In 1163 the deposed vizier, Shawar, visited Zengi's son and successor, Nur ad-Din, atabeg of Aleppo, in Damascus seeking political and military support.

When Amalric broke the alliance in a ferocious attack, Shawar again requested military support from Syria and Shirkuh was sent by Nur ad-Din for a second time.

Barely two months later he died to be succeeded by his nephew, Yusuf ibn Ayyub, who has become known by his honorific Salah al-Din, 'the goodness of faith', which in turn has become westernised as Saladin.

Assuming control after the death of his overlord, Nur al-Din, Saladin had the strategic choice of establishing Egypt as an autonomous power or attempting to become the preeminent Muslim in the Eastern Mediterranean—he chose the latter.

[14] After the building a defensive force to resist a planned attack by the Kingdom of Jerusalem that never materialised his first contest with the Latin Christians was not a success.

[15] Despite this setback, Saladin established a domain stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates through a decade of politics, coercion and low level military action.

[16] After a life-threatening illness, he determined to make good on his propaganda as the champion of Islam, embarking on heightened campaigning against the Latin Christians.

Saladin offered the Christians the options of remaining in peace under Islamic rule or taking advantage of 40 days' grace to leave.

[18] Pope Gregory VIII issued a papal bull named Audita tremendi that proposed a further Crusade, later numbered the Third, to recapture Jerusalem.

Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor died en route to Jerusalem, drowning in the Saleph River, and few of his men reached the Eastern Mediterranean.

The sultan then turned his attention to other tasks, but then tried to negotiate the surrender of the city by treaty, as in mid-1188 the first reinforcements from Europe arrived at Tyre by sea.

[20] In late spring 1188, William II of Sicily sent a fleet with 200 knights; on 6 April 1189, Ubaldo Lanfranchi, Archbishop of Pisa, arrived with 52 ships.

In August, Conrad again refused him entry to the city, so he broke camp and made his way south to attack Acre; he and his troops travelled along the coast, while the Pisans and Sicilians went by sea.

Guy urgently needed a firm base from which he could organize a counterattack on Saladin, and since he could not have Tyre, he directed his plans to Acre, 50 km (31 miles) to the south.

Germans under Louis III, Landgrave of Thuringia, and Otto I of Guelders and Italians under Archbishop Gerhard of Ravenna and Bishop Adelard of Verona also arrived.

Thus the steady advance of the Christian centre against Saladin's own corps, in which the crossbows prepared the way for the charge of the men-at-arms, met with no great resistance.

On 30 October, 50 Muslim galleys broke through the Christian sea blockade and reinforced the city with the crews of the ships, some 10,000 men, as well as food and weapons.

In March 1190, when the weather was better, Conrad travelled to Tyre on his own ship and soon returned with supplies for the Crusaders, which helped the resistance against the Egyptian fleet on the shore.

On 20 May, Saladin, who had continued to strengthen his army over the previous months, began an attack on the Christian camp, which lasted eight days before it could be repelled.

Louis of Thuringia, sick with malaria, made plans to return home when the French arrived, and died in Cyprus on the way back on 16 October.

At some point between late July and October, Guy's wife Queen Sibylla died, a few days after both of their daughters, Alais and Marie.

However, Isabella was already married to Humphrey IV of Toron, and Conrad's marital status was uncertain (he had wed a Byzantine princess in 1187, a few months before arriving at Tyre, and it was unclear whether she had annulled the marriage in his absence).

Therefore, it was Archbishop Ubaldo Lanfranchi of Pisa a papal legate, as well as Philip, Bishop of Beauvais, who gave their consent to divorce Isabella from Humphrey on 24 November.

[citation needed] Conrad of Montferrat attempted an attack by sea on the Tower of Flies, but adverse winds and rocks below the surface prevented his ship getting close enough to do significant damage.

This caused a major crisis for the French king, since Philip had no heirs and settling his inheritance was an urgent matter, yet a very difficult one so far away from France.

On 2 July, Richard deployed his own siege engines, including two enormous mangonels named God's Own Catapult and Bad Neighbour (Malevoisine in the original French).

Conrad of Montferrat, who had returned to Tyre because of Richard's support for Guy of Lusignan as king of Jerusalem, was recalled to act as negotiator, at Saladin's request.

On 31 July, Philip also returned home, to settle the succession in Vermandois and Flanders, and Richard was left solely in charge of the Christian expeditionary forces.

Philip of France meanwhile had come to terms with John and had closed the French harbours; Richard was forced to make his way across the Adriatic Sea and went ashore near Aquileia.

Due to the coming winter, crossing the Alps proved to be impossible, and the king incognito passed through the Austrian capital Vienna shortly before Christmas, where he was recognized, captured and imprisoned by Duke Leopold at Dürnstein.