The BLOODY Holy War Fought in Gods Name

Ajouté : 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]The states built by the first crusade, Adessa, Antioch, Tripoli, Jerusalem, they were supposed to make this miracle last. But through brutal battles and miscalculations and backstabbing and infighting and pride, those states collapsed. So when Europe stepped in to try to fix it, it didn't just send armies, it sent its best kings. This is the story of the Second Crusade, a miserable, bloody mess, and how the Third Crusade, riding right on its back, was the exact opposite. Today we're looking at the devastating failures that lost Europe, its strongholds in the east, and how two iconic enemies fighting on opposite sides were equally matched in their fearlessness, strategy, leadership, and respect. We're going to trace their steps, their armies, their retreats, their battles, and their sieges, and discover just how ruthlessly they fought for control of the Holy Land. And how does a movement that achieves the impossible lose almost everything less than a century later?

[00:00:51]How does Jerusalem continue to slip away time and time again? Well, today we're going to get into all that. So sit back, relax, and welcome to History Camp.

[00:01:06]What's up people, and welcome back to History Camp. My name is Mark Gagnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent where every single week we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories from all history, from all time forever. Yes, that is what I do in this tent every single week as I try to understand everything that has ever happened. And there's a lot of stuff. Every day, new stuff gets added to the list. And there is no time to waste. But before we jump into this fabulous episode that I'm very excited to jump into a sequel slash a trilogy, if you will, I just want to say thank you to a few people. First off, I want to say thank you to you. Yeah, dude. I want to say thank you to you. Also, ladies, lady one singular dude and singular lady. I want to say thanks for clicking on this episode. Every time you watch or listen to an episode of Camp on History Camp, Religion Camp, or the main channel, Camp Gagnon, it really helps me out. It helps the show grow. It helps us get cool guests. It help keeps the light on in the tent, the lights on in the tent. And it also helps keep the fire burning here at the campsite. And of course, it helps uh my uh extremely wealthy billionaire friend get richer and richer every single day. And his name is Christos Papadapados. Christos, how are you?

[00:02:11]>> Oh, is that for me? Sorry. I was counting money.

[00:02:13]>> Yeah. See, that's what I'm saying.

[00:02:14]That's that's part of the reason when people say eat the rich, they're talking about you. All right.

[00:02:17]>> 1 million 1 million one. you take one break off of your expensive vacation and a malf on your yacht to join me in the tent to record and for that I'm grateful but also it's just disgusting.

[00:02:28]>> Anytime, Mark. So today we're doing the second episode I guess in sequence of the Crusades. You probably saw our first crusade episode and oh boy it was a good one. I loved looking at specifically like church history but like in this kind of like protomed medieval time. It is fascinating. Okay, if you didn't watch that episode, great news. I have a little summary for you. All right.

[00:02:50]Basically, first crusade starts in like 1095. Pope Urban II calls in a bunch of Western Christians to take up arms after the Byzantine Empire asked for help against the Seljic Turks because these Seljic Turks had taken a bunch of land and they're starting to threaten the Eastern Christian world. They took up much of Anatolia. And what follows next is a great episode that you should go watch another time. But basically, it is a chaotic but shockingly successful armed pilgrimage. You know, you have uh like I mean like knights and nobles and peasants and zealots all going across Europe into the Middle East and starvation and disease and rivalry and sieges and all these places. And against the odds they reached Jerusalem in 1099 captured the city in a uh pretty brutal massacre I think you can say and established four crusader states Adessa, Antioch, Tripoli and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Now for a lot of uh Catholics you know around the world it became the impossible victory that proved that God was with them. Now for my Muslim friends it was the shocking invasion that exposed how divided the Islamic world had become. And that is where we left things in 1099. You have these four states right planted in the middle of the Islamic world. Jerusalem, Antioch, Tripoli and Adessa. Now Adessa is the vulnerable one. It is the one that is farthest farthest north and the farthest east. It's landlocked, doesn't have a coastline, and it's surrounded. It also has the state Baldwin grabbed for himself while everyone else was still suffering outside of Antioch. And that really matters because from the beginning, Adessa was more of a product of personal ambition than it was of like actual collective unity. It was kind of a a money grab in a way. But by now in the 1140s, it's being run by Jocelyn II, who has managed to alienate just about everyone around him. He's fallen out with Antioch, falling out with Tripoli, and stripped himself of any real support system. And then he makes the worst decision he could possibly make. He marches his army out of the city to go help in a local Armenian dispute, leaving Adessa just completely vulnerable and totally exposed. Now, the man who's been waiting for something like this to happen is Immad Alin Zeni, Lord of Mosul and Aleppo, who had spent 20 years building power with just patience, just kind of waiting in the wings. And the moment Joselyn's army disappears, Zeni makes his move. He reaches Adessa in November in the year 1144. His engineers tunnel underneath the walls. They pack the tunnels with timber and then burn them until the foundations give way. And on Christmas Eve, a section actually collapses and Zangi's forces start to pour in. Now, here's where things get crazy. If that's not interesting enough, in the city, Zeni separates the foreign Latins from the native Christian population. So, the Armenians and the Syriaks who had lived there long before the crusaders arrived and you know, the invaders and anyone, the Latin men, the invaders are killed.

