142. The Third Crusade: The Siege of Acre...The Christians Strike Back!

The disgraced King of Jerusalem, Guy of Lusignan, had lost everything. 

His kingdom, his freedom, his integrity. 

When Saladin, Sultan of the Islamic world, agreed to free him from captivity, he was forced to swear no retaliation upon release.

Guy agreed.

But he would not keep that vow. In no time, Guy gathered a small army of willing Crusaders to attempt an impossible mission. 

To retake the Holy Land. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Hey everybody. Welcome to Church History for Chumps. My name is John Simon, and I'm here with my good friend, Taylor Treadway. Hey oh how we doing? Taylor, how you feelin'? Uh I I slept all day. You look you look like that combo of well-rested but also a little sleepy still. Dude, I I I worked a lot this week.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Did you?

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Do you have do you take Mondays off? Are you one of those m ministry guys?

SPEAKER_04 1:23

No, no, no, no, no, no. Because I have to be at the school, I have to be at the school normally.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Oh, I see, I see. Because back when I was a pastor, you know, Monday was the day to take off. That was another one. Friday off. We took Friday off.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

Because that's when we were I and I remember I talked to a pastor friend of mine who also took Friday off, and I said, I just feel like starting the work week, worshiping the Lord is the best way to do it. And he was like, absolutely, brother. So there's like there's like there's like a little debate between the Friday guys and the Monday guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, I I okay, this is a perfect segue. I I wanted to ask you this, and and I and as I like build up this question, I also wanted to uh heavily shout out all of the people who responded to our question from last week because we basically just asked people to share their denominations and traditions, and we got like a billion responses. So thank you guys all who did that. That was awesome. Uh big fan of the uh assemblies of God to ACNA pipeline that I didn't know existed, but I think that's that's awesome. I also love the ACNA. There is a very tiny ACNA church here in town. I know the pastor, I used to serve at the same church with him, and he's an awesome guy. And if I will ever one day get my wife over her uh anti-Catholic sensibilities, we will we will go there more often.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

ACNA is the like conservative Anglicans, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yeah, so they're the Anglicans that kind of broke off from the Episcopalians because they wanted to preserve Anglican liturgy and tradition without the liberal uh theology.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

Yeah, yeah, which I didn't know they existed until a little while ago. So yeah. Um I apologize for any previous comments about all Anglicans being heretics.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

I'm sure the Anglicans remember. I'm sure they're like, Don't worry, Taylor, we know.

SPEAKER_04 3:18

Well, I'm retracting it right now. Not all of them.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

Well, no, seriously, we got we got ACNAs, we got non-denoms, we got uh a couple Orthodox folks who listen, uh we have Reformed Baptists, so yeah, a church, Church of Denmark from our guy Noah. Thanks for sharing, Noah. Haven't seen your name in the comments before. Welcome to the party. Um, so yeah, love that. Love that. Thank you, everybody. I had a question though. So this earlier this week, I was on a worship music kick, which is so rare for me because I I feel like I'm one of those millennials who just grumbles about like, you know, Bethel makes good music, but you know, they've got kind of a strange wizardly school that they contribute to.

SPEAKER_04 4:05

You know, witchcraft and wizardry.

SPEAKER_00 4:08

Hill song makes good music, but uh there's their pastors don't seem to like being Christians all the time. Like, you know, there's always this disgruntled feeling. So I'm listening to David Crowder band church music from I think like 2009, something like that. And I listened to How He Loves, which I know is a massive popular song, but I was like, I don't know if there's a better worship song that's come out since this since this song. I think it clears one or 10,000 reasons, it clears good good father, brother. I am sick of 10,000 reasons. But you're a professional, you're a professional. Dude. This is why I brought it to the fold, I brought it to the table. Why don't you tell me?

SPEAKER_04 5:00

So, first off, sovereign grace music. They've kind of dwindled out, but they have written amazing songs in the last in the last 10 years. Uh you have stuff from the Getty's Consistently Good. You have Worship Initiative, and then you have um what is it? It's the uh I'm like blanking on their name.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

They do uh Oh my god, Chris Tomlin, possibly. No Phil Phil Wickham, Matt Redman, Shane and Shane. Well, oh City of Light, City of Light. I think they're in the market for a third Shane. Shane, Shane and Shane. Yeah, probably. Or Shane and Shane and Shane.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Okay, bro, City of Light has written a ton of really good stuff. Yeah, they wrote yet not through I but Christ and Me. You just don't know.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

That's that's actually a good song. That's a good song.

SPEAKER_04 6:01

Yes. I I don't mean to be like, I'm not trying to throw disrespect on No.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

I want to hear it. I want to hear it. City a light, not City Love Light. City a light, one word. Okay. You um Yeah, not I but through Christ. That is a good song. I I we went to a non-denom church for a little while that sang that song. That's a good one. I'm gonna add it to the playlist right now.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Um I'm just saying, man, there's a lot better songs than How He Loves Us. But it's a really good song.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

I'm not just talking like like lyrics. I'm talking like that song, it's it's got a build, it's it feels like an experience. And also I think David Crowder is a really good songwriter, even though I know he didn't write that song. That was John Mark McMillan, I think. John Mark McMillan did write good stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

But look, man, look, there is there was a lull in the worship world.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

But do you think we're back?

SPEAKER_04 6:57

I think it we've been back just underground.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Ooh, all right. So we're going through our uh this is our pre-reformation days.

SPEAKER_04 7:05

I think a lot of a lot of modern worship songs are like really lame.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

We're kind of in our Jan Huss era. If you if you know where to look, there's some good stuff.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

Yeah, and uh that's the worship world. I think I've said it before on the podcast. The worship world is just completely divided right now. There's also there's just two groups. There's groups that sing Hillsong and Bethel and like Maverick, and then there's groups that don't.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 7:34

And the groups that don't sing all the people that I just said, so I'm outing myself of which group I'm in. You're gonna be able to do that. I used to be I yeah, but I'm out of obedience to my pastor's wishes. I I kind of I really like some Hillsong stuff.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah. I mean, they they've also kind of they were running things for what a couple decades.

