Pope Celestine III

Clement III is succeeded on March 21, 1191, by Celestine III.

Lotario de'Segni, born of a noble family and educated at Paris and Bologna where he studied theology and canon law, serves in the court of his uncle, Celestine.

Appointed cardinal—at thirty, the youngest of his day—in 1190, de'Segni has already formulated his own theory of papal power, positing that secular rulers must be subject to the pope just as the body must be subject to the spirit.

He will have occasion to use this power in 1198, when he ascends the papal throne as Innocent III.

Henry proceeds to Italy, where he is crowned emperor by Pope Celestine III in April 1191; Constance is crowned empress.

The Catholic kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies launch the Northern Crusades, or Baltic Crusades, against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.

Swedish and German campaigns against Russian Eastern Orthodox Christians are also sometimes considered part of the Northern Crusades.

(Some of these wars are called crusades during the Middle Ages, but others, including most of the Swedish ones, will first be dubbed crusades by nineteenth century romantic nationalist historians.)

The official starting point for the Northern Crusades is Pope Celestine III's call in 1193; but the already Christian kingdoms of Scandinavia and the Holy Roman Empire had started to move to subjugate their pagan neighbors even earlier, notably the Polabian Wends, Sorbs, and Obotrites between the Elbe and Oder rivers (by the Saxons, Danes, and Poles, beginning with the Wendish Crusade in 1147).

The eastern Baltic world is transformed by military conquest: first the Livs, Latgallians and Estonians, then the Semigallians, Curonians, Prussians and the Finns undergo defeat, baptism, military occupation and sometimes extermination by groups of Germans, Danes and Swedes.

Rashid ad-Din Sinan was born in Basra, Iraq and dies in Masyaf, Syria.

According to his autobiography, of which only fragments survive, Rashid had come as a youth to Alamut, the center of the Hashshashins, and received the typical Hashshashin training.

In 1162, the sect's leader Hassan ʿAlā Dhikrihi's Salām had sent him to Syria, where he proclaimed Qiyamah, which in Nizari terminology means the time of the Qa'im and the removal of Islamic law.

Based on the Nizari stronghold Masyaf, he controls the northern Syrian districts of Jabal as-Summaq, Maarrat Misrin and Sarmin.

His chief enemy, the Sultan Saladin, who has ruled over Egypt and Syria from 1174, had managed twice to elude assassination attempts ordered by Rashid and as he was marching against Aleppo, Saladin had devastated the Nizari possessions.

In 1176, Saladin had laid siege to Masyaf but had lifted it after two notable events that reputedly transpired between him and the Old Man of the Mountain.

According to one version, one night, Saladin's guards noticed a spark glowing down the hill of Masyaf and then vanishing among the Ayyubid tents.

Presently, Saladin awoke from his sleep to find a figure leaving the tent.

He then saw that the lamps were displaced and beside his bed laid hot scones of the shape peculiar to the Assassins with a note at the top pinned by a poisoned dagger.

The note threatened that he would be killed if he didn't withdraw from his assault.

Saladin gave a loud cry, exclaiming that Sinan himself was the figure that left the tent.

As such, Saladin told his guards to come to an agreement with Sinan.

Realizing he was unable to subdue the Assassins, he sought to align himself with them, consequently depriving the Crusaders of aligning themselves against him.

Rashid's last notable act occurs in 1192, when he orders the assassination of the newly elected King of Jerusalem Conrad of Montferrat.

Whether this happened in coordination with King Richard I of England or with Saladin remains speculation.

He dies in 1192 in Al-Kahf Castle.

He is succeeded by men appointed from Alamut, which will impose a closer supervision over Masyaf.

Philip II’s Return from the Third Crusade and His Conflict with Richard I (1191–1192)

After Philip II of France returned from the Third Crusade in late 1191, he quickly turned his attention to reclaiming lost French territories held by Richard I of England. The immediate source of conflict was Richard’s decision to break his engagement to Philip’s sister, Alys, which had direct implications for the strategic territory of the Vexin, particularly the fortress of Gisors.

However, Philip faced significant obstacles in launching an attack:

1. He had taken an oath not to attack Richard’s lands while Richard was on Crusade.
2. Richard’s territories were under the Church’s protection while he was away.
3. Philip had unsuccessfully petitioned Pope Celestine III to release him from his oath.

Finding himself unable to act immediately, Philip began plotting ways to reclaim French lands while maintaining plausible justification for war.

Philip’s Actions During the Third Crusade (1190–1191)

• Philip had joined Richard I and Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in the Third Crusade, departing from Vézelay on July 1, 1190.
• Initially, the French and English crusader forces traveled together, but they separated at Lyon:
  • Richard sailed for the Holy Land via Sicily,
  • Philip took the overland route through the Alps to Genoa.
• The two armies reunited in Messina, where they wintered together before Philip set sail for the Holy Land on March 30, 1191, arriving on May 20, 1191.

At the Siege of Acre, Philip built large siege engines before Richard’s arrival on June 8, 1191. However:

• Philip fell severely ill with dysentery, weakening his enthusiasm for the Crusade.
• Relations with Richard deteriorated as Richard acted haughtily after Acre’s fall on July 12.
• Philip suffered a political loss when Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, died at Acre.
  • This death threatened the Treaty of Gisors, which Philip had orchestrated to undermine the powerful Blois-Champagne faction back in France.

With his interests in Flanders at stake, Philip decided to return to France to handle the succession crisis, despite Richard’s objections. On July 31, 1191, Philip left behind 10,000 French troops under the command of Hugh III, Duke of Burgundy, and returned to France via Genoa.

