Saladin marked his victory over the crusaders by the capture of the True Cross at Hattin
Saladin had now all but destroyed the forces of the crusaders. By the end of 1187 almost the whole kingdom of Jerusalem was in his hands, the city itself falling in October -its inhabitants being mercifully treated. In the West a third Crusade was at once preached, with some success. The emperor Frederick Barbarossa set out from Germany in 1189, but his army was decimated by the Saracens in Asia Minor. The kings of France and England, Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur-de-Lion, reached the Holy Land and recaptured Acre and Jaffa - but had to turn back before Jerusalem. The degeneration of the crusading ideal was apparent in their continual quarrels, as well as in the conduct of the emperor Henry VI - who kidnapped Richard on his way home and held him to ransom - and of Philip who took advantage of Richard’s absence to raid Normandy. The fourth Crusade (1202-4) represented a further decline. The strategical plan of conquering Egypt to secure a base for the invasion of the Holy Land was sound. But in the end the hard bargaining of their Venetian suppliers prevented the crusaders from getting any further than Constantinople, where, in April 1204, Baldwin of Flanders so far forgot his original purpose as to enter the city with his army and set himself up as emperor.
There were further Crusades in the thirteenth century, and for short periods the Christians recovered Jerusalem. St Louis, king of France (1226-70), indeed revived the highest ideals of the movement, even if others such as the emperor Frederick II and Simon de Montfort (the father of the parliamentarian) debased them further than ever before. But the story is complicated, and its military history presents little further interest. The really important developments were by this time again taking place in the West.
Thp knight in armour remained the symbol of military glory, though his effectiveness declined during the later Middle Ages. South German armour for man and horse, c. 1475-85
World History