[00:05:51]The native Christians got a protected status. Now, don't get the wrong idea here. This wasn't like uh an act of just mercy. It was administration. A functioning city was worth a lot more than a completely ransacked and ruined one. And the decision exposes something that both sides kind of blur. This war was never just about religion, right?

[00:06:13]Like with, you know, all the crusades, it's not only religion. Religion is a part of it, of course, but it's also about land and power and money and control. And then across the Muslim world, Zeni is celebrated as the victorious king. He did it right. The message is very clear. The crusader map is not permanent and these states can be broken down. And then just two years later, Zeni is assassinated by one of his own servants. His son, Norin, inherits Aleppo and more importantly inherits his father's life mission. So when Jocelyn turns around and tries to retake Adessa, Nur Aden, he's ready and he defeats him. takes the city and this time there's no protected status left to offer. The male population is slaughtered. Women and children are enslaved. And just like that, Adessa, the county that Baldwin carved out for himself, is gone for good. And the news reaches Europe in stages. So a bishop carries it from Syria to Rome. And once Pope Eugene III gets the news, he says, "I'm not going to stand for this. We need a crusade." But calling for a crusade and making Europe actually follow through with the crusade. These are two very different things. He somehow needed to make these people want to go on the mission. And that brings us to the one man who could make that possible. You see, Eugene III is a capable guy, but he's not this charismatic, you know, magnetic personality. He needs someone who can do what Urban I did at Claremont in the first crusade. Someone who can stand in front of a crowd and turn uh these feelings and the anger and the emotion into a movement. So what does he do? He calls Bernard of Clairvo. Bernard was a physically broken cyersian monk and maybe one of the most persuasive men in Europe at the time. So by his 30s, years of deprivation had basically wrecked his body. He could barely eat food. He lived in constant pain. And he did not look like someone who was going to change history. But he had a gift. You see, when Bernard entered a monastic life at the age of 22, he didn't go alone. He brought brothers and friends and relatives, about 30 people total. And he can make people just abandon comfort and status and inheritance just by talking to them. And that is kind of like, you know, the first thing on his resume.

[00:08:25]He's like, "Dude, I chose monastic life to live uh like basically in poverty and without taking a wife and to live like this purely aesthetic life." And if he could convince 30 other people to do it, I mean, he's got a gift, you know? And that is the kind of guy that Eugene needed. So on March 31st, 11:46, Palm Sunday at Vzile in Burgundy, there's a crowd that is so massive that they have to build a wooden platform on like a hillside just to contain everyone. And Bernard kind of climbs up sort of in like his, you know, sort of emaciated kind of stature and delivers the speech of a lifetime. The crowd goes crazy. One account says that his voice sounded like a celestial organ. People cry out for crosses to sew onto their clothes. And then you have King Louis VI of France and he's there and he is so impressed by what he hears. Then Bernard goes to Germany and somehow persuades Conrad III, the Holy Roman Emperor at the time, to join in as well. Afterward, Bernard writes to the Pope that cities and castles are now so emptied of men. There is not one man to seven women. That is how persuasive and effective his mission was. So he got the kings and once the kings took on the cross this became the most powerful crusade that Europe had ever assembled ever. Well at least on paper. Now the two biggest names in western Christendom now personally committed. You have Conrad III of Germany and Louis VI of France. So right off the bat Conrad is organized right?

