The Third Crusade

CHAPTER 7 · 1189–1192 · The Crusades, 1095–1291

Three kings answer Hattin, and the crusade’s bad luck begins at once. Frederick Barbarossa, the mightiest ruler in Europe, marches a huge German army overland — and drowns crossing the Saleph river in Cilicia in 1190. His army dissolves in grief and disease; the strongest of the three crusaders never arrives. Richard the Lionheart of England sails instead, and on the way seizes Cyprus from its Byzantine ruler. Watch the island flip to Latin blue: it is the crusade’s one durable territorial gain, a kingdom that outlives every state on the mainland by three centuries.

The turn: Arsuf, 7 September 1191.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.