How did the Third Crusade end?
The Third Crusade basically unwound itself, but it wasn’t a total failure for either side. Jerusalem had been recaptured by the newly unified forces of Egypt and Syria under Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, better known to us in the Western world as Saladin, a Muslim who rose to power over these two nations as Sultan. But the Third Crusade, or fight over the control of the Holy City would not only prove to be Saladin’s last, but the beginning at an attempt to live peacefully among all involved. While the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa lead an awesome army to the battle to free Jerusalem from Saladin’s control, his accidental drowning on the journey to the Holy Land so discouraged the troops he was leading that many of them turned around for home, never to step foot into Palestine. The final conflict was a series of murderous exchanges between King Richard I of England and Saladin who both slaughtered thousands in retaliation for minor victories each won over the other, Richard the Lionhea