[00:09:54]This guy is German. He's capable and uh a little too confident in terrain and you know tactics that he doesn't really understand. But he's he's feeling up for it. I mean, you got to understand Conrad had never fought in the east. He'd never dealt with this type of climate. Like, he doesn't really know what his armies are capable of in this place and overestimates his abilities. Now, Louie is much more pious and sincere, but very weak as a, you know, military commander.

[00:10:21]So, he's also traveling with Elellanor of Aquitane. And that brings a whole other layer of tension to the story because Eleanor is not just the queen of France by marriage. She is Duchess of Aquitane in her own right. So she controls technically more territory than Louisie does. She's extremely smart.

[00:10:38]She's fearless and is already locked in a strained marriage that this crusade is basically about to finish off. But that's just foreshadowing. So in October of 1147, Conrad enters Anatolia. The Byzantine emperor gave him advice to stick to the coast. Like he's like, "Look, the interior of the country is really harsh. It's really dry and it is perfect for the Seljic Turks to attack.

[00:11:02]But Conrad ignores him, doesn't stay near the coast and cuts straight across the plateau. At near Doram, the same place where the first crusade nearly got wiped out 50 years before, the Seljuks surrounded him. They cut off his water and started to just destroy his army.

[00:11:18]Conrad in this conflict is actually wounded and retreats to Constantinople with maybe like a third of his men. And it's it wasn't like, oh, it was bad luck or like, oh, we got like outclassed. It was just arrogance. And then Louisie takes the same route and gets mauled in the Cadmus mountains in January of 1148 and watches his whole army just fall into chaos until the Knight's Templar of all people have to come in and impose order. So now both kings eventually limp to Jerusalem by sea. But first, they stop at Antioch and that's where the French royal marriage explodes. Remember Elanor and Louis? That whole thing.

[00:11:52]Well, Eleanor's uncle Raymond, prince of Antioch, wants Louisie to strike north at Aleppo, the center of Norah Adin's power. And strategically, he's actually right here. If Adessa is the reason that this entire military uh operation, this crusade exists, then weakening Norin makes far more sense than marching straight to Jerusalem and trying to take it. You know, Eleanor agrees with him publicly, but Louie refuses. his vow is to go to Jerusalem and he's not letting strategy override, you know, his his piety and his service to his god. And the argument gets ugly. Louie has Eleanor removed from Antioch against her will and taken back to the army. And Eleanor is pissed. She'll never forgive him for this. Four years later, the marriage is anoldled, basically just canceled out. and Eleanor remaries immediately, this time to Henry II of England, and one of their sons is Richard. That son becomes the only king who really fights the Third Crusade.

[00:12:56]Crazy, right? But before we get to Richard, the second crusade still has one last chance to justify itself. And this is where it just completely implodes. So by June 1148, the kings are in Acre trying to answer a very simple question. What are we doing? Like what are we attacking? What's our plan? Like what's going on? So the original point of the crusade was to recover Adessa, right? But Adessa's already gone. Like there's nothing left to retake. All the people that were there from the first crusade, they're slaughtered. So they pivot and choose to take Damascus, which is a problem because Damascus is not their main enemy. For years, it has often aligned with the crusader states against Zeni and Noradin. And the local baronss also know this like better than anyone, but they march on Damascus anyway and first take up position on the western side. You know, they're kind of thinking like, we got some good ground here. There's some water. There's some shade. And then in one of the strangest decisions in all the Crusades, they shift to the eastern side, which is completely open ground. There's no shade, there's no water, there's no cover. And then Norah Adin's relief forces approach and the crusaders leave.

