Richard & John: Kings at War

by McLynn, Frank

  Richard spent the rest of November in negotiation with Saladin’s envoys. He stressed that he had an ancestral claim to Outremer, since his kinfolk had originally conquered it, and was therefore obliged by considerations of family honour to hold out for the restoration of the kingdom and the payment of tribute from Egypt. The continuing talks led some Franks to mutter that the Lionheart was ‘soft on Islam’, and he took to returning from patrols with the severed heads of enemies as ‘proofs of toughness’. On 9 November he sent his ambassador and interpreter Humphrey de Toron to Saladin with the following message: ‘Your friendship and affection are dear to me. I told you that I would give these parts of Palestine to your brother, and I want you to be the judge between us in the division of land. But we must have a foothold in Jerusalem. I want you to make a division that will not bring down on your brother the wrath of the Muslims or on me the wrath of the Franks.’18 Richard was certainly dealing with thorny realities here. In many ways his statesmanship provided the basis for an agreement with Saladin, who was seriously worried about the morale of his troops and the decaying civic virtue in Egypt, as reported by his chief administrator Al-Fadil, who spoke of unparalleled vice, fornication, sodomy and perjury among all classes from the emirs downwards.19 But the relationship was poisoned by suspicion on both sides. Richard’s advisers constantly harped on the theme that Saladin was merely playing for time, and Saladin’s emirs likewise thought Richard untrustworthy. A further complication was that Conrad of Montferrat was still pressing Saladin for a treaty of alliance against Richard and his old rival Guy of Lusignan. His envoy Reynald of Sidon had an interview with Saladin on 9 November but was told crisply that Conrad would have to take the field openly against the crusaders if his proposal was to have any chance of success. Saladin put the rival proposals to his council on 11 November. The emirs decided that if it was to be peace, this could only be with Richard, since it seemed inherently implausible that Muslims and Christians could coexist peacefully in Palestine and they had no security against possible treachery by Conrad. If they had to choose between Richard’s ideas for the partition of Palestine or alliance with Conrad, a man who was both a former enemy and known to be routinely perfidious, then Richard and partition it should be.20

  Saladin informed Richard that they should continue talks, since he now had the backing of his emirs. Richard at once introduced a new complication (or stalling device) by saying that Christian priests had been vociferously denouncing the idea of marrying Joan to Safadin; he therefore had to appeal over their heads to the Pope to approve the match, but it would take three months for his envoy to reach Rome, confer with the pontiff and then return. He then raised the possibility of marrying his niece to Saladin’s brother, if the Pope vetoed the union with Joan.21 Whether the idea was ever serious, either in Richard’s mind or as an objective possibility, remains problematical, although the best authorities are inclined to credit it as plausible.22 After mid-November 1191 there were few serious moves, either military or diplomatic, for the rest of the year. On 17 November Saladin went into winter quarters at Jerusalem and three weeks later Richard did the same at Ramleh. By now the weather had broken, so that both armies were sorely assailed by rain, snow, hailstorms, mud and slush. Food was soggy, salt pork rotted, clothes soaked, arms and armour rusting in the claggy wetness. By Christmas Saladin had disbanded his army and had no plans to campaign actively again until May the following year. Ambroise reported that the Muslims had decamped to the mountains and left the plains to the Christians.23 The bulk of the crusader army remained at Ramleh until the end of December, but on 23 December Richard moved his headquarters to Latrun, where he celebrated Christmas in his usual grand style, holding an improvised Yuletide court where the star attractions were the two queens and Guy de Lusignan. But it was impossible ever to relax completely, for skirmishing and raids by irregulars and guerrillas continued, including one Muslim probe at Tel es-Safi on 20 December when they nearly succeeded in capturing the Lionheart.24 The new year opened with more such probes and counterprobes. The Saracens managed to ambush a Christian caravan on 3 January but were themselves nearly caught in a counter-ambuscade planned by Richard (who was said to have lain in wait all night long), which inflicted considerable losses.25 Some time after Epiphany, probably on 11 January there was a meeting of the crusader army council to decide on the next step. Richard asked the Templar and Hospitaller leaders and the leaders of the Christian kingdom of Outremer to give their opinion on the feasibility of a siege of Jerusalem. They advised against it, on the grounds that a besieging army could be caught between the defending garrison and a relieving army and that the lines of communication to Jaffa would be too brittle. Besides, even if Jerusalem was taken, they did not have enough settlers to hang on to it; there would be a great influx of pilgrims in the short term, true, but having achieved their purpose, these people would go home to Europe. What was lacking was a core of Christians ready to live in the Holy City permanently and to defend it against all Muslim comers. Richard backed the case of the knightly orders by asking for a map of Jerusalem to be drawn. When presented, the map showed clearly that the Franks simply did not have enough troops to invest it properly, since the circumference of the city’s walls was so great; the defenders would easily be able to pierce the line of attackers stretched thinly around the walls.26 With ferocious weather to contend with as well, the crusaders faced mission impossible. Richard took the sense of the meeting and ordered a return to the coast, where he intended to rebuild Ascalon. The mood in the army was one of total dejection. The soldiers had been euphoric over the New Year, confident that they were proceeding to Jerusalem and had the equipment and supplies necessary to do the job. Richard’s orders cast them into profound gloom. The barrack-room lawyers among them argued that - hail, snow and flash-floods notwithstanding - the crusader army should press on, for were not the Saracens also at the mercy of the elements? Ambroise reported, with his usual hyperbole, that never since the beginning of time had there been an army so demoralised.27

