Aftermath of the Second Crusade and preparing for the Third Crusade
The failure of the Second Crusade created widespread disillusionment in the west, some contemporaries questioned the value of such expeditions and it was no coincidence that there was an interval of over 40 years between the reversal of Christian fortunes in Damascus and the launch of the Third Crusade
In the 1150s, 1160s and 1170s the beleaguered Latin kingdom of Jerusalem sent a series of embassies to the west, telling of Muslim successes against the Franks and appealing for aid
In 1165 Pope Alexander III reissued Eugenius III's crusading bull quantum praedecessores and in the following year an income tax was levied in support of the Holy Land
However, in spite of repeated promises and even some financial assistance, no western king was prepared to lead a new crusade
Instead Henry II of England and Louis VII of France waged war over the English king's French posessions, and their mutual suspicion and rivalry meant that one was not prepared to leave for the east without the other
By the 1170s it had become clear that an essential preliminary to a new crusade was peace between the two kings, and between Henry II and his four sons
At that time the Latin kingdom faced both a political crisis over the succession to the throne of Jerusalem and its most formidable foe, Saladin
On his death in 1174, Amalric I was succeeded by his son, Baldwin IV, a minor who suffered from leprocy
In spite of his disabilities, Baldwin proved to be an able military commander, but it was clear that he would leave no direct heir and the regencies necessitated by his bouts of illness exacerbated tensions within the kingdom and contributed towards the establishment
In the early 1180s, two rival factions appeared:
The court party: Baldwin's eldest sister Sybilla and her husband Guy of Lusignan
The native barons: Led by Raymond of Tripoli, who favoured the king's sister Isabella who was married to Humphrey of Toron
Baldwin died in 1185 and was succeeded by his nephew, Baldwin V, son of Sybilla by her first husband, William of Montferrat
However, Baldwin V only ruled for 17 months and on his death his mother Sybilla and his aunt Isabella disputed the succession
Sybilla, who had the support of the master of the Temple and the patriarch of Jerusalem, won the sucession
Sybilla was crowned the queen of Jerusalem in the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and crowned her husband Guy as king
The barons, including Isabella's husband, but with the exception of Raymond of Tripoli (who remained obdurate and retired to Tiberius) made their peace with the new king Guy
Such was the state of the Latin kingdom as Saladin gradually consolidated his Muslim power base
Within less than a year of succeeding his uncle, Shirkuh as vizier of Egypt in May 1174, he was invested by the caliph with the government of Egypt and parts of Syria
During the next decade his central aim seems to have been the reunification of Nur ad-Din's territories, and by the end of 1183 he had encircled the crusader states along the coast
Saladin bided his time, taking advantage of a period of truce with the Christians in 1185, but in May 1187 Reynald of Chatillon (Lord of Transjordan) gave him an excuse to resume the offensive when he attacked a Muslim caravan travelling from Cairo to Damascus
In May and June 1187, Saladin gathered his forces and on the 2nd July he attacked the town of Tiberias
Simultaneously in 1187, the Christians under the leadership of Guy had been assembling a large army at Saffuriyah from all parts of the Latin kingdom, Raymond of Tripoli, whose own wife was in Tiberius, advised the king against risking an open battle, but Guy decided to confront the Muslim force
On the 3rd of July 1187 the Christian army left Saffuriyah and advanced across the barren and waterless terrain to Tiberias, after a night without food or water they took up the position south of a hill crowned by two peaks - the Horns of Hattin
There the famous battle much lamented by western chroniclers and praised by their Muslim counterparts took place
The Christians were decisively defeated
Guy and many of his nobles were taken prisoner and the kingdom's holiest relic, a fragment of the True Cross discovered in Jerusalem in 1099 by the first crusaders, was seized by the Muslims and paraded through Damascus
Saladin followed up the victory at Hattin by attacking the principal towns and ports of the Latin kingdom
By September 1187 the only important port south of Tripli that was not in Muslim hands was Tyre, which had been saved by the intervention of Conrad of Montferrat, brother of Sybilla's first husband