[00:14:07]And that's it. four days outside Damascus and the kings of Europe just turn around and go home. Now, back in Europe, they're all pointing fingers and blaming each other. Louie blames Conrad.

[00:14:17]Conrad blames the local baronss that, you know, were giving advice. The baronss are blaming the Templars.

[00:14:23]Everyone's blaming the Byzantines. It's a mess. Now, here's the thing. The real damage here is strategic. You see, before Damascus, nor Aden is really powerful, but not dominant in the way that he becomes. And after the crusaders attacked the city, Damascus has every reason to toward to turn towards him for protection. Remember, Damascus was kind of siding with the crusader states and didn't really like Noradin. But now that the crusaders are coming to take their city, they're like, "Hey, Noradin, we need you." So now this buffer collapses and you know, Muslim Syria begins consolidating under this single power center. So the second crusade isn't just a failure, it makes the situation worse and makes their adversary even stronger.

[00:15:04]The crusader states are now more isolated. Their enemies are more unified because of their like failed pump fake thing. And the illusion that Europe can simply just like send our smart kings to go solve this problem is completely broken. I mean, everyone thinks they're idiots. And now one more thing happens in the background that's important to the story. Norin, now building something a lot larger, starts relying on capable men around him. One of them is a young Kurdish officer from a military family.

[00:15:32]And this is a man more interested in theology than, you know, traditional, you know, soldier duties, but is extremely disciplined and intelligent and trusted enough to be sent somewhere very important. And his name is Saladin.

[00:15:46]You got to remember that name. It's an important one. Now, Bernard of Clairvo, that same monk who helped set all of this in motion and got everyone riled up, he spends the rest of his life trying to explain how this sales pitch he gave ended up going so wrong. but he dies in 1153 and never really finds a good answer while he's alive. So the stage is now set for the man that most people think they already know, but it's actually a lot deeper. This is the story of Saladin. Saladin became a legend of chivalry and honor almost more in European memory than in Muslim memory, which is kind of ironic. For centuries, European writers kept his image alive.

[00:16:25]He wasn't really revived as like a major Arab like nationalist war hero until the 19th century. So think about that. The man remembered as one of the great champions of Islamic resistance to the crusades was for a really long time remembered almost more vividly by his enemies. So his actual name is Ysef Iben Aub. And Saladin is a title. The title basically meaning righteousness of the faith. So he's born in Tikritz in 1137 into a Kurdish military family. His father actually serves Zeni, that you know military leader we talked about before. And then the family passes into the surface of Nor Adin. And wildly enough as a young man he seems to be more interested in, you know, the Quran and in theology than in warfare. So in 1164, Nuradin sends him basically sends him to Egypt. But Saladin doesn't really want to go. Some accounts say that he practically sees it as like an exile.

[00:17:21]You see, Egypt is ruled by the Fatimid Caliphate, which is Shia Muslim. And politically, it's kind of awkward and culturally distinct from the Sunni world that Saladin exists in and, you know, kind of came from. So, he goes, he's expecting like a temporary assignment/exile type thing. And what's crazy is that he never actually leaves.

[00:17:42]Instead, he rises through military skill and political intelligence and ends up becoming the viser of Egypt, basically the most powerful man in the entire country. And then in 1174, Noradin dies.

[00:17:56]And this is where the clean heroic legend kind of starts to change. You see, Noradin's heir, this guy Al Sal, he's a child. And Saladine briefly serves as a regent, then begins absorbing Norah Edin's territories like Aleppo and then, you know, more and more cities that his old master spent a lifetime building. And so the young heir dies under circumstances that are I mean, not to get too historically conspiratorial, but a little murky, okay? And Saladin mourns him in public and then just kind of keeps on expanding. And no, I'm not saying that Sullan was like a cartoon villain, but he also isn't like a perfectly spotless hero. Like all great people in history, you do some amazing things and you do some not so great things. You like he was a politician. He was brilliant and ruthless and disciplined and was completely willing to use the language of holy war to build power. So his generosity was very real. When he dies, his treasury reportedly holds just one gold coin and 30 silver pieces. The rest of his enormous wealth is just given away. But that same man also orders executions and sanctions enslavement and has a philosopher killed for crossing the clerical class. So his mercy has limits. What he ultimately achieves though changes everything. He unifies Egypt and Syria under one command. And so this fractured Muslim world that made the first crusade possible is now gone.