SPEAKER_04 7:56

Yeah, and they're also the their guys have all like split off.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

A lot of them are doing their own thing and it's really and and uh I want to amend my statement from earlier because I in case I offended anyone who actually likes Hillsong. Hillsong is like a monolith. Like I know there's been controversies with Hillsong leaders, but there have been controversies with SPC leaders. Like that doesn't that's not necessarily an indictment on the whole movement.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

Right, and that's what's kind of been unfortunate is the band has been kind of lumped in. Sure. But I think Good Grace is such a good song. I like a lot of songs off that album. Okay. Uh yeah. Hillsong's very good at using like Old Testament imagery. Like, do you know the song Another in the Fire? No, I don't. That song is fantastic, and I would highly encourage every listener to listen to that song.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

Especially if you're going through something.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

I'm gonna I'm I'm adding I'm adding it to the playlist. I'm doing it right now. I'm having a good I'm having a good time. Yeah, I mean, like, what what what's the song that got really popular, but it's literally just a bl like the like blessing from is it called the blessing, actually? It's called the blessing from Curry Job. But it's good. Like I like there's there, I feel like even from places that peep more conservative folks wouldn't consider kosher, they're just like using the Bible. Like it's hard to find that.

SPEAKER_04 9:24

Then there's like weird songs like uh what's the one that's like you've got a lion inside of your lungs?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Like what is that? I don't like no, I know what it is. I mean, I I don't know it enough to know it, but I know what you're talking about, and that's not I don't like I don't know what that means. I oh I don't really like the songs that like I mean I know like I there are like worship songs that kind of feel like very peppy in their inspiration. Like it's like you know, there's a song, and we actually sang it last week, so I don't want to be super critical, but it's like uh you you got you gave me life and I ran right out of the grave or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 10:06

Oh yeah, I know what song you're talking about.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yeah, it's like I don't I don't want to that yeah, that feels like why am I w worthy of such you know the problem give it to Jesus.

SPEAKER_04 10:22

The subject of the song is are almost always like yourself. Yeah. Which there's nothing wrong with that inherent inherently, but it does get like why is every song about me?

SPEAKER_00 10:37

And I I get that it's it's a lot of worship music, I think, especially mass-produced worship music, is trying to be like common denominator, like it's trying to be anyone can walk into church for the first time and be like struck by this relatable sounding. But the problem is you've got people who have been in church for 30 years who can handle a little bit of meat and potatoes, and we're still giving them baby smell, right? Worship-wise.

SPEAKER_04 11:04

Well, our orthodox listeners are like, I didn't even know our songs until I was in you know the catechesis process for two years. That's right. Yeah, but then when I learned it, it meant a lot, and we're like, yeah. Maybe somewhere in between. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

One of these days, dude, we'll do it, we'll do a chump talk and we'll just talk about the the the worship stuff. Yes. But anyways, we have a topic today that I am pumped for. And I also don't have to do any of the work. I just got to do a little bit of reading for fun and let you steer the shit.

SPEAKER_04 11:39

So welcome to everyone who skipped the banter. Uh follow us, follow us on socials, uh, leave comments on Spotify. That's right. Now, I will say this. So I started prepping for Siege of Acre. I've done so many sieges, right? I'm almost like the Siege guy.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

What was that? Uh I mean, I don't know. I did Siege of Antioch, which I think we could argue is the most important siege up to this time.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

So you did a great job on Siege of Antioch. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Apparently a forgettable job.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Listen. The sieges are like typically then then you can relate an episode prep of you can kind of like you can kind of like skim whatever book we're using for a few pages, get the general gist of what happened, go go scour, go scour Wikipedia, make sure you didn't miss anything. It's like small details. Then you can go find some cute little primary sources and you're like done. Like easy. Yeah, so not done. The Siege of Acre is so unbelievably long and complex that I don't even know if we're gonna get like I I think you said earlier, because I gave you a heads up, I was like, I don't think this is one episode. And you were like, Well, why don't we just land the plane wherever, and if we hit a few trees, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So might be a crash landing. We might we might lose some luggage, we might lose the undercarriage.

SPEAKER_04 13:12

Right. Uh we'll get there safely, is what I'll say. But um yes, we will arrive at our destination. In one piece, I don't know. We'll see. I don't know. So I I want to start with uh this is actually unfortunately the only only primary source we're gonna be reading tonight. Uh and I'm gonna use it as our introduction. And so this is from uh I'm gonna butcher the uh Latin names, but it's itinerarium peregrinorum et gesta regis recardi.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

How'd I do? That was that was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:55

It's it's the crusade of Richard the Lionhearted. Okay, alright, I like it. Yes, and it was um translated by James Brundage in uh 1941, I believe. And uh he says he says this. This was written by a I believe this one was a monk or some some religious fellow that followed Richard, okay? So this is what he says. Acre was hemmed in on all sides, besieged by an infinite multitude of people, people from every Christian nation under heaven, people chosen from all the Christians, people well fitted for war and unremitting labor. The people had now besieged Acre for a very long time, and they had been troubled by many afflictions, by constant labors, by shortages of food, and by many ad adversities, as has in part been pointed out above. There appeared beyond them, furthermore, an innumerable army of Turks who covered the mountains and valleys, bills and plains. Here and there they fixed their tents made of various patterns of flowing colours. They also saw the pavilions of Saladin and the tents of his brother Saif Aden and Taki Aden, the steward of paganism. The latter superintended the sea and the fort, and he frequently set up assaults and serious attacks against the Christians. Last time, our last little section. King Richard seemed to be sizing up all their armies. When he put into port, the king of France and the magnates, commanders, and great men of the armies there marched out to him. They received him with joy and exultation, for they had very much desired his arrival. Nice nice. And then we have Jonathan Riley Smith kind of sets us up for this discussion. He says, Now the unlikeliest of figures decided to seize the initiative. The degraced disgraced king of Jerusalem, Guy. Do we want to say Guy or Ghee? We gotta decide right now. It's been Guy.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

I think we should alternate. Gee is the French pronunciation, and I think it sounds kind of lame, but Guy, because he's my guy in this story. I do what he is.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

So he's been of Jerusalem, Guy of Louis Nan, whose ignominious defeat at Hatton had condemned his realm to virtual annihilation, was attempting the unthinkable. In the company of his redoubtable brother, Jeffrey of Louis Nan, a recent arrival in the Levant, as well as a group of Templars and Hospitalers, and a few thousand men, Guy was marching south frontier towards Muslim held acre. He seemed to be making a suicidal attempt to retake his kingdom.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Seriously, like maybe my favorite scene in all of the crusades right now is when Guy is released from captivity. And I think like they they make him promise. They're like, You can leave, but you can't try to do anything. And he's like, I promise.