  Richard’s arguments, and those of the knightly orders, were compelling, yet many in the crusader army took the line that they had not crossed the seas to rebuild Ascalon but to take Jerusalem, and this should be a do-or-die objective. The consequence was that as the Frankish forces withdrew from Ramleh to Ascalon, the united crusader army began to break up. The French in particular refused to serve under Richard any longer and dispersed to Jaffa and Acre, that reliable fleshpot magnet; the more extreme anti-Richard faction joined Conrad at Tyre. Only the contingent led by Richard’s nephew Henry of Champagne remained loyal.28 Relieved by the withdrawal of the crusaders, for conditions in Jerusalem were bad, and many horses and mules had been lost in freak weather, Saladin set about strengthening the defences of Jerusalem, using 2,000 Christian prisoners of war as slave labour.29 On 21 January Richard’s men reached Ascalon, where they spent a depressing week, bowed down by the scale of the reconstruction task ahead of them and the bad weather, which prevented resupply by sea. But there was no more determined character in the twelfth-century world than Richard, and he held his followers to their task, presiding over a four-month building programme that eventually made Ascalon the strongest fortress on the coast. Meanwhile he sent out forces to prey on Muslim caravans on the road between Egypt and Syria which he now controlled, and managed to free hundreds of Christian captives.30 The surly Conrad of Montferrat held aloof from all operations and categorically refused a summons to come to Ascalon, while, naturally, not waiving his rights to the revenues of the kingdom, and Richard’s only contact with his Christian opponents was a visit from the duke of Burgundy in early February; but Burgundy did not stay long once Richard told him he could not afford to add to the 5,000 marks he had already loaned him.31

  In February Richard spent more time worrying about his own side than Saladin. Chaos threatened to overwhelm Acre as the Pisans and Genoese energetically joined in faction-fighting on behalf of Guy of Lusignan and Conrad respectively. The hard-pr
essed Pisans, in danger of being expelled from the city, appealed to Richard who made another of his lightning rides with his knights, which scared Conrad and his aider and abettor the duke of Burgundy out of Acre. Richard patched up the feud between Pisans and Genoese, then rode north for an interview with Conrad. The meeting, at Casal Imbert on the road to Tyre, was acrimonious and intemperate, with Conrad once more point-blank refusing to join the army at Ascalon. Richard then presided over a council meeting which formally deprived Conrad of all share in the kingdom’s revenues, although sceptics doubted this could be implemented if Conrad retained the support of the French.32 Conrad and Hugh (the duke of Burgundy) then trumped Richard’s ace by sending envoys down to Ascalon, reminding all French troops that King Philip was their overlord and he had pledged his support to Conrad. Despite Richard’s pleas, 700 Frenchmen announced they were leaving for Tyre; Ambroise cynically remarked that they were drawn to that city by the opportunity for drunken carousal and unlicensed fornication.33 It was more than ever necessary for Richard to play for time, so he reopened negotiations with Saladin, who was similarly happy to stall and sent his brother Safadin off again for further talks. The only new proposal Richard put forward was a piece of fine-tuning on the general idea of partition; he proposed that the city itself be divided, with the Rock and the citadel in Muslim hands and the Christians controlling the rest.34 Saladin’s emirs considered this gesture enough to warrant a definitive peace, and Saladin told his brother to tell Richard the terms were acceptable. Safadin journeyed to Acre, where Richard supposedly then was (27 March) but the English king vanished before Safadin could speak to him. Some say this was a mere coincidence, since Richard had to be with his troops at Ascalon for the Easter festival, but it is much more likely that he was being machiavellian. Either he had heard from his spies that Saladin’s position was parlous, making it likely the crusaders could get even better terms, or he wanted to hook Saladin definitively by suggesting that the offer for the partition of Jerusalem would not stay on the table for long. It is significant that there was no longer any talk of Joan’s marriage.35