[00:19:23]You have a much more unified sort of u I guess Muslim uh political power. And at almost the exact moment Saladin finishes building that, the kingdom of Jerusalem starts to tear itself apart. Now, before we get into the catastrophe, we need to talk about Baldwin IV because without him, the fall of Jerusalem looks sudden.

[00:19:44]But it was not sudden. It was delayed.

[00:19:47]You see, Baldwin IV is diagnosed with leprosy at around 9 years old. His tutor, this guy William of Tyer, notices it, understands what that means, and tries to keep it quiet for as long as he can. Now, by the time Baldwin actually becomes king at 13 years old, the disease is already advancing. He's losing feeling in his hands and his feet, and his wounds are starting to fester. And in the medieval world, leprosy is not just like a disease you have, you know? It's not like, oh, you have like MS or something. It's like it's a kind of living death. You see, lepers are cut off. They're forced out of the society. They are forced to live in their own colonies. And the king of Jerusalem knows from boyhood that this is basically what he's becoming. And yet what he does with the time that he has left is pretty remarkable. In 1177 at just 16 years old, Baldwin rides out to actually face Saladin at Mont Gasard and he's bandaged and already impaired and sick from his expanding disease and massively outnumbered. around 375 knights plus Templar reinforcements from Gaza against Saladin's much larger force. But Saladin's army has spread out to basically forage and Baldwin catches it before they can fully regroup. And it's actually a complete victory.

[00:21:06]Saladin actually barely escapes in this moment, fleeing into the night on a racing camel. Muslim chronicers treat Montgard as one of the most humiliating defeats of Saladin's career. Baldwin keeps fighting for another eight years.

[00:21:20]But as the disease worsens, he keeps governing and, you know, continues to negotiate and holding together this political system that is constantly at odds with each other. He can't marry. He won't leave an heir. And he knows the people around him are already maneuvering for basically taking the space that he's going to leave when he dies. The man who worries the most about this young sickly king is a gentleman named Guy or Gee. I'm going to say Guy.

[00:21:48]Guy of Lucinan who actually marries Baldwin's sister Zabia and suddenly Guy is standing a little too close to the throne. So in 1183 Baldwin gives Guy a military command as a test and Guy fails it and he sits in camp and does essentially nothing while Solid's men are just raiding the countryside. So Baldwin now losing the use of his hands later even his sight has himself carried to the army on basically like a like a stretcher you could think of and takes command personally and strips Guy of authority and arranges for Zabia's young son to be crowned co- king to block Guy's path. So you see what's happening here. Basically Baldwin is knowing he's going to go and he needs to somehow create an heir. He doesn't have any kids of his own and it looks like it might go to his sister's husband, but he knows that his sister's husband guy is too weak. So now he's like, you know what, my sister's son is going to take it over. But there are only so many times that one dying man can save the kingdom.

[00:22:53]So Baldwin IV dies in 1185, still very young. And within a year, this political structure that he spent his reign propping up has completely collapsed because here's what happens. Guy of Lucenon is king. And that is where things start to fall apart. In 1187, the kingdom revolves around three men and each one makes disaster much more likely. First is Guy of Lucen. He's king, right? He was able to seize power from technically his son and is like, "No, no, I'm actually the king." But the baronss don't respect Guy and for good reason. They've seen him command before and they know what that looks like.

[00:23:31]hesitation, bad judgment, kind of being too passive. So, his position rests almost entirely on his wife's bloodline.

