Monthly Archives: August 2017

The Deposed Prince and the Fourth Crusade, 1195-1203

Byzantine Emperors and their relatives met many violent deaths; the favored ways of getting someone out of the way were poison, strangling, and blinding. The last one was the fate of the Emperor who had married his sister to Conrad … Continue reading

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Richard the Lion-Heart in the Holy Land, 1191-2

The weakness of the Crusades was always that its armies did not represent any immigration wave that actually wanted to come live in Palestine or Syria. Turkish migration was real, so its pressure on Anatolia and Syria never let up … Continue reading

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The Siege of Acre, 1188-91

The Crusader royal line had now devolved into a weak, chaotic state from which it never recovered. The leper king left two sisters, with the direction that European kings should decide between them. Although Jerusalem could no longer actually be … Continue reading

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Richard the Lion-Heart sets out, 1188-91

If we had to choose one person to stand for the Third Crusade, without question it is Queen Eleanor’s third son Richard. There isn’t really much to tell, apart from his story. Richard was 32 when his father suddenly died. … Continue reading

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