SPEAKER_03 17:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

And he and he just immediately rallies his people and just he's like, I'm taking my kingdom back.

SPEAKER_04 17:17

Well, we talked, so we talked about that. Um remember, remember, Saladin was like, cool with it. Because guy, guy wrote Saladin, guy for everything is an honorable fellow. Sure. And so he wrote Saladin a letter and was like, I cannot uphold this oath. And Saladin was like, that's right. Aladine was like, I understand, Huppy B. Your wife and children still get safe passage. Right, right. Honorable Saladin. Yeah, now, so the sec I shouldn't say secular, uh, I should say cynical. Cynical historians I've read have been kind of like, well, this release of Guy was a Saladin knew he wasn't gonna keep the oath, and Saladin, Saladin may have thought, I'm gonna just sow dissension amongst the Latins by sending Guy.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Because Guy's whole succession, when Baldwin IV, the leper king, died, Guy was already kind of a controversial king. So he had good reason to think that Guy going back into leadership was going to create more problems for the Crusaders.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

Yes, he did. He did. But also Saladin seems to have some semblance of honor. And so in his mind, he's and remember that he's attributed with that quote, kings do not kill kings. Right. And so he let him go. And I I last episode we kind of hopped back to Europe. So if if you're just jumping in, this is a very confusing because there's a lot of names. So there's a lot of names that are gonna be thrown out. I would I would encourage you to go back a few episodes to get caught up kind of on the the crusader story. But if you don't want to, the like 30-second summary is Saladin unites all of Sunni Islam. Right. He ha he takes over. So Egypt was held by Shia for a very long time. Saladin sort of takes over peacefully, uh converts everybody to Sunni Islam, and and you have now the a united Muslim world like you've never seen before, and they take Jerusalem, but they wipe out the Crusaders' forces at Hatton or Hattin, and then uh that's kind of like where our our story ended with Saladin. And then in the West, the Latins are England and France are currently fighting each other because there's some territorial disputes. The understanding of like the island is the British and the the inland is the France that doesn't exist, so they're they're fighting, trying to figure out who has what. Well, they come together and agree to stop fighting. Yeah, quote unquote, and crusade. So now you have and they levy something called the Saladin tax. We hadn't talked, we talked a little bit about the resistance. Some people were not happy. Most a lot of people were not happy with it. It was a 10% tax on everything.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

10% tax on all movable products and income.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

So Philip gets away with his tax for a year in France and then has to recant and say, Saw we. Uh Richard in England does not.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah. And Richard. As Americans, we know very well that the British do not yield when it comes to taxation.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

It's a long history.

SPEAKER_04 21:06

Now, Richard, Richard also sells everything he can. And I think one contemporary of his remarked that he would have sold London if he could have gotten away with it. Correct. So Richard sells everything he can. Castles, townships, uh territories, all kinds of stuff. Yeah, yeah. And so Richard has essentially unlimited money for this crusade. Right. His motives are complicated. Okay. Uh he's already, as we I think we talked a little bit about this in your episode last week, John. He's he is a legend before he even dies. So Richard the Lionheart had already earned his nickname before he kind of even went overseas, I believe. Right. So Richard is this warrior prince, newly made king, tons of resources, tons of money. Philip is the king of France, who has been he was made king young. He's not the most like book smart guy, but he's pragmatic. And so you kind of have these three people and then a bunch of other characters. Now one of the things that we're talking about. Well Frederick Frederick of Barbarossa. That's what I was gonna that's what I was gonna get to. I was gonna get to that. So Frederick of Barbarossa is the king of the Germans and has united the Germans in a way that had not really been seen yet. Because you gotta remember, we're kind of we're still In feudalism, and uh feudalism is slowly starting to turn into the monarchies that we're more familiar with. So our our our three main characters, actually, our two main characters today are Guy and Saladin. And then you say, but what about Philip and Richard? We don't really get to them in this episode.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Because they're traveling, they've got they've got a long road to walk, or actually to sail for them.

SPEAKER_04 23:06

And that's another thing that's fascinating. They sail there instead of walk. Frederick with the Germans walks. He doesn't have the money to sail. It's very expensive to sail. So Frederick walks, and this is John is going to cover this next week. So we're gonna do it, we're gonna do it this way. This is what we're gonna do. Give you the flight plan. We're gonna do kind of the first half of the Siege of Acre today, and then next week, John is gonna cover what the Germans are doing during the Siege of Acre and kind of how they're actually assisting many, many miles away by just creating pressure up north. Right. And then the week after we'll do kind of Richard and Phillips arrival.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

And can I share one thing before you go on Taylor?

SPEAKER_04 24:02

No, please do. I think by splitting it up, we have more time to just like stop and chit-chat, you know?

