cyprus, whose importance to them all he emphasized.
One of Philip’s envoys, Pagan of Haifa, was then supposed to have gone to
Isaac, to give him further warning. Isaac sent his wife, a princess of Armenia,
and his daughter to the castle of Kyrenia, and then marched down towards
Famagusta. Richard’s troops met him by the village of Tremithus and defeated
him after a sharp skirmish, in which he was said to have used poisoned arrows.
He fled from the battlefield to Kantara; and Richard entered Nicosia without
opposition. The Cypriot population showed itself indifferent to Isaac’s fate
and was even prepared to help the invaders.

At Nicosia Richard fell ill; and Isaac
hoped that his four great northern castles, Kantara, Buffavento, Saint Hilarion
and Kyrenia, could hold out till Richard tired of the war and sailed away. But
King Guy, in command of Richard’s army, marched on Kyrenia and captured it,
taking the Empress and her child prisoner. He then began to blockade Saint
Hilarion and Buffavento. Bereft of his family, with his subjects apathetic or
hostile, Isaac lost his nerve and made an unconditional surrender. He was taken
before Richard and loaded with silver chains. By the end of May the entire
island was in Richard’s hands.

The booty that Richard obtained was huge.
Isaac had amassed a vast treasure by his extortions; and many of his notables
bought their new master’s good-will by lavish donations. Richard soon made it
clear that his chief interest was money. A fifty per cent capital levy was
taken from every Greek, but in return Richard confirmed the laws and
institutions that had existed in the days of Manuel Comnenus. Latin garrisons
were installed in all the castles of the island, and two Englishmen, Richard of
Camville and Robert of Turnham, were appointed justiciars and given charge of
the administration, till Richard should decide on its ultimate fate. The Greeks
soon found that their pleasure in Isaac’s fall was ill-founded. They had no
more part in their government; and as a symbol of their new subservience they
were ordered to shave off their beards.

1191: Richard reaches the Crusader Camp

To Richard himself the conquest of Cyprus
seemed of value because of the unexpected riches that it brought him. But in
fact it was the most far-sighted and the most enduring of all his achievements
on the Crusade. The possession of Cyprus by the Franks prolonged the life of
their lands on the mainland; and their establishments in the island outlasted
those in Syria by two centuries. But it boded ill for the Greeks. If Crusaders
were ready and able to annex an Orthodox province, would they not be tempted
soon to launch the long desired Holy War against Byzantium?

On s June the English fleet sailed out
from Famagusta for the Syrian coast. The Emperor Isaac was on board, a captive
in King Guy’s charge; and his little daughter was attached to Queen Joanna’s
court, to learn there the Western way of life. King Richard’s first sight of
the Syrian coast was the castle of Marqab. After making the landfall he turned
south, past Tortosa, Jebail and Beirut, and landed on the evening of 6 June
near Tyre. He was refused admission into the town by the garrison, acting on
the orders of Philip and Conrad; so he continued his way by sea to Acre,
watching as he went the glad sight of a great Saracen galley being sunk by his
ships. He arrived in the camp by Acre on 8 June.

To the weary soldiers besieging Acre, King
Richard’s arrival with twenty-five galleys brought confidence and hope.
Bonfires were kindled to celebrate his coming, and trumpets sounded through the
camp. The King of France had built many useful siege-machines, including a
great stone catapult which his soldiers called the Evil Neighbour, and a
grappling ladder known as the Cat. The Duke of Burgundy and the two Military
Orders each had their catapult, and there was one built from the common funds
called God’s Own Sling. These had been hammering at the walls with some effect;
but a leader was needed to spur the besiegers on to a final effort. The King of
France was too cautious for such a role, and the other local or Crusader
princes were too tired or discredited. Richard brought new vigour to it all.
Almost as soon as he landed, he sent an envoy with a confidential interpreter,
a Moroccan captive whom he trusted, to Saladin’s camp to suggest an interview.
He was curious to see the celebrated infidel, and he hoped that same peaceful
settlement could be made if he could only talk with so chivalrous an enemy. But
Saladin replied cautiously that it was not wise for enemy kings to meet till
they had signed a truce. He was, however, ready to allow his brother, al-Adil,
to meet Richard. Three days of respite from fighting was arranged, and it was
agreed that the meeting should take place on the plain between the camps, when
the Kings of England and France both fell suddenly ill. It was the sickness
that the Franks called
arnaldia,
a fever that caused the hair and the
nails to fall out. Philip’s attack was mild, but Richard was seriously ill for
some days. But he directed operations from his sick-bed, instructing where the
great catapults that he had brought should be placed, and ordering the
construction of a great wooden tower, like the Mategrifon that he had built at
Messina. While he was still barely convalescent he insisted on visiting his
soldiers’ lines.

1191: Disputes in the Camp

Saladin on his side received
reinforcements at the end of June. The army of Sinjar arrived on 25 June,
closely followed by a fresh Egyptian army and the troops of the lord of Mosul.
The lords of Shaizar and of Hama brought companies early in July. In spite of
this accession of strength he was unable to drive the Crusaders from their
camp. They had used the lull in the winter, when the rain had softened the
soil, to surround themselves with earthworks, ramparts protected by ditches
which were easy to defend. Throughout June and early July the order of battle
remained much the same. The Frankish engines kept up their bombardment of the
walls of Acre; but if they made a slight breach and the Franks rushed in to try
to force it, the garrison would signal to Saladin who at once launched an
attack on the camp, thus drawing the aggressors away from the walls. There were
occasional sea-battles. The coming of the English and French fleets had taken
the command of the sea from the Saracens, and it was rare now for their ships
to be able to break through with supplies into the harbour. Food and war
material were running short in the beleaguered city, and there was talk there
of surrender.

