Why Acre mattered
Acre, on a sheltered bay in the northern part of the Holy Land, was one of the best harbors on that coast. In the twelfth century it was an important landing place for pilgrims, merchants and reinforcements arriving by sea, and Italian trading communities had quarters in the city. When Saladin captured it in July 1187, just after the disaster at Hattin, the Kingdom of Jerusalem lost its most important gateway. Retaking Acre was therefore a priority for any new crusade.
A small beginning, in 1189
Guy of Lusignan, who had been captured at Hattin and then released, gathered the remnants of the kingdom’s forces. In August 1189 he marched to Acre with a modest army and began a siege. At that stage he was a king without a strong base, and many nobles questioned his legitimacy. The decision was risky, since the city’s walls were strong and the Muslim garrison could be supplied from the land side.
The besiegers were soon reinforced by contingents arriving by sea, including Italian and northern European fleets. As their numbers grew, they dug trenches and built siege works facing the city. Then the situation became unusual. Saladin brought his army and took up positions in the hills behind the crusaders. The crusader camp thus found itself blockading the city on one side while being blockaded on the other, with both armies in the same small area.
Years of stalemate
The siege developed into a drawn-out struggle. There were attacks on the city, battles between the armies on the plain, and attempts by Saladin to break the encirclement. His forces could sometimes pass supplies and men into Acre, and the sea route, controlled by whichever side had more ships at the moment, was vital. Over the winter of 1189-90 the crusader camp suffered from hunger and disease. Famous deaths included Queen Sibylla of Jerusalem and her daughters, which complicated the succession and set up a dispute between Guy and Conrad of Montferrat, who held Tyre.
Accounts mention siege towers, rams and stone-throwers used by the crusaders, while the defenders replied with fire and counter-fire. The siege engines of this campaign are often described, though the descriptions come from chroniclers who sometimes exaggerated, and the details deserve caution. Medieval siege warfare was slow and costly, and the Acre siege shows how a determined defender could hold out when supplied from outside.
It is also said that during this period a field hospital was founded by German merchants from Lubeck and Bremen to care for the sick. Tradition connects this group with the beginnings of the Teutonic Knights, which later became a military order. The exact origins are debated, but the story reflects how the siege created new institutions as well as destroying old ones.
In 1190 the emperor Frederick Barbarossa drowned on the overland route to the east, and his army broke up. Only a part of it, under his son, is generally thought to have reached Acre.
The arrival of the kings
In April 1191 Philip II of France arrived, and in June 1191 King Richard the Lionheart of England landed. The two kings did not trust each other. Richard, an experienced fighter, took charge of the effort and built up the attack. Siege engines battered the walls, and miners worked beneath them, while the defenders, now isolated from Saladin’s relief army, could do little. Philip left for France soon after the siege ended, citing illness and politics at home.
With no prospect of relief, the garrison negotiated. On July 12, 1191, Acre surrendered. The agreed terms, according to sources, included the payment of a large sum by Saladin, release of captives, and return of the True Cross captured at Hattin. The garrison and inhabitants were to be released in exchange.
The prisoners
The surrender then went wrong. The payments were delayed, and Richard doubted that Saladin would carry out the agreement. On August 20, 1191, he had a large number of Muslim prisoners, reported as some 2,700 in chronicle accounts, led out and killed. Saladin responded by executing some of his Christian captives. The numbers vary by source, and the details are debated, but the episode shows how harsh the siege had become. Historians note that Richard’s reputation, both as a commander and for ruthlessness, owes a good deal to this episode, and that writers on each side told it in the way that suited them.
What the siege changed
The recovery of Acre gave the Christians a base from which to take Jaffa and other coastal places, and it prevented the complete elimination of Latin rule in the Levant. The Third Crusade did not recover Jerusalem; a treaty in 1192 left the city in Muslim hands while permitting pilgrims. Acre then served for a century as the main city of the kingdom, replacing Jerusalem in many respects, with the Hospitallers and Templars, Venetians, Genoese and other groups all maintaining quarters.
That role ended in 1291, when the Mamluk sultan’s army took Acre after a siege of several weeks, ending the last major Christian hold on the mainland. The later fall is a different story, but it shows how the port’s two sieges bracket the history of the crusader states. The earlier one reveals a remarkable pattern: it lasted nearly two years and drew in people from across Europe and the Muslim world, creating a temporary military society sustained by sea and ravaged by disease. How large the armies were is not known, and chroniclers’ totals are rough guesses.