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Room to breathe. Room to breathe. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that. I'm not trying to be urgent anymore. Urgency is for my 20s, not the 30s. That's right. Um, another thing is I think just the the motivation, or at least the what made this a big deal. Like last week, I think we used like we compared it to 9-11. Like Jerusalem, as as weird as it sounds, because this I think maybe sounds a little strange to our Western ears, but the idea of Jerusalem, the holiest place in the world where Jesus walked, where Jesus, you know, was crucified, uh, all these central things, it was so important, especially since the first crusade, that this be a territory occupied by Christians, because it meant safe passage for the pilgrims, and it meant that the Christians who lived in this holy city had all of their rights to worship protected and that they weren't subject to persecution. So losing that was devastating. It also meant because another thing that happened during the Siege of Jerusalem was they lost the true cross, which was the relic that they believed was the cross that Jesus was crucified in. So to us, modern ears doesn't mean a whole lot. To them, it was like judgment day. Like for a hundred years, the Christians had overseen Jerusalem and that territory, and then it fell, and now they were like, Yeah, this is awful.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

And I think Richard had already signed up, he had already taken the cross, as they say, before he agreed to take.

SPEAKER_00 25:42

I don't know if you knew this before Hatton fell.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

No, it was after Hatton and like immediately after Jerusalem to the point that he probably didn't know, but he still took it. And then they the him and Philip then met later, I think in 1191 and did their like anime clasp that you described last week. And then they like to But Richard had already taken the cross. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So Rich that that battle of Hatton where they lost the true cross and everyone was eviscerated, that they had already, and John pointed out, uh the Pope had already started writing uh a call to the papal bull. Exactly. Yeah, that's just crazy. So so you have this like the fire was already started with like the destruction at Hatton. And uh then Jerusalem fall and the fire was burning pretty well, and then Jerusalem falls, and it's like they just like threw a bunch of propane tanks onto it. Exactly. I mean, it blew up. So you you now have a Latin force coming into the Middle East that we have never seen before. So one of the one of the notes for so Richard sets out in uh I I'm gonna cover a little bit before Acre. Um the timelines are a little off, but I want to cover the Europeans and then get to what's happening in the Middle East. So we're in 1191 right now. This is Richard uh leaving and Philip leaving. Um acre starts in 1189. I will remind us of that when we get to it. So uh Richard actually decides to stop by uh what's that island? Cyprus. Cyprus. Yeah. Just decides to stop by and take it over. Yeah. So Richard on his way just says, Oh, uh, this seems nice. And uh I wonder. Yeah, yeah, and uh just takes it from the Byzantines. And so if you're wondering, I I do, you know, everyone when you read these sources and and at the secondary sources and all that, and you have these questions of like, where were the Byzantines at? And the answer is not really involved in any meaningful capacity because they didn't like the Latins almost as much as the Muslims didn't like the Latins. True, yes. I'm not spoiling anything for next week, but that also that those relations play a big part in Germany.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah. Yeah, because uh I I would imagine that a big part because so Serena uh one of our dear listeners asked this in the comments last week where were the Byzantines during during the time of the call to the crusade. And I want to say, I I read this in my reading, I'm not sure if you did, Taylor. The Byzantines were not had already had already made agreements with Saladin to not offer free passage to the crusaders, which was the first time that's happened um in the in the history of crusading, that they did not basically roll the red carpet out for them. Now I would imagine that's probably gonna make some issues for the Germans, but like we said, we can get to that next week.

SPEAKER_04 28:53

Well, and uh the the the Byzantines are trying to play both sides.

SPEAKER_00 28:59

Sure.

SPEAKER_04 28:59

Exactly, exactly. So, which when you do that, you typically make both people mad at you.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

Yeah. And the Crusader states serve very little positive purpose for the Byzantines. Um and like just their very existence. It doesn't help them very much.

SPEAKER_04 29:14

But yeah. Uh Philip had some run-ins with um with with them at with uh kind of the Byzantines as well, I believe. But uh no, Philip didn't. Sorry. The this is Philip did not. Richard, though, did now uh Asbridge notes, like all crusades, the army was a confederation of contingents under different leaders, and it continued to be divided over political developments in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. And so he is referencing the the ongoing drama of who is going to be, even though they lost the city, who is the rightful heir to the kingdom of Jerusalem. Okay. Uh and so Philip uh reaches Acre in April of 1191, and then Richard, because he was, you know, busy in Cyprus for a little bit, he gets there, he gets there two months later in June. So essentially uh they the the the Europeans are sending such a massive army that arrives in 1191 that when they get there the tide turns instantly and they they take acre. Spoiler alert. But the two-year siege before that, so now we're gonna go back in time. The two-year siege before that is uh it it starts, as we said, when Guy is released from Saladin's custody and he walks up to Tyr, which is an is a port city much farther north than um Acre. So I believe Tyr is in modern day Lebanon, whereas A Acre is still it's south and it is in modern day Israel. I think Akko is the modern Acre.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Does Akko, Israel, sound familiar to you? I'm gonna look that up. You know what's interesting? Both Tyre and I think Acre are also biblical cities. Um because we're gonna hear about Sidon as well, and those are both, I think, cities that get a lot of judgment in the prophets in the prophetic books. Yes, it is Acco.

SPEAKER_04 31:49

Um was it was Tyr that they or Tyre that they said the silver was minted? That uh I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah. They they have a cursed tower is what they call it, and they say that the silver that Judas was paid with was minted there.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Oh, oh, that's yes, yes, I did hear about that. That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_04 32:09

Isn't that crazy? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'm telling you guys, every rabbit trail, every little discussion in the world of history you have has a rabbit trail that is a PhD project. So that's right. Yes. Okay. So Guy walks up, and I have to I have to back up even more. Because before Guy walks up to Tyre, this is important to note. Saladin tried to take Tyre. Did you hear about that?

SPEAKER_00 32:39

And he failed, right? He failed bad. Was this when uh because Conrad of what is it? Conrad of Montferrat or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 32:47

Yeah, Conrad, Conrad of Montferrat. He's a tough dude. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

And he didn't really trust Guy when Guy was released from captivity, right?

