Strategy

While savagery was his calling card - his reputation alone caused Philip II to flee the battlefield - the Lionheart was a logistical genius and a quick-thinking pragmatist, famously tethering boats together to create a floating bridge across the river Rhone in France. Richard knew how far to push his army and never marched his army out of reach of their supplies.

Crusade. Marching to Arsuf - 15 kilometres north from what is now Tel Aviv in Israel - from where they planned to strike inland to Jerusalem, the Crusaders were met by Saladin's forces on 7 September 1191 at the Battle of Arsuf.

Both armies were roughly equal in size, though Saladin's forces were more equally divided.

Richard wanted to keep his forces with their backs to the coast where they could be supplied by ship, while Saladin wanted to draw them out and sever their supply lines. Using his flexible horse archers and skirmishers, Saladin harassed the Crusader flanks with growing intensity - trying to goad them into charging, where the divided Crusaders could be crushed. Richard's iron discipline only went so far and the knights on the flank began to charge after hours of needling. With split-second thinking, the king committed the entire army into this impulsive charge taking the unprepared Fatimids by surprise. Christian chroniclers claimed the Fatimid dead to be 7,000 while the Crusaders lost only 700 - even taking into account the propaganda factor it was a decisive victory.