Letters of the Third Crusade:

   To protect his own interest from the crusaders, the Grecian emperor made an alliance with Saladin. This made the former a greater object of hatred than ever before. In the first crusade, Alexius had been suspected and detested ; Manuel had been openly blamed for the failure of the second crusade. Now in the third, no means are too odious to be attributed to the emperor of the East. In a few years, the hatred accumulated for more than a century will vent itself in the sack of Constantinople.

- Letter from Frederic I to Leopold of Austria in 1189.
- Letter from Sibylla, Ex queen of Jerusalem, to Frederic 1 in 1189.

Letters of the Third Crusade: Letter from Sibylla, Ex queen of Jerusalem, to Frederic 1 in 1189

To her venerable and most illustrious lord Frederic, by the grace of God, most victorious emperor of Rome and most friendly champion of the Holy Cross, Sibylla, formerly queen of Jerusalem, his most humble servant, greatly humiliated in the name of the Lord.

Spare the humble and conquer the proud. I, your most humble maid-servant — as I said above— am compelled to tell your highness and supreme excellency of the grief of the whole city and of the disgrace of the sacred Christians. For the emperor of Constantinople, the persecutor of the church of God, has entered into a conspiracy with Saladin, the seducer and destroyer of the holy Name, against the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I tell this, which I am indeed not able to say without tears. Saladin, the aforesaid enemy of Christ, has sent to the Grecian emperor and the persecutor of the holy Name many presents very pleasing to mortals, in order to make a compact and agreement. And for the slaughter and destruction of the Christians wishing to exalt the name of God, he sent 600 measures of poisoned grain and added a very large vase of wine, filled with such a malignant poison that when he wanted to try its efficacy he called a man, who was killed by the odor alone when the vase was opened.

Along with the rest I am compelled to tell my lord another thing : the aforesaid emperor, in order to increase our misfortunes and magnify the destruction of the Christians, does not permit wheat or other necessary victuals to be carried from his country to Jerusalem. Wherefore, the wheat which might be sent by himself and others, is also shut up in the city of Constantinople.

However, at the end of this tearful epistle, I tell you truthfully that you ought to believe the most faithful bearer of this Tetter. For he himself witnesses what he has seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. This is the reason that with my head bowed to the ground and with bent knees, I ask your Magnificence that inasmuch as you are the head of the world and the wall of the house of Israel, you should never believe the Grecian emperor.

Letters of the Third Crusade: Letter from Frederic I to Leopold of Austria in 1189

Frederic, by the grace of God, emperor and always august, to his beloved kinsman Leopold, duke of Austria, — greeting and all good wishes.

We thought we ought to tell you, because of your love for us, that our brother, the emperor of Constantinople, although he ought to have been bound by brotherly love, has from the very first violated all the oaths which are known to have been sworn by his chancellor at Nuremberg, in the presence of the princes of the empire, in regard to our security on the march, and markets and exchanges. Moreover, he has seized and ignominiously thrown into prison our ambassadors, the bishop of Miinster, count Rupert 1 and Markward, our chamberlain, together with all their attendants, whom we had sent to confirm the peace and to arrange for our peaceful march on this expedition of the quickening cross. At length, however, after long negotiations, grievously delaying our march until the dangerous winter season, he has sent back to our excellency the aforesaid ambassadors on the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, as if matters had been satisfactorily arranged, and he has again promised us good markets, the usual exchanges and an abundance of vessels.

Truly, because the burnt child dreads the fire, we can in the future have no confidence in the words and oaths of the Greeks. In order to avoid the stormy winter season, we propose to stay uutil spring at Philippopolis and Adrianople, and to cross over to Constantinople in the favorable season. Therefore, although we rejoice in a well-equipped army, yet we must seek divine succour in our prayers. For these reasons we ask and desire of your love, that in your prayers and pious devotions you commend us and the whole army of the crusaders to God. In addition we ask of your prudence to see that the letters which we send to the pope reach him through your aid and exertions, because you can arrange this more successfully than anyone else.