SPEAKER_04 32:56

No, Conrad's the one that turns so Conrad defeats Saladin at Tyre. And part of the reason is Tyre is like really hard to take. It it has one little walkway to get to it. And it has very deep waters on the other side of it. Uh, and so you can constantly have provisions brought in. You basically have to have a navy to take tire, and like a good navy. And Saladin did not at that, he he didn't have the navy power to do it. So Saladin is like, you know, going down this one little walkway and they're just getting slaughtered, and they they they can't do it. So he fails, and that is the beginning of the fracturing.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 33:44

His guys start saying, I'm going home.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

So Sal Yes, I saw that so much, and this is like a theme. Like the the Crusaders are going are are like both in the first like year or so of the siege, there's like mixed success on both sides. But the problem is the crusaders just die, but the the Muslims will die, and then some of them will just desert, and they'll just be like, eh, I'm done here. I'm gonna go back to Mosul, I'm gonna go back to a left wall.

SPEAKER_04 34:14

Yes, the Muslims deal with desertion a lot. Yeah. And and we don't get into it in this episode, but disease rips through the crusader camp. I mean, yes, the crusaders die, the Muslims die, and decide to leave.

SPEAKER_00 34:28

Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_04 34:30

So Guy walks up to the gates of Tyre, and Conrad refuses to let him in.

SPEAKER_00 34:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:39

Which is like, that's a bold move.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Sure, yeah, the former king of Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_04 34:44

Yeah. And Guy says, Okay, that's fine. I'm gonna go take Acre. Which I just love. And his enough are enough people in the army are like, okay, we'll go with you. But not a lot. It's not a lot. Eventually, Conrad actually capitulates and then goes and uh they have a nice it's this is like I think a year and a half later. They kiss and make up, and uh Conrad agrees that Guy actually is the rightful heir, and con and and guy's like, Oh, you're a good guy, Conrad, and you can have your own fiefdom in my kingdom, and everybody go. Yeah, everybody makes peace. But yeah, I want you to just imagine this. Was not the absurdity of this was not lost on the contemporaries either. The guy says, Okay, I don't fine, I don't have to be able to do it. I'll do it myself. Yeah. And you just imagine he just like grabs a sword, a couple squires, and a horse, and just like starts walking.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

It was literally seen as a suicide mission. Yeah, like it was and and you almost think like this dude had been so disgraced by being part of the fall. Maybe it was a well, if I'm gonna, I I'd rather die fighting to take it back than live while Jerusalem sits in the enemy's hands. Maybe that was a thought process, but yeah, no one thought, oh, he's got a good shot at this.

SPEAKER_04 36:13

Yeah, and so his kind of Saladin makes a handful of critical errors over the next few years. And one of them is not wiping Guy out immediately because he thinks he's no threat. Acres very well fortified, it is well fortified. I don't think Saladin fully knew the level of reinforcements that were about to arrive. That was the big thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:43

Because this is these are the Crusaders family from Europe, correct?

SPEAKER_04 36:46

They haven't even got there yet. Gosh, damn. Yeah. So, so Guy, this is what happens. Guy with his teensy little army arrives at Acre. The Muslims on the ramparts are laughing. They're like, What is this? Guy, guy says, Okay, hold on, hold on. Night falls, night falls, they scout out during night, they find a little hill on the outside of Acre, and they say, Take that hill. So they go and set up their camp in sort of their own like little fortress on top of the hill. And as you know, in warfare, uphill is a big advantage. You need the high ground. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

Oh, we want Kenobi. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 37:26

If you have the high ground, there you go. Uh, but even then, a a Frankish contemporary remarked that he had placed himself between a hammer and an anvil. Um, so yes, uh, even the Muslim garrison, this is um not Riley Smith. What's the other one? Asbridge. Even the Muslim garrison apparently felt no fear and began jeering from Acres battlements when they caught sight of the quote, handful of Christians, unquote, accompanying the king. So quote, uh seven, maybe eight, unquote. Yeah, yeah. So this is also Asbridge, yet at the very moment when that Saladin needed to act with the decid decisive assurance, he wavered. And he and so he allowed the Sultan essentially allowed Guy to arrive at Acre. And almost immediately, almost immediately, the Europeans start arriving. Yeah. I believe it is the Italians that get there first. So and I have a so so Saladin is not there yet. Okay. Um so Saladin gets there in September of 1189. So he gets there early, so well before Richard and Philip. Right. Um, but the the Italians and Guy's army had already sort of like blockaded the city from uh I I I want to describe it. Somebody, I I love history nerds. Somebody, I typed in map of the battle of Siege of Acre, and on Reddit, you guys can find this if you want. On Reddit, somebody goes, Hey, I used Age of Empires too to uh do a little map for you guys. And dude, send me the map, we'll put it on the video. Okay, it's per I will, I will, I will. So it's very put the link in too, probably, because it's it's very detailed. Uh, you can it's kind of hard to describe. So I want you guys to imagine. So there's the ocean, and then there is Acre. Acre has an outer harbor and an inner harbor. That outer harbor is currently not blockaded, so resources can come in. But the guy and the Italians immediately set up a wall uh sort of surrounding the city. So so you have ocean acre, wall of Latin's, and then Saladin's camp outside. Okay. Are you visualizing that? I think so. Yeah. So you so you can't walk into Acre. Right. But ships can bring supplies in.

SPEAKER_00 40:31

For now. Right. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 40:34

Okay. And so uh the supply lines, it's it's uh they both have access to the sea. So you have Europeans arriving daily. Uh I I I don't remember the exact quote. Essentially, though, Saladin has to start a rumor. At least this is what they say. Saladine has to start a rumor that the Latins are just getting back on their ships in the night. Had you heard this one? I did. I love it. It's so good. Back on their ships, they're going back out to sea, and then they're pretending to arrive for the first time. And then re-docking in the morning because so many people are arriving.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

They're like, ah, interesting. This is Acre, huh?

SPEAKER_04 41:17

Yeah, yeah. I don't think that that was true. I think they actually were just getting this many reinforcements.

