Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

expedition that lasted two years, they retook Acre, before Richard led a large army down the Levantine coast, massacring prisoners, skirmishing with Saladin’s troops, and recapturing cities as he went. But even Richard—the greatest general of his age—came up short when he contemplated the city of Jerusalem. Twice he approached it, and twice he turned back, daunted by the scale of the siege it would require. The closest he came to taking Jerusalem was when he tried to negotiate a remarkably progressive two-state solution for Palestine at large, under which the state would be ruled jointly by his sister Joanna and Saladin’s brother al-Adil (also known as Saphadin). This stalled when the couple could not agree to religious terms on which to marry, and eventually the project—and the crusade—petered out. So Jerusalem stayed in Saladin’s hands. And the crusaders, as they always did, either settled down or departed.*