Sickness and quarrels continued within the
Christian camp. The Patriarch Heraclius died, and there were intrigues over the
election of a successor. The dispute over the Crown was continued. Richard had
taken up the cause of King Guy, while Philip supported Conrad. The Pisans had
joined Richard’s party, so when a Genoese flotilla arrived it offered its
services to Philip. When Philip planned a fierce assault upon the city, towards
the end of June, Richard, probably because he was not yet well enough to fight
in person and feared that he might therefore lose the spoils of victory,
refused to let his men co-operate. The attack failed because of the absence of
his followers and friends; and Saladin’s counter-attack on the camp was only
repulsed with difficulty. Relations between Richard and Philip had been
complicated by the death on 1 June of Philip, Count of Flanders, the reluctant
Crusader of 1177. He left no direct heirs; and while the King of France had
some claim on the inheritance, the King of England was unwilling to let so rich
and strategically placed a province fall into his rival’s hands. When Philip,
citing the terms made at Messina, demanded half of the island of Cyprus,
Richard countered by demanding half Flanders. Neither side pursued the demand,
but each was left with a grievance.

On 3 July, after Saladin’s nephew Taki had
vainly tried to break through into the city, the French made a serious breach
in the wall, but were forced to retire. Eight days later the English and
Pisans, using a moment when the other Crusaders were at dinner, tried their
luck with the same initial success but ultimate failure. By this time the
garrison had already decided to give up the struggle. They had sent envoys to
the Crusader camp on 4 July, but Richard rejected their proposals; though that
same day his ambassadors visited Saladin, asking to be allowed to buy fruit and
snow, and hinting that they were ready to discuss peace terms. Saladin was
shocked to hear that his men inside Acre had given up hope. He promised them
immediate help; but he could not stir his army into making the great attack on
the Christian camp that he had planned for 5 July. On 7 July a swimmer brought
him a last appeal from the city. Without aid the garrison could hold out no
longer. The battle on the 11th was the final effort of the besieged. Next day
they offered to capitulate; and their terms were accepted. Acre was to be
surrendered with all its contents, its ships and its military stores. Two
hundred thousand gold pieces were to be paid to the Franks, with an extra four
hundred for Conrad in person. Fifteen hundred Christian prisoners, with a
hundred prisoners of rank, to be specifically named, were to be liberated and
the True Cross was to be restored. If this were done the lives of the defenders
would be spared.

A swimmer left the harbour to tell Saladin
what was agreed, for it was for him to implement the clauses. He was horrified.
As he sat in front of his tent composing an answer forbidding the garrison to
submit to such terms, he saw the Frankish banners being unfurled on the city
towers. It was too late. His officers had made the treaty in his name, and as a
man of honour he abode by it. He moved his camp to Shafr’amr on the road to
Sephoria, further from the city, now that he could do nothing more to help it,
and he steeled himself to receive the ambassadors of the victorious Franks.

1191: The Crusaders enter Acre

No sooner had the capitulation been
accepted than the Saracen garrison marched out of Acre. The conquerors were
moved to see it pass by into captivity, for they admired its courage and
tenacity, worthy of a better cause. When the last Saracen had left the Franks
moved in, headed by Conrad, whose standard-bearer carried his personal standard
and the standards of the Kings. King Richard took up his residence in the
former Royal Palace near the north wall of the city, King Philip in the former
establishment of the Templars, on the sea near the tip of the peninsula.
Unseemly quarrels marred the assignment of quarters in the city. The Duke of
Austria, as head of the German army, claimed a position equal to the Kings of
France and England and set his standard up beside Richard’s, only to see it
taken down by the English and hurled into the fosse below. It was an insult
that Leopold of Austria never forgave. When he returned home a few days later,
it was with hatred for Richard in his heart. The Frankish merchants and nobles
who had previously held property in Acre asked for their possessions to be
given back. They were nearly all of them supporters of Conrad, and therefore
appealed to King Philip when the visiting Crusaders tried to displace them. He
insisted that their claims should be honoured.

The first task to be done was to clean and
reconsecrate the churches of Acre. When this was done, under the direction of
the Papal Legate, Adelard of Verona, the princes met together to settle finally
the question of the kingship. After some debate it was agreed that Guy should
remain king till his death, when the crown would pass to Conrad and Isabella
and their issue. In the meantime Conrad would be lord of Tyre, Beirut and
Sidon, and he and Guy would share the royal revenues. Having secured the future
for Conrad, King Philip talked of going home. He had suffered from almost
continuous illness since he came to the Holy Land; he had done his Christian
duty in helping to reconquer Acre; and he would leave the Duke of Burgundy and
the larger portion of the French army behind him. Richard in vain pressed for a
joint declaration that the two Kings would remain for three years in the East.
The most that Philip would promise was that he would not attack Richard’s
French territories till Richard came home, a promise that was not entirely
kept. Then on 31 July he left Acre for Tyre, accompanied by Conrad, who said
that he must see to his lands there, but who in reality did not wish to serve
in an army dominated by King Richard. Three days later King Philip set sail
from Tyre for Brindisi.

Philip’s departure was regarded by the
English as a cowardly and traitorous desertion. But it seems that his health
was really bad; and there were problems at home, such as the Flanders
inheritance, for whose solution he was personally responsible. He moreover
suspected that Richard was plotting against him and that his life was in
danger. A curious story went round that when he was lying very ill Richard came
to see him and told him falsely that his only son Louis was dead, either as a
piece of heavy buffoonery or in the sinister hope that the shock would prove
too much for him. There were many in the Christian army ready to sympathize
with Philip in his anxieties. Though Richard commanded the devotion of his own
men and the admiration of the Saracens, to the barons of the Frankish East the
King of France was the monarch whom they respected and whom they felt to
understand their needs.