1187 AD
On July 4, 1187, at the Battle of Hattin, the Muslim sultan Saladin decisively defeated the Crusader army. The Christian forces were trapped on a thirsty plateau and annihilated. King Guy of Lusignan and many of the Knights Templar were captured. Within weeks, Saladin's armies swept through the Crusader states, recapturing Acre, Jaffa, and finally Jerusalem on October 2, 1187.
The news of Jerusalem's fall sent shockwaves through Europe. The elderly King Richard I of England (the Lionheart) took up the cross, as did Philip II of France and Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, launching the Third Crusade. Saladin, however, showed remarkable mercyβunlike the Crusaders in 1099, he allowed most Christians to leave Jerusalem peacefully upon payment of a ransom.
The fall of Jerusalem demonstrated that the Crusader states were not secure despite nearly a century of Christian rule. The Third Crusade would recover some coastal cities but failed to retake Jerusalem itself. Key Sources: Baha ad-Din, The Excellence of the Nations; Ibn al-Athir, The Complete History; William of Tyre