Amid all this confusion and disaster the eyes of the crusaders turned with increasing anxiety toward the horizon, to catch a glimpse of the sails which were to bring to them two fresh leaders, the kings of France and of England. Their preparations had not been very rapid. Henry II of England had, even since his oath, got into a new quarrel with Philip Augustus of France, which only ended with his death, in 1189. His son and successor, Richard, whose zeal had led him to put up the cross earlier than the rest, instantly began to arrange the expedition with Philip. In his impetuous manner he exulted in the prospect of unheard-of triumphs; the government of England was hastily and insufficiently provided for during the absence of the King; above all, money was needed in great quantities, and raised by every expedient, good or bad. When someone remonstrated with the King concerning these extortions, he exclaimed, "I would sell London itself, if I could but find a purchaser." He legislated with the same inconsiderate vehemence as to the discipline and order of his army: murderers were to be buried alive on land, and at sea to be tied to the corpses of their victims and thrown into the water; thieves were to be tarred and feathered; and whoever gambled for money, be he king or baron, was to be dipped three times in the sea, or flogged naked before the whole army.
Richard led his army through France, and went on board his splendid fleet at Marseilles, while Philip sailed from Genoa in hired vessels. Half way to Sicily, however, Richard got tired of the sea voyage, landed near Rome, and journeyed with a small retinue through the Abruzzi and Calabria, already on the lookout for adventures, and often engaged in bloody quarrels with the peasants of the mountain villages. When he at last arrived in Sicily his unstable mind suddenly underwent a total change; a quarrel with the Sicilian King, Tancred, drove the Holy Sepulchre entirely out of his head. Now fighting, now negotiating, he stayed nine months at Messina—hated and feared by the inhabitants, who called him the Lion, the Savage Lion—deaf to the entreaties of his followers, who were eager to get to Syria, and heedless and defiant to all Philip Augustus' representations and demands.
At last the French King, losing patience, sailed without him, and arrived at Ptolemais in April, 1191. He was received with eager joy, but did not succeed in at all advancing the siege operations; for so many of the French pilgrims had preceded him that the army he brought was but small, and, though an adroit and cunning diplomatist, a tried and unscrupulous statesman, he lacked the rough soldierly vigor and bravery on which everything at that moment depended. At length Richard was again on his road, and again he allowed himself to be turned aside from his purpose. One of his ships, which bore his betrothed bride, had stranded on the Cyprian coast, and, in consequence of the hostility of the king of that island, had been very inhospitably received. Richard was instantly up in arms, declared war against the Comnene,[32] and conquered the whole island in a fortnight—an impromptu conquest, which was of the highest importance to the Christian party in the East for centuries after.
Still occupied in establishing a military colony of his knights, he was surprised by a visit from King Guy, of Jerusalem, who wished to secure the support of the dreaded monarch in his party contests at home. Guy complained to King Richard of the matrimonial offences of his rival, informed him that Philip Augustus had declared in favor of Conrad's claims, and on the spot secured the jealous adherence of the English monarch. He landed on June 8th at Ptolemais; the Christians celebrated his arrival by an illumination of the camp: and without a moment's delay, by his warlike ardor, he roused the whole army out of the state of apathy into which it had lately fallen. Day after day the walls of the city were energetically assailed on every side. On July 8th Saladin made his last attempt to raise the siege, by an attack on the Christian intrenchments; he was driven back with great loss, whereupon he permitted the besieged to capitulate. The town surrendered, with all its stores, after a siege of nearly three years' duration; the heroic defenders still remaining, about three thousand in number, were to be exchanged within the space of forty days, for two thousand captive Christians, and a ransom of two hundred thousand pieces of gold. The war, according to all reports, had by this time cost the crusaders above thirty thousand men.
Those among the pilgrims who were enthusiastic and devout now hoped their way would lead straight to the Holy Sepulchre. But it soon became manifest that the feeling which had prompted the crusades was dead forever. The news of the fall of Jerusalem had awakened a momentary excitement in the western nations, but had failed to stir up the old enthusiasm. On Syrian ground, the ideal faith rapidly gave way before substantial worldly considerations. Richard, Guy, and the Pisans, on the one hand; Philip, Conrad, and the Genoese, on the other, were already in open discord, which was so embittered by Richard's blustering fury that Philip Augustus embarked at the end of July for France, declaring upon his oath that he had no evil intentions toward England, but determined in his heart to let Richard feel his resentment on the first opportunity.