  Skirmishes continued, including major brushes on 27 March near Jaffa and on the next day at Darum. After spending Easter Sunday, 5 April, at Ascalon, Richard went on a major reconnaissance of Gaza, demolished the year before by Saladin, and Darum, which was still occupied by the Saracens. It was his intention to besiege Darum as soon as the campaigning season began but, on his return to Ascalon, he found Robert, prior of Hereford, waiting for him with complaints about Prince John and news of his intrigues with Philip of France.36 Since it was clear that John intended to usurp the Crown, and William Longchamp had sent letters begging him to return, Richard considered it essential to settle the issue of the kingship of Outremer as soon as possible, for otherwise he could never leave the Holy Land without undoing all that he had already achieved. On 15 April he summoned a council and announced that he might soon have to return to England. It was necessary that the crusaders choose a leader to take his place once he was gone and that man had to be someone who could hold his own with Saladin; it was no time for sentiment and realpolitik had to prevail. Since Conrad was the only real man of blood and iron, the only tried and tested warrior and politician, it had to be him, even if this meant that Richard had to dump Guy of Lusignan. Craftily Richard led others to take the decision so that he could feign shock at the outcome, but it was obvious what the result was going to be, if only because any other choice than Conrad would still leave him in the field as a ‘third force’ and one, moreover, who was already in secret talks with Saladin.37 There may have been duplicity, also, in the appearance of Henry of Champagne as a third candidate considered by the council, in addition to Conrad and Guy of Lusignan, for Richard’s nephew would hardly have thrown his hat into the ring without the king’s say-so.38 Some say there was still further duplicity in Richard’s attitude, for hitherto Guy, the supposed king of Jerusalem, was in reality Richard’s puppet. Significantly, when Richard wanted a real leader he sacrificed his friend and chose his erstwhile enemy, and indeed, the summoning of the council makes no sense unless Richard had really wanted a change at the head of Outremer. The truth is that Guy had never really lived down his reputation as the man who lost the battle of Hattin, and it was not lost on his critics that Acre fell after a two-years’ siege only when Richard appeared. Conrad was confident that once Richard left for England he would be top dog - so confident in fact that he made it a point of understanding in his talks with Saladin that, if he (Conrad) succeeded as king of Jerusalem, he would enjoy the full benefit of any treaty signed between Richard and Saladin.39

  Nowhere is Richard’s subtlety as a politician - and a clear sign that he was a true son of Henry II - more in evidence than in his treatment of the dispossessed Guy of Lusignan. The Lusignans were a powerful family, well capable of causing all kinds of problems in Poitou, as Geoffrey of Lusignan’s track record showed, and the insult to their honour of Guy’s dethronement would have been palpable - and they would clearly have held Richard responsible - if substantial compensation was not made. Just before he summoned the council, Richard learned from a courier sent by galley that a revolt against Templar rule had broken out in Cyprus, and that the Templars increasingly doubted their ability to hold down the island. They still owed Richard money for the purchase of the island, but their problem was that to pay the balance owing they had to raise taxation, and it was the tax hike that had precipitated the rebellion. Caught in a vicious circle, the Templars were happy to renegotiate the unwise sale, and Richard’s brilliant idea was that Guy of Lusignan should swap the kingship of Jerusalem for a more trouble-free throne in Cyprus.40 Guy accepted the idea with alacrity and repaid the Templars the 40,000 marks they had already paid Richard. On paper he still owed Richard the remaining 60,000 of the purchase price but Richard colluded in the fiction of a ‘loan’ and in effect gifted the island to his friend as compensation. This meant that he still had a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean and also that the turbulent Geoffrey would not be seen again in Poitou, raising the standard of revolt.41 Geoffrey had already been chafing at the fact that his lordship of Ascalon was another fiction, since Richard was the real power there, and had been considering his options, including a return to France. At one stroke the Lionheart solved the problem of both brothers. The Lusignans would rule Cyprus for another three hundred years.