[00:23:39]I mean, without her, he's nothing. He's only there because he married into the family. And then there's Raymon III of Tripoli, probably the sharpest military mind in the entire kingdom. He spent 8 years in captivity under Norah Adin. And those years gave him something that most crusader nobles never really had a real understanding of the Muslim world like across the entire caliphate. He understands it better than most. And he also despises guy. And then you have Ronald of Chation, one of the most reckless men in the entire story. He spent 16 years as a prisoner in Aleppo and he came out even crazier and more violent than he went in. And he is exactly the man that Saladin needs because Saladin has been waiting for a moment that will unify his coalition and give him a clean moral and religious justification to move forward decisively. In 1187, Renald hands him that moment by attacking a Muslim caravan during a truce, during a ceasefire. And so what he does is he takes prisoners and then refuses to both release and compensate Saladin when he demands it. And so then guy refuses to reign him in. And that's really important because Saladin has already sworn publicly that if Ronald breaks the truce again, he will kill him with his own hands. So now he has his excuse. All that's left is to force the kingdom into a bad decision. And that decision gets made at Hatin. So in July of 1187, Saladin crosses the Jordan with his largest army yet. He besieges Tiberius, which is held by Eshke, the wife of Raymond of Tripoli. But here's the thing. Tiberius is actually not the point. It's a it's a bait. The plan is very simple. You can force the kingdom to march out and fight on the ground or sit still and watch one of its cities fall. So on the evening of July 2nd, Guys War Council meets at Sephoria, where the crusader army has water and rest and a good defensive ground.

[00:25:37]Raymond argues that they should stay exactly where they are. the road to Tiberius is very dry. It's exposed and you're in the middle of July in like the most, you know, arid basically desert.

[00:25:48]It's it's too hot. He makes the argument that Solid's coalition can't stay unified forever and that they're going to crack and we have to make him come to us. Now, remember, Raymond is saying this while his own wife is trapped inside Tiberius. Think about that.

[00:26:04]Either this guy just just does not care for his girl while she's like literally in a siege town. Like he's making this whole claim just like nah just leave and we don't need to go over there and save my wife. Come on alpha male.

[00:26:15]>> I mean I dude that's crazy. That's that's your girl. You got to pull up on her. I don't know about that dude. You got you got to slide for your shorty.

[00:26:21]>> Stop sing.

[00:26:23]Now that's how the other interpretation of this is that that's how sure he is of his plan that he's like look I know my wife is in there but we're going to lock it down. We're going to be good and we're going to make them come to us.

[00:26:33]They're going to crack. And then Gerard Deride for the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, calls him a coward and straight up questions his authority. So at this point, Guy has to choose between sides, right? Like, do I go with experience or do I go with aggression?

[00:26:49]And he chooses aggression. For the first time in Guy's whole life, he chooses to be aggressive. So then on July 3rd, the army marches. Saladin's forces cut off water immediately. And by evening, the crusaders are exhausted. They're thirsty, and they don't have any cover.

[00:27:04]and they're still short of the sieged city of Tiberius. Raymond urges one last desperate push through the night to go get water, but Guy orders a camp. And now, according to the Chronicles, Raymond says, "Alas, Lord God, the battle is over. We are betrayed to our death." That night, Saladin closes the trap. He completes the encirclement and sets fire to the dry brush that's upwind. And by dawn, around 20,000 men are trapped. They're dehydrated. You have the fire coming towards them.

[00:27:36]They're breathing smoke and they're literally staring at the Sea of Galilee shimmering in the distance, not able to reach it. The true cross is at the center of this army. This is a relic that the men basically see as representing the literal assurance that God is with them. But in this case, it doesn't fully matter. The infantry breaks first. Some run for a nearby hill and refuse to return. The cavalry charges again and again into Saladin's lines trying to like punch out. Raymond leads one and actually succeeds in breaking out. And some sources suggest that Saladin intentionally leaves a gap open removing the one man who might still be able to organize a resistance.