SPEAKER_03 41:23

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

So I think this is also the first time they're coming in droves by sea.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_04 41:32

So uh you have naval warfare is not nearly as advanced as what it will become over the next few hundred years. Uh, but I think you're really the Siege of Acre is historically significant for many, many reasons. One, it's very long, so it's one of the longest sieges in medieval history. It's very time. Yeah. And you have all these factions coming in. You kind of have one nation sort of starting to crumble, that's the Muslim nation. And then you have the Latins with like bloodlust in their eyes. And and and then the fascinating part that this this is all at least done, and this is why it's church history. It has this veneer of Christianity versus Islam. Right. And they're like Saladin is called the devil in Europe. So the Christians believe they are fighting the devil. Right. Yes. And so let's keep moving. Um so yes, Saladin has messed up by not crushing what he needed to crush. And so you have by Saladin gets to Acre in September, right? Well, also the Danish and the Frisians get to Acre in September, and uh 50 ships arrive carrying 12,000 people and horses. So this is that is considered the moment of like, oh, we got a chance here, boys. Yeah. Oh, we got a chance. So so they get there, um, and uh essentially they're just pouring in the whole time. Uh uh we have Conrad finally decides to come in November. Which is kind of a funny time to come because it's almost like, oh, but warfare season's about to end. If you don't know, they don't typically fight in the winter.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

Right. They they like had to take a siesta. Like everyone stops fighting in the winter. Is that just is it because it got super cold? Is that it? I don't know. It's the desert. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:53

You lived there. Was it cold in the winter? Not that cold.

SPEAKER_02 43:57

I don't know why. I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 43:58

This is off the coast, too. So I bet you it's because food dwindles to maybe.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

I'm gonna I'm gonna look this up.

SPEAKER_04 44:06

All I know is they stop fighting and they have ceasefires. And actually, you start having uh fraternization, fraternization between the two sides. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

So they start like dancing and hanging out and becoming Did you read about that uh that last ship that came by with uh 200 French prostitutes?

SPEAKER_04 44:27

Yes, I did.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

And they were that was one of the first things that brought the Muslims and the crusaders together. Is that the un is that some of there's actually Writings of Islamic chroniclers writing about Muslims who would hop over enemy lines to you know mingle with the ladies.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

Yeah. I did hear about that. And they um they would basically they'd be hypocrites. They'd be like, oh, you know, we don't want anything to do with Zim. And these European, you know, yeah, barbarians over there. Yeah. And then that night they'd be yeah, they'd go pay, they'd go do a visit. So uh Conrad decides to come down. I don't know why he did. I don't know if it was a I need to help, um, because this looks really bad if I don't. I don't know if he felt bad that he basically let Guy march to his death, but then Guy got lucky. I don't know. But Conrad shows up with a thousand knights and twenty thousand infantry. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Do you see the scale of the numbers here? Yeah, it's just amplifying. It's like I mean, I think uh another quote that I read from Saladin was like, every crusader you kill gets replaced by a thousand more. Like sounds about right.

SPEAKER_04 45:51

Yes. Uh so Saladin, though, is also getting troops. And what's fascinating about this siege is this is a there's very much back and forth. And so, how are we doing on time? I need to check. Goodness gracious! We're no, we got 15 minutes left. This is why this is a two-part episode, man.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Well, let me interrupt you so you can gather your thoughts and say that the reason fighting stopped during winter was it it also it slowed down, but the biggest reasons were uh there were big storms in the Mediterranean that made it very, very difficult to get any type of supply ships. And there was this was also when disease was the worst. So it it just on both sides, um, they were just not physically very capable of fighting each other.

SPEAKER_04 46:39

Okay, so they're just that yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Slowing down. Slowing down, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:43

Well, yeah, they have a ceasefire, and apparently they're allowed to just go visit each other and yeah, they're like singing there's like stories of them singing songs together.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Dancing. Yeah. At the end of the day, these are all just 20-year-olds, you know, who just want to make like bros.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

And I don't want to chase another rabbit trail, but I was talking to uh our librarian, dear Dr. Jonathan McCormick. Shout out to that guy. Um shout out. He sometimes listens, which I think is it's very humbling for me. Um Dr. McCormick and I were talking kind of about the people fighting each other in the Crusades, and he said the reality is aside from religion, there's not that much of a difference between a peasant in Europe and a peasant in medieval Middle East. Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

That is really interesting.

SPEAKER_04 47:31

Like at the end of the year. I'd love to explore that more. I mean, it's at the end of the day, it's it's kind of this idea that like, look, we're all just like farming or doing some random little trade to survive while the the rich higher ups are are the ones that are trying to take territory and land grab. Yeah. They've got their feudal peasant. Yeah, a feudal peasant is a feudal peasant no matter where they are in the world.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah. They've got their lords, they've got their religious practices, they've got their way of living. Um they're just trying to get by. That makes sense. Yes. I could see it.

SPEAKER_04 48:06

So I could see it. Saladine has a little bit of a victory. He's able to punch through. Because you would imagine the line around, the Latin line, that's what I'll call it, around Acre is thin, even though they have a ton of troops. Saladin punches through one side and is able to get a supply train into Acre. And he also himself enters Acre. Okay. Uh and he's able to uh look down from the battlements. Um and uh this is what Asbridge writes. He says, looking down from the battlements upon the thrawn crusader host, huddled on the plain below, now surrounded by a sea of Muslim warriors, he must have felt a sense of assurance. Well I wonder how long that's gonna last. Yeah, so they there's a there's a there's a bat they have their little intermittent skirmishes, and then you have in October, early October in 1189, um they attack Saladin's camp.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Pretty close for too close for comfort, you could say.

SPEAKER_04 49:23

Yeah, and they uh punch through. And they actually said they got so close to Saladin that one of his tailors, not like me Taylor, but like clothing Taylor.

SPEAKER_00 49:35

Taylor Treadway?

SPEAKER_04 49:36

Yeah, one of Saladin's tailors was killed.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

Taylor Ibn Treadway?

SPEAKER_04 49:41

So you have to you have to think. That's close. Yeah, that's pretty close. But so so the Muslims are on retreat and the crusaders are s are wiping them out. And like I get goosebumps just thinking about like they're they're so close to just ending it there. Oh, I know. Guess what they do? What do they do, John Simon? What do they do?

