Outremer
Waiting on Crusaders
Out-runners of the Third Crusade continued to arrive. The Sicilians went home upon hearing of the death of their King William II, but they were almost immediately replaced by a Danish and Frisian fleet that arrived in September. This was followed a few days later by an army of Flemings and northern French, led by James of Avesnes. Toward the end of the month, a group of Germans arrived, led by the Margrave Louis of Thuringia.
All these forces landed at Tyre but made immediately for Acre. This was not necessarily because they found Conrad to be inhospitable, but that they had come to the Holy Land to fight the infidel and Acre was where the fighting was to be found. Conrad had the support of the local baronage still, but the newcomers saw him as inexplicably hostile. Guy was the king, after all, and he was fighting Muslims, after all, and what was Conrad doing besides sulking?
Besides, the Christians besieging Acre obviously needed help, for Saladin had at last moved against them. With what small forces he could muster on short notice, he arrived in September and attacked almost immediately, on the 15th. This finally persuaded Conrad to join, further reinforcing the Latin position. In a ferocious battle on 4 October, Saladin was delivered a sharp reverse but at the expense of heavy Christian casualties. Gerard de Ridefort, the Master of the Temple who had managed to escape from Hattin, was captured and executed. Conrad himself was very nearly captured during the battle and had to be rescued by none other than King Guy.
Crusaders continued to arrive steadily, allowing the Christians finally to blockade the city on land (the Italians had already managed to blockade it by sea). Although battles continued, both sides settled in for the winter. During these months, especially at the beginning, there was a good deal of fraternization between the two sides, complete with competitions, gambling, and dinners. Guy and Conrad temporarily resolved their differences by Conrad recognizing Guy as king in exchange for which the King gave Tyre, Beirut and Sidon to Conrad.
The besiegers grew increasingly desperate during the late winter and early spring as supplies ran terribly short. Disease and starvation stalked the camps. Saladin determined that he had to break the siege, for his spies told him of a huge army gathering in the West, an army that included the Christian Emperor himself. Saladin was very much afraid of what Frederick Barbarossa might accomplish and hastened to sew up Acre to meet this greater threat. He attacked for eight days in May but was unable to break the Christian position. Then he received tremendous news: the German emperor was dead, and his army was dissolving.