[00:28:18]So by basically like noon on July 4th, 1187, it's done. Guy is captured. The true cross is taken. And according to the legend, it is never returned and never seen again. Literally the most sacred relic in Latin Christendom just simply vanishes from history. The true cross that Jesus Christ was executed and crucified on. Saladin personally executes Ronald of Chation just as he swore that he would. He said, "Yo, you crossed us. We had a truce. You captured our people and now I'm going to kill you with my hands." And he did it. I mean he captured Templars and you know now they're offering conversion or death and most of the Templars standing on standing on business they choose death and Raymond the man who saw all of this coming rides away first towards Tyer and then Tripoli where he watches city after city fall in the following weeks he dies only a month later and the sources actually suggest that grief of seeing all these cities fall and you know all of his army get destroyed may have been the thing that killed build him. Once Haten is lost, the kingdom doesn't collapse slowly. It starts dropping in pieces. So, in the weeks that follow, 52 towns and fortifications fall to Saladine. Then, on October 2nd, 1187, Jerusalem surrenders. When Saladine enters the city, he does not massacre the population. You see, Christians are allowed to ransom themselves. He ensures that the city remains functional and it's not turned into just complete ruin.

[00:29:52]Which if you're comparing that to the slaughter that followed the first crusade in Jerusalem in 1099, you know, people and historians notice a difference. Hey guys, we're going to take a break really quick cuz I want to talk to you about GLD. This is an awesome new company that we're working with that I am actually wearing right now. Now, here's the thing. You probably have the basics, right? You always have like the shoes, your go-to shoes you always wear. You always got the jeans you always wear. You got that one black tea that makes your biceps pop. You know, we all got like the one fit that we feel nice in. But most dudes are missing the final piece. Talking about the Jesus piece. I'm talking about the jewelry that brings the whole fit together. Yes. And that is where GLD comes from. I actually got this crucifix right here. And honestly, even just getting it, you know, sometimes like when you work with some companies, you're like, "All right, I really hope the product is good." This one is. I I wear it all the time. This is actually like the new crucifix. I lost my last one at a bath house. literally out of sauna. I lost my cruise fix, which is maybe God's way of telling me something.

[00:30:49]But I got a new one from GLD and I've been rocking it non-stop. My wife likes it and it's got like a nice weight to it. The details actually look better in person. The clasp is like super solid.

[00:30:58]It doesn't feel like something you bought like in Times Square from a random dude. It doesn't feel like something you order from, you know, some sketchy website on Teimu. Like this is the real simple clean crucifix. And they've got a bunch of stuff. It's not just religious. like I throw it on and it just makes me feel like I have like an actual outfit. I just it makes me feel good. And they got everything.

[00:31:17]Chains, pendants, bracelets, watches.

[00:31:20]Whether you want something subtle or something that's like, yo, I just I just signed a deal. You know what I mean? If you want like the record deal chain, they got that, too. They have official collabs with I mean, basically everyone, NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA, NHL, DC Comics, MLS, so you can actually rep your team without looking like you bought merch from like a random dude outside the stadium. Plus, they have pieces at every price point. They can get you the entry level 18k goldplated piece all the way up to the solid gold and natural diamond piece. And they even do fully custom pieces. So, if you want a oneofone pendant, GLD can actually just do that for you. And every single piece is guaranteed for life. Now, if I haven't convinced you yet, let me sweeten the deal a little bit. All right. For a limited time, the listeners of this program, Camp Gagnon, religion camp, history camp, and the entire camp universe, you're getting a crazy deal.

[00:32:08]If you use the code camp c when you check out, you're going to get 40% off your entire order at gl.com.

[00:32:16]That's 40% off your whole order with the code camp at checkout atg gl.com.

[00:32:22]And after you purchase, they're going to ask where you heard about GLD. Tell them you heard about them from, you know, the good folks here at the campsite. Mark and Christo sent you. And uh whenever you do that, it really helps, you know, support the show. And uh thank you so much to GLD and thank you to you for tuning in. Let's get back to the show.

[00:32:38]What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because there is a brand that we're working with that I am so stoked on. Truly one of my favorite products, and it's called Ultra. All right. And Ultra just dropped something that is going to change the game. It's already changed my life. So, the way that I would think about this is whenever I'm tired and I'm sleepy and I'm not sleeping well, I am a worse person. Like, I'll literally I'll sleep bad three days in a row and everything starts to break down. I make worse decisions. I'm less good on stage. I feel like I'm less good on the pod. like I eat poorly. I don't work out as much.