Meanwhile negotiations had begun between Saladin and Richard, which at first seemed to promise favorable results for the Christians, but unfortunately the day fixed for the exchange of the prisoners arrived before Saladin was able to procure the whole of the promised ransom. Richard, with the most brutal cruelty, slaughtered two thousand seven hundred prisoners in one day. Saladin magnanimously refused the demands of his exasperated followers for reprisals, but of course there could be no further question of a treaty, and the war recommenced with renewed fury. Richard led the army on an expedition against Ascalon, defeated Saladin on his march thither at Arsuf, and advanced amid incessant skirmishes and single combats, into which he recklessly plunged as though he had been a simple knight-errant. Accordingly his progress was so slow that Saladin had destroyed the town before his arrival and rendered its capture worthless to the Christians. Again negotiations were begun, but in January, 1192, Richard suddenly advanced upon Jerusalem, and by forced marches quickly reached Baitnuba, a village only a few miles distant from the Holy City. But there the Sultan had thrown up strong and extensive fortifications, and after long and anxious deliberations, the Franks returned toward Ascalon.
Meanwhile Conrad of Montferrat had placed himself in communication with Saladin, proposed to him point-blank an alliance against Richard, and by his prudent and consistent conduct daily grew in favor with the Sultan. The Christian camp, on the other hand, was filled with ever-increasing discord; and the difference between Richard and Conrad reached such a height that the Marquis went back to Ptolemais, and regularly besieged the Pisans, who were friendly to the English. Into such a miserable state of confusion had the great European enterprise fallen for want of a good leader and an adequate object.
In April news came from England that the King's brother, John, was in open rebellion against him and in alliance with France; whereupon Richard, greatly alarmed, informed the barons that he must prepare for his departure, and that they must definitively choose between Guy and Conrad as their future ruler. To his great disappointment, the actual necessities of the case triumphed over all party divisions, and all voted for Conrad, as the only able and fitting ruler in the country. Nothing remained for Richard but to accede to their wishes, and as a last act of favor toward Guy, to bestow upon him the crown of Cyprus. Conrad did not delay one moment signing the treaty with Saladin, and the Sultan left the new King in possession of the whole line of coast taken by the crusaders, and also ceded to him Jerusalem, where, however, he was to allow a Turkish mosque to exist; the other towns of the interior were then to be divided between the two sovereigns.
What a conclusion to a war in which the whole world had been engaged, and had made such incalculable efforts! After the only competent leader had been snatched from the Christians by an angry fate, the weakness and desultoriness of the others had destroyed the fruits of conquest. The host of devout pilgrims had beheld Jerusalem from Baitnuba, and had then been obliged to turn their backs upon the holy spot in impotent grief. Suddenly a nameless, bold, and cunning prince made his appearance in this great war between the two religions in the world, a man indifferent to religion or morality, who knew no other motive than selfishness, but who followed that with vigor and consistency, and had already stretched forth his hand to grasp the crown of the Holy Sepulchre.
But on the 28th of April Conrad was murdered by two Saracen assassins; many said, at King Richard's instigation, but more affirmed it was by the order of the Old Man of the Mountain, the head of a fanatical sect in Lebanon. Everything was again unsettled by this event. The Syrian barons instantly elected Count Henry of Champagne as their king; five days after Conrad's death he married his widow Eliza, and was perfectly ready to succeed to Conrad's alliance with Saladin, as well as to his wife. But King Richard, with his usual thoughtlessness, allowed the scandalous marriage, but prevented the reasonable diplomatic arrangement. As he had a certain liking for Henry, who was his nephew, he wished to conquer a few more provinces for him in a hurry, and to win some fresh laurels for himself at the same time; and accordingly began the war anew against Saladin. A Turkish fortress was taken, when more evil tidings arrived from England, and Richard announced that he could not remain a moment longer. The barons broke out in a general cry of indignation that he who had plunged them into danger should forsake them in the midst of it, and once more the vacillating King allowed himself to be diverted from his purpose. Again the Christians remained long inactive at Baitnuba, not daring to attack the city.