Siege of Acre (1189–1191)
| date | August 28, 1189 to July 12, 1191 |
|---|---|
| place | Acre ; Palestine |
| output | Ultimate victory of the crusaders |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| about 25,000 men | Garrison approx. 6,000 men + Saladin's army |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
unknown |
1189–1192
Philomelion - Iconium - Acre - Arsuf - Jaffa
The siege of Acre (August 28, 1189 to July 12, 1191) was the most important event of the Third Crusade in the Holy Land . After a two-year, loss-making siege, the crusaders finally managed to recapture the strategically important city of Acre , which became the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem for the next 100 years .
prehistory
After Saladin had decisively defeated the Crusaders on July 4, 1187 in the Battle of Hattin , he was able to wrest a large part of the Kingdom of Jerusalem from his opponents almost unhindered, including the cities of Acre and (on October 2) Jerusalem . The crusaders then controlled only the cities of Tire , Tripoli and Antioch , which Saladin also attacked, albeit unsuccessfully, in the following year.
The news of the loss of Jerusalem and Palestine caused great consternation in Europe, the demand for resistance quickly became loud, and in October 1187 Pope Gregory VIII (1187–1187) called for the Third Crusade, which his successor Clement III. (1187–1191) continued to operate.
- Tire
Konrad von Montferrat had holed himself up in Tire and successfully repelled Saladin's attack at the end of 1187, after which the sultan first turned to other tasks, but then, when the first reinforcements from Europe came to Tire across the Mediterranean in mid-1188 , tried to surrender the city the negotiation path, among other things by releasing King Guido von Lusignan, who had been captured at Hattin - which, however, only openly escalated the smoldering dispute between Konrad and Guido: Guido had caused the Hattin catastrophe, Konrad had Tire before the Muslims rescued. Guido appeared in front of Tire, but Konrad did not let him into the city on the grounds that he managed the city in trust for the arriving monarchs, who had to decide on the future of the crusader states. Guido withdrew and appeared again in April 1189 together with his wife, Queen Sibylle , before Tire, was again turned away and set up camp at the gates of the city.
In the late spring of 1188, King Wilhelm II of Sicily had sent a fleet of 200 knights; on April 6, 1189, the Archbishop Ubaldo of Pisa arrived with 52 ships, and Guido managed to get both contingents on his side. In August, Konrad continued to deny him access to the city, he broke up his tents and set out south to attack Acre: he and his troops on the coastal road while the Pisans and Sicilians crossed the sea. Guido desperately needed a firm base from which to organize the counterattack against Saladin, and since it wasn't Tire, he turned his gaze to the city 50 kilometers south.
Siege of Acre
The port city of Akkon was on a south-facing peninsula in the Gulf of Haifa . To the east of the old town was the harbor protected from the open sea, to the west and south the coast with a thick dyke wall. Acre was sealed off from the mainland by a double wall reinforced with towers. Due to the location of the port facing away from the sea, it was considered the only one on the entire Levant coast where ships could be loaded and unloaded in any weather; Acre was therefore of particular strategic value to the crusaders. When Guido arrived on August 28, 1189, the Muslim occupation of the city was probably about twice as numerous as his own troops. He tried to take advantage of the element of surprise with a storm attack, but failed and settled in front of the city, where he set up a fortified camp and waited for reinforcements, who also arrived from the sea a few days later: a fleet of Danes and Frisians replaced them Sicilians who had been withdrawn because of the death of their King Wilhelm II. Then came French and Flemish soldiers under Jakob von Avesnes , Heinrich I von Bar , Andreas von Brienne , Robert II von Dreux and his brother, Bishop Philipp von Beauvais , Germans under the leadership of Landgrave Ludwig III. of Thuringia , including Otto I. von Geldern , as well as Italians under Archbishop Gerhard von Ravenna and the Bishop of Verona . When Konrad was able to change his mind, reinforcements also came from this direction.
When Saladin was informed of the development, he immediately pulled together his vassals and also moved to Acre, where his attack on Guido's camp on September 15 also failed.