SPEAKER_00 50:04

They broke rank to start looting.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Yes, yeah. And Saladin's like, you greedy Latin little piggies. And Saladin then, and this is so sad. So there's people that are there's there's Latins that are like, yes, keep going, charge.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

Well, it's it's the knights, it's all the Templar knights in the hospitalers. Like those are the ones who press forward.

SPEAKER_04 50:27

It is all these low-ranking, like, oh boy golly, look at the gun little back and a loaf of bread in a bracelet. And the Templars press forward doing what they're supposed to do. Saladin says, hold up, wait a minute, they're looting. Right. And then rallies his troops and says, We can win this, turns around and then destroys the Templars that were doing that.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Because their defensive ranks had been completely dissolved because, yeah, dudes were peeling off to, you know, look at chalices and it's so bad.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

Grab some so bad. So Saladin gets a little W that day. Saladin gets his uh his W that day. Um, but that wasn't like that, it was just a battle.

SPEAKER_00 51:16

That was far from the war, so to speak. Dude, I want to see a meme that's like the it's like that florist lava meme, but it's the florist looting. It's like it's like uh difficulty level impossible. It's just a crusader.

SPEAKER_04 51:33

It's just like dude, stop, please. It's so bad. Um this is Asbridge again with thousands now racing for the relative safety of Latin entrenchments. So the Muslims are on the run, then they turn around, and now the Latins are on the run, and so they're running basically back to home base. Um hotly pursued by Saladin's men, chaos reigned, and uh Baha Al-Din wrote, On and on went the killing until the fugitives that survived reached the enemy's camp. So this was not a good day. Um It's also said so Guy rescued Conrad in that battle. Hey, alright. You know, you don't you don't buy it. I mean, I don't know. Maybe, maybe they were like, look, they're becoming friends.

SPEAKER_00 52:34

That would actually be a great little cinematic moment of like, you know, Conrad's like, ah, get back, get back, and then Guy comes in, the the one he never trusted, and the scorned lost king of Jerusalem. That'd be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_04 52:48

Yeah. So three to four thousand guys die, westerners die in that battle. Yes. And it was it was bad. Um they there's writings of a young man who was he had been looted, played dead, had been looted, and basically like super maimed, crawls back to the crusader camp that night. Barely recognizable. And uh and so like they they wrote uh he was so disfigured by his wounds that people could not recognize him, and he was barely able to persuade them to let him in. Jeez. And then Saladin decides to send uh all of the dead downriver.

SPEAKER_00 53:38

Yeah, that's awful. Uh-huh. Like degre one of the things I've noticed about like the crusades is, and maybe this is just common medieval practice, but they would always like desecrate the dead. They were like digging up the gra it was like when you know the first crusade, they'd dig up the graves of the Seljuks, or they'd cut off their heads and put the heads on pikes and make them dance around the walls and stuff. Like it's just a common common war practice.

SPEAKER_04 54:05

I think it still is. We just we don't do it. I personally, I don't. I don't it's it's it's a common war practice in many parts of the world still. So No, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 54:18

I mean, I I guess I think back to like the Iraq war and I think they were. Thank you. We're we're good. We're good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're good. Everybody knows children listen. Thanks, John. That's right. Never mind. I already mentioned the beheadings and stuff, but no, you're right, you're right. I'll just let it go.

SPEAKER_04 54:36

I literally thought of that and I was like, I said I said to myself, I don't need to say that.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

I was like, oh, you know what it reminds me of?

SPEAKER_04 54:45

Let's talk about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:48

Anyway. Move along.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

Move along. I love this podcast. Um long story short, though, Saladin's getting their their lines breaking and getting punched through. Uh actually, even though this was a victory on paper, this did more lasting harm because guess what? A lot of people went home.

SPEAKER_00 55:10

Islam's man. Muslims. That's so strange. That is so strange. Like, it's almost like, you know, Saladin did such a good job uniting Muslims, but it's almost like he had to continue to present this incentive of like, okay, it's good that we have Jerusalem, but we need you to stay here to defend Jerusalem. Like the Europeans were all about flooding from all corners of the earth to take it back. But it seemed like the Muslims were kind of like, dude, I've been here for like three months. I really would like to get home now.

SPEAKER_04 55:45

Well, and to already exacerbate those feelings, so Baha Al-Din noted that uh the looting, so they might not have lost men in this battle in the in the the way that the Laddins did, but they lost a lot of money. Interesting. Okay. So the looters. It's so messed up that the looters basically got away. And then, like, our brave, like disciplined Christian Templars are just slaughtered. Slaughtered. They got to go. You know what it is? You know what that is? They got to go be with Jesus and the the looters got their treasures that day.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

That's right. Yeah. Yeah. They they had their treasure. Yeah, they literally they got their treasures.

SPEAKER_04 56:31

That's right. That's right. So uh yeah, so Saladin um lost a lot of people, not in uh not not to death, but due to their own morale. To leaving.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

That's fascinating.

SPEAKER_04 56:47

So uh as Asbridge says the psychological damage had been done. So okay. We're I want to talk about one more thing before we land this plane in the trees. Trash land. Oh, trash land. Yeah. Um okay, I had a little bit. We already talked about the um Christians and the Muslims hanging out during peacetime, singing and dancing. Yes, yes, yes. So the last thing I want to talk about is the battle of the sea. So you have the ships are now right, constantly bringing new troops and and supplies, and and both sides are just being reinforced. But what you have now is Acre, um that outer harbor finally gets uh blockaded. And so the Frankish ships I don't know why, but Saladin ships sailed out of Acres Harbor to attack. I think they thought we're gonna attack first before they can. And uh they lose. Okay. Saladin ships lose. There's a couple little stories. One of them I'll just throw out real quickly is one ship is like on fire and just goes ashore, but gets to the side that the Latins are on, and a bunch of women with knives massacre the Muslim men. Oh my gosh. And like one of the um writers wrote something about how it was it was just way worse than if the men got there because the women weren't as strong. So like the women are like decapitating them and taking their sweet time.

SPEAKER_00 58:46

Gosh. Sorry, kids. And then we actually found out later that was that same group of 200 French people.