  Richard sent Henry of Champagne to Tyre to tell Conrad the good news. Conrad was overjoyed and, in a histrionic gesture, fell to his knees and asked God not to allow him to be crowned if he was not worthy. It was agreed that the coronation would take place at Acre within the week, and count Henry proceeded there at once to make straight the ways.42 At last, it seemed, there was light at the end of the tunnel and Richard could see his way clear to departing for England, possibly when he had wrung a few more concessions from Saladin - who was disconcerted to hear from Conrad that all negotiations between the two of them were naturally broken off forthwith unless Saladin agreed immediately to the peace terms already proposed.43 But, as so often on the Third Crusade, fate dealt an unexpected hand. On the afternoon of 27 April 1192 Conrad was awaiting the return of his wife from the baths so that they could dine together. Impatience got the better of him, and he set out with two friends for the house of the bishop of Beauvais, hoping to make his meal there. When it turned out that the bishop had already eaten, Conrad decided to return home to see if his tardy wife was available yet. Turning into a narrow street, he was accosted by two men he recognised. One of them handed him a letter and, when Conrad reached down from his horse to take it, one of the men stabbed upwards with a knife while his comrade leapt on the back of the horse and stabbed Conrad in the back. The man who would be king fell to earth and bled to death in the street. Conrad’s men killed one of the assassins on the spot, but the other was taken back to the palace and tortured.44 Breaking under the pain of rack and fire, the second man confessed that he was indeed a member of the feared murder-cult, the A
ssassins, the scourge of the twelfth-century Middle East and a major factor in its politics until the sect was wiped out by the Mongols in the middle of the following century.45

  Since the Assassins were a secret society devoted to murder, rather like Japan’s more famous ninja, it is not surprising that historians still find them controversial. Even the derivation of their name, supposedly from the Arabic hashishiyyin or dope fiends, allegedly because they carried out their slayings while high on hashish, has not commanded universal assent. All that can be said for certain is that the Assassins were a breakaway Shia sect. When the Shi-ites, originally a splinter group from the Sunnis, themselves further split into a mainstream cadre and the new cult of Ismailis, founders of the Fatimid caliphate overthrown in Egypt by Saladin, fragmentation and factionalism became the order of the day. One of the more prominent deviant groups was the society of Assassins, founded by Hassan as-Sabah at the end of the eleventh century. Hassan promised his supporters the delights of paradise if they would risk a martyr’s death to wipe out the enemy of the true faith and allegedly showed them a vision of Heaven when they were suitably drugged.46 From a base in northern Persia the leader of the Assassins, always referred to as ‘the Old Man of the Mountains’, directed his followers in a calculated campaign of terror and murder; the Assassins were the nearest thing the twelfth-century world had to international terrorism. Among the scalps their dagger-men claimed were two Grand Viziers in Persia (1102 and 1127), the Fatimid Caliph in Cairo (1130), the Caliph of Baghdad (1139), Count Raymond II of Tripoli (1152), and many lesser princelings (princesses too were on their hit-list). Saladin had barely survived two attempts on his life by the Assassins and had been compelled to come to terms with the Old Man of the Mountains.47 The Assassins were secular, in that they would strike at any target that seemed good to the Old Man, though his particular targets tended to be located in Mosul and Aleppo rather than Outremer. By the time of the Third Crusade the ultimate logical absurdity had occurred, and the Assassins had themselves split, with one Old Man directing operations in Persia and another, named Rashid al-din Sinan, based in the mountains. It was Sinan who was responsible for the murder of Conrad.48