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Originally posted by cato
Anyone recommend a good biography of Richard I?

Was he responsible for the failure of the III crusade?
I cannot answery your first question right now, but I'll answer the second: No. He was not responsible for the failure of the 3rd crusade.
 
I beleive the failure was caused by too many divisions between the French and English who went on the crusade.

Also the heat, heavy armor, lack of supplies, poor commanders, Saladin...
 
Lack of support for whenJjerusalem would have been captured, problems back home...

All told the Third Crusade was pretty successful considering what was regained after Saladin had taken almost all of the Holy Land after Hattin. The ultimate objective, of course was not achieved.:)
 
Just about any history of the Crusades that's available at your local book store will have a decent description of Richard's involvement.

And yes, he wasn't responsible for it's failure.
 
Jerusalem

I found several biographies. Did Richard I miss an excellent opportunity to undo Hattin by marching immediately on Jerusalem after taking Jaffa in 1192? The victory would have shattered Saladins coalition and the caliphates would have been reconciled to the existence of Latin Kingdoms in the Middle East. ALso, It would have attracted more support from the West. He hesitated twice in the 3rd Crusade to go against Jerusalem. The first time was after Arsuf, but he did not have a base of supplies on the coast. After taking Jaffa, however, there was no reason not to proceed. On a side note, how did the crusaders manage to alienate everyone in the Middle East and turn them into enemies:
1-moslems
2-jews
3-eastern orthodox
4-syrian christians

?
 
Re: Jerusalem

Originally posted by senex

1-moslems
2-jews
3-eastern orthodox
4-syrian christians

1-2: By slaughtering a great number of them.

3-4: Contrary to (then) contemprary belief, Christian peoples of the Levant weren't desperately awaiting saviours. According to Islamic law, they were "people of the book" (along with Jews and Muslims) thus having the freedom of worship, right to have property, land etc. They did pay heavier taxes though. The arrival of (foreign) Catholic bishops possibly managed to upset their communities more than anything their Muslim rulers could have done previously.

Legalistic Sunni Islam wasn't nearly as tolerant of heteredox sects within itself not to mention rival Shi'ites (for ex. two centuries before the First Crusade, Hallaci Mansur, a famous Sufi thinker was martyred for famously saying "I am God" --- he meant "We are all One and a part of God" in a most humanistic way but the courts wouldn't listen)
 
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Before the crusades there were many christians in the levant, after the crusades, due to the hatred generated by 2 centuries of religious war, were not the forced to emigrate/convert? I think only in syria, where there are 1.5 million christians, this did not happen.
 
richard coeur lion (the original "godfather" :)) was responsible for taking cyprus from isaac comnenus and giving it to the knights templar, who in turn gave it to the lusignan family.

what isn't common knowledge is that cyprus was not part of the byzantine empire at that time. isaac declared political independence from constantinople in the early 1180's. i hope the game can somehow reflect that, even if only in game text.

stephanos
 
Originally posted by stephanos
richard coeur lion (the original "godfather" :)) was responsible for taking cyprus from isaac comnenus and giving it to the knights templar, who in turn gave it to the lusignan family.

what isn't common knowledge is that cyprus was not part of the byzantine empire at that time. isaac declared political independence from constantinople in the early 1180's. i hope the game can somehow reflect that, even if only in game text.

Didn't that Isaac Comnenus titulate himself "Emperor of Cyprus"?
 
Originally posted by stephanos
richard coeur lion (the original "godfather" :)) was responsible for taking cyprus from isaac comnenus and giving it to the knights templar, who in turn gave it to the lusignan family.

.........

I don't think Richard I ever "gave" anything to anyone.:)