SPEAKER_04 58:54

Oh no. He's that's not true. That's hilarious, but that's not true. That's not true. So um both sides had Greek fire, which, if you're familiar with warfare at the time, Greek fire was the uh that chemical kind of compound that didn't extinguish, so it just burned and burned. It's kind of like napalm. Yeah, it's kind of like napalm. Pretty dangerous to have your ship get caught on by uh by Greek fire. This was not fun for the Latins either, this sea battle. So you have knights fighting that one don't know how to swim and are also wearing armor that are like their ships on fire, and they're like, Well, I guess I have to jump overboard and die and drown immediately. Yeah, so it's not fun. But this is this happens in 1190, and this is where we're gonna land our plane. The sea is now lost for Saladin. Okay and the last thing I want to talk about I can't find Saladin's motives for wanting to keep Acre. And I think you may have hinted at it, but he is putting a lot at this point into keeping Acre.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:10

When he already tried to take Tyre, which is not that much farther north, right? Uh and he failed. So I don't know if in his mind I have to take this so that they can't use this to reinforce. Because the port city is where everything that that's where the resources can come in from outer lands. John just casually typing. Why did Saladine shot Acre?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:40

That's not what I'm looking at. No, it's because I I feel like so so I just pulled up a like a very basic map. Acre is like a direct shot north, connecting like of Jerusalem. In my mind, you want to stop Acre because Acre is closer to the Europeans than Jerusalem, and that's the easiest pit stop to get supplies, to get reinforcements. I feel like if you lose Acre and they already have access to the waterways in the Mediterranean, like there you're just gonna get non-stop Latins coming through.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:19

When it goes, yeah, I think you might be right, but when it comes to the Levant, Acre is a much better supply, like a much better city to get supplies to everywhere in the Latin kingdoms. That's my guess. Yeah. I think that's probably right. But Sal so so I know that this is it's a good place to pause, right? So it's 1190, Saladin's just lost control of the sea. He's had some little victories. The the Latins just keep getting bolstered. Now, we'll talk about next week the disease that breaks out. Uh so they don't, it's not all peaches and cream for them, but Saladin's slowly losing after he's already lost at Tyre. And you're gonna see, I think you're gonna see a Latin victory here coming up. And so next week, or two weeks we'll talk about that. Next week, we're gonna hear what the Germans are doing and how their their activities up north uh actually are in a way helping the Latins to land travels.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:29

Yeah, yeah. You know, like Saladin, it's it's interesting because like I I love how we did this, and I also love how we do this podcast where we basically are learning as we go, because we like there were so many bright moments of Saladin's legacy that were being built, but it's like you don't realize until you get to this point in history that you're like, oh, this was kind of a house of cards. Like he united Islam, but only sort of like he you you can only do so much to unite a religion that one is notorious for infighting, but also is just made up of all of these cultures, ethnicities, languages that don't really relate that much to each other.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:14

I don't know if it's Riley Smith or Asbridge, but one of them said it this way it's much easier to build an empire than keep it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, Saladin spent a lot of resources taking Jerusalem, I guess. Um so to quote Bilbo, I think he was uh not enough butter scraped over too much bread.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:39

Gosh, why is that such a good line? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

I I don't know, you kind of like want to feel bad for the guy, but it's also kind of hard to feel bad for hardly anybody in this.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:50

Yeah, especially not the guy who literally called himself a champion of jihad.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:56

Yeah, yeah. I mean I I will say I like Guy. I I do like Guy a lot. Yeah. I like Guy. I like his uh he doesn't do anything shady.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:10

Well, at this point in his career, I think he like killed his brother or something when he was still like a prince. So he's not a good person. I didn't know his origin story. Yeah. Yeah, is like uh shoot. I saw it a long time ago.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:26

You know who my favorite character in the Crusades are? Who's that? The Christian guy that goes over and tries Swarma in the Muslim camp and becomes Habibi's. That's my favorite guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:37

The guy who's like, no thanks. Uh my wife's waiting at home. I'm not gonna sleep with you, madam. And then he trudges over. You guys got an email muslim over there?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:45

Yeah, yeah, exactly. That that guy, that's my favorite guy. Also, the poor Templars. I think we've discussed the Templars really do exhibit at least some semblance of Christianity. Like they are disciplined for good things. Um, they aren't allowed to be wealthy, so they're not over there doing land grabs, uh, all that. And then they're rewarded by being betrayed by their greedy brothers.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:13

Yeah, that's not a great, not a great moment. And the order is gonna have some controversy down the line, but um, yeah, I agree. No, it says here, Guy, he he yeah, dude, guy kind of sucks. Like he I think he's great in this era, but he he was banished from his like uh from his little like tribe because he killed an earl um in a failed attempt to to kidnap a duchess of Aquitaine, and uh was always a rival with Baldwin IV, who I think I actually like a lot more, the leper king, uh, because he was seen as a quote incompetent and weak leader, uh, which he did lose Jerusalem. So but I like I like Guy's redemption arc, you know, that's what I feel like is happening here. I think his redemption arc.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:05

Yes. It kind of sucks that Guy sort of is leading he was in Saladin's captivity. Saladin lets him go, and now he's the biggest thorn in Saladin's side.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:18

The real bummer is that he's not actually gonna be attributed for the for the victory. Like that that's gonna fall to Richard when he shows up and cleans house.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:28

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But Guy, it's like all built on Guy's initial efforts. Right, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:35

So which we'll get to that in the next week and the week after. We got lots more to share. That's right. Hey, tell us in the comments what'd you think of this episode? Do you think Guy is cool? Uh do you think there's a better worship song than how he loves? It's been released in the past 17 years. If there is, leave it in the comments. I'll add it to my praise worship playlist. I actually need to add some new songs to it. Please help me. Um, anything else, Taylor? Nope, nope. I actually feel good where we landed. Yeah, that was good. I wouldn't even call it a crash landing, I would say little bumpy. All right, thanks everybody. We love you, and we'll see you next time.