20th August 1191
Below is one description, taken from the Itinerarium Regis Ricardi of King Richard I's attack on the Turkish forces as he made his way to Jerusalem with his army:
"King Richard pursued the Turks with singular ferocity, fell upon them and scattered them across the ground. No one escaped when his sword made contact with them; wherever he went his brandished sword cleared a wide path on all sides. Continuing his advance with untiring sword strokes, he cut down that unspeakable race as if he were reaping the harvest with a sickle, so that the corpses of Turks he had killed covered the ground everywhere for the space of half a mile."
Below is one description, taken from the Itinerarium Regis Ricardi of King Richard I's attack on the Turkish forces as he made his way to Jerusalem with his army:
"King Richard pursued the Turks with singular ferocity, fell upon them and scattered them across the ground. No one escaped when his sword made contact with them; wherever he went his brandished sword cleared a wide path on all sides. Continuing his advance with untiring sword strokes, he cut down that unspeakable race as if he were reaping the harvest with a sickle, so that the corpses of Turks he had killed covered the ground everywhere for the space of half a mile."
A great piece of medieval PR by Richard de Templo, which makes the king sound like some sort of superman. He wasn't!
When he reached Acre he ordered the deaths of over 2,700 captives outside the walls of Acre in retaliation to Saladin's summarily beheading of his Christian prisoners. He was not the only one committing atrocities like this, they were the norm during the Crusades. On the very same day the Duke of Burgundy did the same with his captives, the vast majority were soldiers of a garrison just out side Acre, but 300 of those killed were wives and children, they were all barbarically slaughtered in full view of the Saracen camp:
"roped together in groups, attacked with swords, lances clubs and stones, their bellies slit open before their bodies burnt, in case gold and jewels had been swallowed"
When he reached Acre he ordered the deaths of over 2,700 captives outside the walls of Acre in retaliation to Saladin's summarily beheading of his Christian prisoners. He was not the only one committing atrocities like this, they were the norm during the Crusades. On the very same day the Duke of Burgundy did the same with his captives, the vast majority were soldiers of a garrison just out side Acre, but 300 of those killed were wives and children, they were all barbarically slaughtered in full view of the Saracen camp:
"roped together in groups, attacked with swords, lances clubs and stones, their bellies slit open before their bodies burnt, in case gold and jewels had been swallowed"
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