The year 1189 CE marked the beginning of the Third Crusade, one of the most famous and important crusades to the Holy Land. Under the leadership of King Guy of Lusignan, the Crusaders arrived at the walls of the coastal city of Acre (in modern-day Israel) to begin a siege that would last nearly two years. This attack on Acre kicked off a massive military campaign aimed at recapturing Jerusalem and other holy sites from Muslim control.

The Purpose and Goals of the Third Crusade

By the late 12th century, Saladin and the Ayyubid dynasty had managed to recapture Jerusalem and large swaths of territory in the Levant from Crusader control. The shocking 1187 defeat of the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin and the subsequent loss of Jerusalem prompted Pope Gregory VIII to call for a new crusade to restore Christian control over the holy city.

The main goal was to take Jerusalem back from Saladin’s rule. But the Crusaders had several strategic targets in mind, including the medieval port city of Acre. Situated on the coast of the Holy Land, controlling Acre would give the crusaders an advantaged landing point and base of operations for marching on Jerusalem and other inland cities under Muslim control.

The Epic Siege of Acre Begins in 1189

When Guy of Lusignan gathered his troops in 1189, he decided that capturing Acre would be the Crusaders’ first major offensive. Acre was already under siege by Saladin when the Crusaders arrived. What followed was two years of grueling siege warfare between Guy’s forces and the Muslim defenders inside Acre’s fortified walls.

The Crusaders surrounded the city, blockaded its ports, and spent months launching attacks and constructing siege engines. But it took nearly two years of battling before Acre finally fell back into Crusader hands in 1191. Yet while the Siege of Acre drained Saladin’s resources, it also bought him more time to reinforce his inland territories against the coming Crusader assault.

The Aftermath of the Siege and the Third Crusade Overall

Though the Crusaders were ultimately victorious at Acre, Saladin inflicted heavy losses on Guy’s army in the process. The crusade continued for several more years after the siege, with important battles like Arsuf and Jaffa, but neither side gained a decisive upper hand. The stalemate ultimately led to a truce and settlement between Saladin and Richard the Lionheart that allowed Christian access to Jerusalem without giving up Muslim control of the city itself.

So while the epic Siege of Acre kicked off the Third Crusade with a hard-fought Christian victory, the crusade as a whole did not achieve its grand ambition of reclaiming Jerusalem fully. Yet the campaign marked a crucial turning point as new leaders like Richard the Lionheart entered the fray and the crusades entered their later stages. The 1189 siege stood out as a symbolic first step in this quest to restore a Christian foothold in the Levant by overcoming the rising Ayyubid Empire.

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