Philip’s Motives for War with Richard I (1191–1192)

• Philip’s claim to the Vexin –

  • Alys’s dowry included the strategically vital Vexin, which Philip had expected to reclaim after Richard broke the engagement.
  • However, during the Crusade, Philip had reluctantly agreed that the Vexin would remain in Richard’s hands and pass to Richard’s heirs.
  • If Richard died without an heir, the land would return to Philip. If Philip died without an heir, the lands would become part of Normandy.

• Philip’s desire to regain lost Capetian land –

  • Normandy remained in English hands, and Philip wanted to reclaim it as part of the Capetian royal domain.
  • With Richard away, Philip saw an opportunity to challenge English control over French lands.

• Philip’s diplomatic setbacks –

  • He had unsuccessfully petitioned Pope Celestine III to be released from his oath not to attack Richard’s lands while he was on Crusade.
  • Since Richard’s territories were protected by the Church, Philip could not legally wage war.

Thus, Philip began building a casus belli (a legal justification for war) from scratch, setting the stage for a renewed war between France and England upon Richard’s return from the Holy Land.

Philip’s Recall of the Jews (1192)

In the same year, Philip reversed his earlier expulsion of the Jews from France (1182), allowing them to return to core parts of the royal domain under strict conditions and for a fee.

This decision was influenced by:

1. Financial necessity – The expulsion had caused economic disruption, and Philip realized that allowing the Jews to return would restore financial stability.
2. Political motives – Philip had ongoing disputes with Pope Celestine III, particularly over his marriage affairs, and defying papal anti-Jewish sentiment was an act of political defiance.
3. Tensions with Richard I – Philip’s strained relationship with Richard made it advantageous to seek new sources of financial support, including Jewish moneylenders.

Conclusion: Philip’s Preparations for War with England

By the end of 1192, Philip II was laying the groundwork for war with Richard, despite having no immediate legal justification for attacking. With Richard delayed on his return from Crusade—and later captured by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1193—Philip would soon seize the opportunity to strike, setting the stage for the Capetian-Plantagenet conflict that would dominate the rest of his reign.

Pope Celestine II declares the Scottish church independent of any English archbishop in a papal bull issued in 1192.

The Crusader army had proceeded after the Battle of Arsuf to Jaffa, which the Crusaders had taken and fortified on September 7, 1191 Jaffa, they hope, will be the base of operations in a drive to reconquer Jerusalem itself.

Sporadic negotiations between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin had been taken up as the winter of 1191–1192 approached, though without any immediate result.

The crusader army in November of 1191 had advanced inland towards Jerusalem.

Saladin on December 12 had been forced by pressure from his emirs to disband the greater part of his army.

Richard, learning this, had pushed his army forward, spending Christmas at Latrun.

The army then marched to Beit Nuba, only twelve miles from Jerusalem.

Muslim morale in Jerusalem is so low that the arrival of the Crusaders would probably have caused the city to fall quickly.

The weather has been appallingly bad, however cold with heavy rain and hailstorms; this, combined with the fear that the Crusader army, if it besieged Jerusalem, might be trapped by a relieving force, prompts the decision to retreat to the coast.

The German fraternity that had taken over a hospital in the town of Acre had begun to describe itself as the Hospital of St. Mary of the German House in Jerusalem.

The late Pope Clement III had approved it, and it adopts a rule like that of the original Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.

Richard I of England, intent on recapturing Jerusalem from the Ayyubid Sultanate, had called on Conrad of Monferrat to join him on campaign, but he had refused, citing Richard's alliance with his vassal Guy of Lusignan.

He too had been negotiating with Saladin, as a defense against any attempt by Richard to wrest Tyre from him for Guy.

Richard is forced to accept Conrad as king of Jerusalem after an election in April by the barons of the remnant crusader states.

Richard unhappily consents to the request that Guy, who has managed to lose the support of nearly all the barons, be deposed and Conrad of Montferrat, Lord of Tyre, immediately be accepted as titular King of Jerusalem.

Guy receives no votes at all, but Richard sells him Cyprus as compensation.

Richard had sent his nephew Henry II of Champagne as his representative from Acre to Tyre, to inform Conrad, now in his mid to late forties, of his election as King of Jerusalem.

Conrad’s wife, Queen Isabella, who is pregnant, is late in returning from the baths to dine with him, so on April 28, he goes to eat at the house of his kinsman and friend, Philip, Bishop of Beauvais.

The bishop had already eaten, so Conrad returns home; on his way, he is stabbed at least twice in the side and back by two Hashshashin.

His attendants, who kill one of his attackers and capture the other, carry him home to receive the last rites before dying of his wounds.

Henry returns to Tyre two days later, ostensibly to help organize Conrad's coronation, but finds that a funeral is being prepared instead.

Immediately betrothed to the newly widowed Isabella, he will wed her just a week after Conrad's death.

The murder remains unsolved.

The surviving Hashshashin claims under torture that Richard is behind the killing, although this is impossible to prove.

Another suspect is Humphrey IV of Toron, Isabella's first husband.

Saladin's involvement has also been alleged, but as Conrad seems to have been undertaking negotiations with him to secure the kingdom, this seems less likely; also, Saladin himself has no love for the Hashshashin.

Ascalon, its fortifications earlier razed by Saladin, has been occupied and refortified during the winter months.

The spring of 1192 sees continued negotiations and further skirmishing between the opposing forces.