Battle of Acre
On October 4, 1189, a confrontation broke out east of the city. The Crusader Army under Guido von Lusignan faced Saladin's army to fight. The Christian army consisted of the feudal lords of the kingdom, many small contingents of European crusaders and the orders of knights , the Muslim of contingents from Egypt , Turkestan , Syria and Mesopotamia .
The Muslims stood in a semicircle east of the city with a view of Acre, the crusader army facing them, the crossbowmen in the front line, the heavy cavalry in the second line. The battle began with an attack by the Knights Templar against Saladin's right wing. The Knights Templar were so successful that the enemy had to send reinforcements from other parts of the battlefield. As a result, the slow advance of the Christian center against Saladin's own corps, into which the crossbowmen fired the way, did not meet with great resistance. Saladin's center and right flank were routed.
While the Christians pursued them and their ranks broke up, also to go over to the pillage, Saladin let loose his fresh left wing and his light cavalry on them when the Christians tried to withdraw with their booty. Organized resistance was no longer offered. Saladin's troops knocked down the refugees until they were stopped by the fresh troops from the Christian right wing. In this fight Guido's reserve was thrown, which was supposed to hold back the Saracens in Acre, who thereupon, about 5000 strong, left the city and gathered north of it, where they united with the rest of Saladin's right wing and attacked the Knights Templar. who now suffered heavy losses in their retreat. Gérard de Ridefort , the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and Andrew of Brienne were killed. Konrad von Montferrat had to be fought free by Guido. In the end, the crusaders entrenched themselves in their own positions, from which Saladin could not get them out again, so that the success of the battle remained incomplete for him.
The double siege
In the course of the autumn more Europeans arrived, so that Guido could now cordon off Acre from the land side. The news of the approach of Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa) reached the crusaders, which not only raised the morale of the Christian soldiers, but also prompted Saladin to call in so many additional troops that he was now in a position to be able to besiege the city To include Christians in a second ring of siege themselves.
The next fifteen months then passed without major acts of war. On October 31, fifty Muslim galleys broke the Christian sea blockade and supplied the city with food and weapons. On December 26th, an Egyptian fleet was able to recapture the access to the port. In March 1190, when the weather got better, Konrad traveled to Tire with some ships and also returned with supplies that he was able to bring ashore against the bitter resistance of the Muslim fleet. The building material that Konrad brought with him was put together to make siege engines, which were lost again in an attempted assault on May 5th.
On May 19, Saladin, who had strengthened his army further in recent months, began an attack on the Christian camp that lasted eight days before it could be repulsed. On July 25, Christian soldiers attacked Saladin's right flank against the orders of their leadership and were wiped out. During the summer further reinforcements arrived, French under the leadership of Henry II of Champagne , including Theobald V of Blois and Stephan I of Sancerre , his brother, Rudolf von Clermont , the Constable of France ; John of Fontigny , Alain of Saint-Valéry , the Archbishop of Besançon , the Bishop of Blois and the Bishop of Toul . Friedrich VI. von Schwaben arrived at the beginning of October with the remains of Barbarossa's army after his father drowned in Saleph on June 10 and he had left some of his remains in Tarsus , Antioch and Tire . Shortly afterwards, the English landed under Baldwin of Exeter , Archbishop of Canterbury . The Count of Bar fell in October, and in November the Christians made a breakthrough to Haifa, through which food could be brought back into the camp.
Life in the city and in the Christian camp quickly became difficult after Saladin's lockdown. Food was scarce, there was not enough water anyway, hygiene soon collapsed, and epidemics spread. Ludwig von Thuringia set off - probably suffering from malaria - on his way back when the French arrived and died on the crossing to Cyprus on October 16. In the autumn, Queen Sibylle of Jerusalem died, a few days after her two daughters, as a result of which Guido lost the crown that he wore from the rights of his wife, as well as the prospect of being able to rule for his children in the long term.