Letters of the Crusaders: Letter from the East to Master of the Hospitalers in I187

Intruduction:

This letter gives the most reliable account of the events which decided the fate of the kingdom of Jerusalem. It is without pretence to literary style, and the spelling is very bad. In the text the proper names are spelled as in the original letter. The forms in brackets have been adopted from Rey*s Colonies franqucs de Syrie aux XII me et XIII siecles (Paris 1883), and Guy Le Strange's Palestine under the Moslems (Boston and New York, 1890). The rapidity of Saladin's success and the hopelessness of the Christians are well brought out.

The Letter:

We make known to you, lord Archambault, master of the Hospitalers in Italy, and to the brethren, all the events which have happened in the countries beyond the seas.

Learn, therefore, that the king of Jerusalem was near Saphora [Sephoria] with a great army of at least thirty thousand men about the festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and was in perfect concord with the count of Tripoli, and the latter was with the army. And behold Saladin, the pagan king, approached Tabaria [Tiberias] with eighty thousand horsemen and took Tabaria. After this was done the king of Jerusalem left Saphora and went with his men drawn up against Saladin. And Saladin came against him near Marestutia [Marescallia] on the Friday after the festival of the Apostles Peter and Paul. Battle was engaged and during the whole day they fought fiercely, but night interrupted the strife. In the intervening night the king of Jerusalem fixed his tents near Salnubia, and on the next day, Saturday, moved with his army.

About the third hour the master of the Templars, with all his brethren, began the battle. They received no aid and, by God's permission, lost the greater portion of their men. After this happened, the king, by hard fighting and with great difficulty, went with his army to Nairn, about a league distant, and then the count of Tripoli came to the king and made him pitch his tents near the mountain, which is a sort of fortress, and they were not able to pitch more than three tents. After this was done, the Turks seeing that they had pitched their tents, kindled fires around the army of the king, and, in truth, the heat was so great that the horsemen were baking and were not able to eat or drink. Next, Baldwin of Fatinor, Bacbaberboc of Tabaria and Leisius, with three other associates, separated themselves from the army, went over to Saladin and— a thing which is grievous to relate — denied their faith, surrendered themselves to him, and betrayed to him the army of the king of Jerusalem, by revealing the difficult position in which it was.

Therefore Saladin sent against us Techedin [Taki-Eddin] with twenty thousand chosen soldiers who rushed upon our army, and the battle raged very fiercely from the ninth hour to vespers. And, because of our sins, very many of ours were killed, the Christian people were conquered, the king was captured, and the holy cross and count Gabula and Milo of Colaterido and Onfred [Honfroy] the youth, and prince Reinald [Reginald] captured and killed. And Walter of Arsun and Hugo of Gibelen [Gibelin] and the lord of Botrono [Botron] and the lord of Marachele and a thousand others of the best, captured and killed, so that not more than two hundred of the horsemen and soldiers escaped. The count of Tripoli, lord Basian and R. [Reginald], the lord of Sidon, escaped.

After this Saladin collected his army again and on Sunday came to Saphora and took Saphora and Nazareth, and Mount Tabor, and on Monday came to Aeon [Acre], which is also called Acris; and those in Aeon surrendered. Likewise those of Caifas and those of Cesarea [Csesarea] and of Jafa [Joppa], and of Naple [Neapolis], and of Ram [Ramlah], and of St. George, and of Ybelinon [Ibelin], and of Bellefort [Belfort], and of Mirabel, and of Tyron [Tyre], and of Gwaler, and of Gazer [Gaza], and of Audurum [Darum], all surrendered. After this, when our galley moved from Sur [Tyre], they sent Sabani to Saladin that he should go to Jerusalem and they would surrender the city. And we fled with the galley to Leehia [Laodicea], and we heard that Tyre had surrendered. Moreover, the following cities are still safe and are awaiting aid from the western Church ; namely, Jerusalem, Sur, Scalona [Ascalon], Marchat, Antyochia [Antioch], Lassar, Saona, Triplis [Tripoli]. Moreover, so great is the multitude of the Saracens and Turks that from Tyre, which they are besieging, they cover the face of the earth as far as Jerusalem, like an innumerable army of ants, and unless aid is quickly brought to the remaining above-mentioned cities and to the very few Christians remaining in the East, by a similar fortune they will be plundered by the raging infidels, thirsting for the blood of the Christians.