The mutual resignation led to a kind of doomsday mood among the fighting. Johannes Lehmann refers to the notes of the Arab chronicler Baha ad-Din and describes that the factions “came closer because they got to know each other and talked to one another; those who were tired put down their weapons and mingled with the others; there was singing and dancing and indulging in joy; briefly the two parties became friends, until a moment later the war started again. "
The barons of the empire took the opportunity to get rid of Guidos and arranged the marriage of Conrad of Montferrat to Sibylle's sister Isabella , although both were otherwise already married, whereby the choice of the priest was the biggest problem: Patriarch Heraclius was sick, who of His appointed representative Baldwin of Canterbury refused (he, like Guido, belonged to the English side of the army), but died surprisingly on November 19, so that the Archbishop of Pisa and Apostolic Legate finally gave his consent and the Bishop of Beauvais on 24 November. November could give his blessing: Konrad von Montferrat was now ruler in Guido's place and withdrew with Isabella to Tire, where Isabella had a daughter the following year, Maria . The continued existence of the ruling house was thus secured for the time being.
Saladin's army was now so large that the crusaders could no longer get through by land, and winter ensured that no more supplies came in by sea. In the Christian camp, the epidemics began to take over. Theobald von Blois and Stephan von Sancerre succumbed to them, and on January 20, 1191 also Friedrich von Schwaben, the emperor's son. Heinrich von Champagne fought with death for many weeks, but recovered. Leopold V of Austria , who had arrived in the spring, took the lead. On December 31st, the attempt to climb over the city walls had failed. On January 6, 1191, the partial collapse of the walls led to the fact that the Christians started several attempts to overrun the Muslim garrison. On February 13, Saladin managed to break the Christian lines so that he could replace the exhausted defenders with a new garrison - otherwise he would wait for the epidemics to do the work for him. But when the weather got better in March and ships were able to unload their cargo over the free coastal strip, the danger of failure was averted for the Christians - and when they brought the news that the arrival of the kings Philip II of August of France and Richard the Lionheart of England were imminent, Saladin's chance of victory was over for now.
The kings before Acre
Philipp August arrived on April 20, 1191, Richard on June 8th, after he - given the situation in front of Acre - had taken the opportunity to conquer Cyprus "en passant" .
Philipp August had used the time up to Richard's arrival to have siege engines built and used. The rule over the sea was now passed back to the Christian side, now it was the city that was cordoned off. Richard made an effort to meet with Saladin. To this end, a three-day armistice was agreed; however, the meeting did not take place because both Philipp August and Richard fell ill with a fever. The patriarch Heraclius also died during this time.
The siege machines cut through the city walls, but each new breach resulted in an attack by Saladin, so that the Christians turned to the new challenge and the people of Akon had the opportunity to repair their wall.
On July 1, Philip of Alsace died in the field camp, which brought the French king into time trouble, as Philip, who was one of his most important followers with the counties of Flanders and Vermandois , had no successor and his death the presence of the king in France to regulate the Succession made urgent.
Accons surrender
On July 3, a sufficiently large breach was struck, but the attack was repulsed. On July 4th, the city offered to surrender it, but on terms Richard refused. Saladin was unable to form his army for a major attack when he learned of this. On July 7th, the city contacted him one last time asking for help, or otherwise threatening to surrender. On July 11th there was a final skirmish, and on July 12th the surrender of the city was offered and accepted, as the terms of surrender appeared reasonable this time. Saladin, who was not involved in the negotiations, accepted the approach of his subordinates. The Muslim garrison was taken prisoner and the Christians moved into the city.
Leopold of Austria left a short time later after he had fallen out completely with Richard: As leader of the German contingent, he had demanded the same rank as Philip and Richard, but had been rudely rejected. As revenge, Leopold had King Richard captured later on his return journey to England and extradited to the German Emperor, who only released him for an enormous ransom. On July 31, Philip August also turned his back on the Holy Land to regulate the Vermandois inheritance, so that Richard now held sole supreme command. The chronicler Roger von Hoveden also returned home.
Massacre of Muslim prisoners
It was now up to Richard and Saladin to implement the agreement they had made with the city. The Christians began to rebuild the defenses. Saladin had money and the prisoners to be handed over by him collected. On August 11, Saladin began the first of three planned surrenders, but Richard rejected it because some named nobles were missing - the surrender was broken off and the negotiations that followed did not progress. On August 20, Richard, who also wanted to leave the city behind, found Saladin had failed to honor his end of the bargain and ordered the killing of 2,700 Muslim prisoners, men, women and children from the Akkon garrison. Attacks by Muslims trying to prevent this from happening have been repulsed. Two days later, on August 22, 1191, Richard and the Crusaders left the city.
The background to Richard's decision was that Konrad von Montferrat, behind Richard's back, wanted to negotiate a separate peace with Saladin. About half of the prisoners were guarded by the French crusader contingent and were used by Konrad as a bargaining chip for such a separate peace. With the massacre of the prisoners, Richard decided this internal conflict for himself and drastically demonstrated his determination.
consequences
The crusaders moved south, with the sea on their right and Saladin's army on their left, heading in the same direction. On September 7th, the Battle of Arsuf north of Jaffa broke out , and Saladin was defeated. Richard conquered Jaffa on September 10th, but did not achieve his ultimate goal, the conquest of Jerusalem, by the summer of 1192. When it became increasingly clear that his brother Johann Ohneland was developing into a usurper in England , Richard concluded the Third Crusade on September 2, 1192 by means of a contract with Saladin and also made the return journey himself, but was apprehended and imprisoned in Austria. so it was not until 1194 before he was back in England.
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was now temporarily secured with the capital Acre and as a narrow coastal strip along the Mediterranean Sea. It was not until 1291 that Acre was conquered by the Mamluks as the last Christian fortress .
The siege of Acre was the event in the entire Crusades that claimed most of the lives of members of the Christian ruling class. The losses among the Christian aristocracy amounted to a queen, six archbishops and patriarchs, twelve bishops, forty dukes and counts and 500 other high nobles. The large number of fallen knights from the lower nobility as well as the enormous multitudes of the non-noble rank and file remained uncounted. For many of the dead, illness and malnutrition were the cause of death rather than injuries from combat.
literature
- Thomas Asbridge: The Crusades . Klett-Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart 2011 (2nd edition), p. 467
- Alan Forey: The Orders of Knights 1120 to 1312 . In: Illustrated History of the Crusades. Ed. Johnathan Riley-Smith. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999. p. 219
- Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Funck: paintings from the age of the crusades. Part Two: The Last Kings of Jerusalem and Saladin. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1823. p. 229.
- John D. Hosler: The Siege of Acre, 1189-1191. Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, and the Battle That Decided the Third Crusade , New Haven and London: Yale University Press 2018, ISBN 978-0-300-21550-2
- Johannes Lehmann : The crusaders. Adventurer of God. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich 1976. pp. 301, 302, 304
- Amin Maalouf : The Holy War of the Barbarians . Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Munich 1996. p. 224
- Hans Eberhard Mayer: History of the Crusades . Published by W. Wohlkammer, Stuttgart 1985 (6th edition). Pp. 129-134
- Regine Pernoud: The Crusades in eyewitness accounts . Karl Rauch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1961, pp. 225-228, 233
- James Jr Reston: Warriors of God. Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade. Random House, New York 2001, ISBN 0-385-49561-7
- Steven Runciman : History of the Crusades . CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Munich 1960, pp. 791, 794, 797, 801
- Kenneth M. Setton / Robert L. Wolff / Harry W. Hazard: The later Crusades, 1189-1311. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 2006, ISBN 0-299-04844-6 , pp. 51 ff.
- Hans Wollschläger : The armed pilgrimages to Jerusalem. History of the Crusades. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1973, pp. 107, 108, 110
- Uwe Ziegler: Cross and Sword. The history of the Teutonic Order. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne 2003, p. 25, p. 26, p. 50
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Johannes Lehmann: The crusaders. Adventurer of God. C. Bertelsmann Verlag, Munich, 1976, p. 302
- ↑ "500 proceres potentes", see Ricardus canonicus: Itinerarium Regis Ricardi IV, 6
- ↑ Cf. Friedrich Kohlrausch: The German History. Volume 1, Friedlein & Hirsch, Leipzig 1851, p. 212