[00:33:09]And as I get older, I'm realizing more and more sleep is like the only thing that really matters. That if I sleep well, I'm in a better mood. I'm a better husband. I'm a better dad. I work out better. I feel better. I mean, everything stems from sleep. Here's the thing. You take like melatonin gummies or something, they're dosed with so much melatonin, it actually will make your sleep worse. Sometimes you'll be too sleepy to wake up. You get like an overthe-c counter sleep med like, yeah, that's going to completely nuke your sleep. And you don't want to just be like dependent on a heavyduty, you know, like medication just to be able to sleep like a normal adult. And that is why I want to talk to you guys about Ultra's new sleep pouches. This is actually genius. I mean, you probably I don't know if you saw Joe Rogan just recently shouted them out on his podcast just organically. And the idea with Ultra is fascinating. Now, everyone knows, you know, Ultra has pouches for energy. You know, they are basically have the same active ingredients you'll find in like caffeine, and it's a nicotine-free boost that just makes you feel good. Now, it's awesome and I've been taking the Ultra Pouches for a while. This is the new blue raspberry flavor that I love and I just take it throughout the day. It helps me cut back on my nicotine and I just feel good. It gives you like a little boost. But this is where they flipped it. They made a pouch for winding down. This is one that I put in right before I go to sleep. Like I'm sitting on the couch with my wife watching a show and I want to pop something in. I'll pop in the Ultra Sleep Pouch. This is the honey lemon flavor. It tastes amazing and it's just, you know, it's nice to do something right now. Here's the thing. I don't wake up like I'm exhausted. I'm not popping like nicotine or caffeine right before I go to sleep. This actually has an ingredient stack that makes sense. It has 1 millig of melatonin, which is a much more reasonable dose. You don't have to like all of a sudden hit like 10 milligs or something. It also has elenine, which helps calm the racing thoughts. It's like basically it just relaxes your central nervous system and it gives you that thing of like instead of late night rumination, you're like, I'm just going to go to sleep. It also has magnesium, which you should already be taking to help go to sleep. It also has chamomile, passion flour, and lemon balm extracts to actually help you sleep better and sleep longer and feel more recovered. And it's not just one ingredient trying to do everything. It's a full nighttime stack right in one can.

[00:35:19]They're super easy. I literally just pop it in my lip before bed, like 10, 20 minutes, and I'm ready to go to sleep immediately. And for me, the big thing is I want to sleep better without feeling wrecked the next day. And that is what is so great about Ultra. So, with these sleep pouches, I'm getting deeper sleep. Literally, my Whoop is showing me that I'm getting better sleep. I'm not groggy when I wake up.

[00:35:38]And honestly, track it with your own Whoop or like your Aura Ring or whatever because this is the exact kind of thing you want to test. Ultra Sleep Pouches deliver better, deeper sleep with properly dosed natural ingredients. And the new customers can use the code camp centra.com.

[00:35:56]That's takera.com for 15% off with the code. I'm telling you, everyone is going to be using these Ultra Sleep Pouches as well as all the other Ultra products.

[00:36:04]And I'm telling you, I'm putting you guys on game before anyone else. And after your purchase, tell them that you heard about them from the good folks over here at camp. Now, let's get back to the show. Now, back in Rome, they take the news pretty bad. According to sources, Pope Urban III dies of grief or of shock. like he literally hears that Saladin and you know the Turks basically get all of Jerusalem and he just dies.

[00:36:29]Now his successor Gregory VI calls for a third crusade immediately. He was like hey that first crusade backfired. That was a massive issue. Let's do another one. But now the stakes are too high.

[00:36:41]All the kings have to go on this one.

[00:36:44]Now, interestingly, this guy Frederick Barbar Roa, his name actually gets used many years later, almost a thousand years later by the Nazis when they invade the USSR, when they go into the Soviet land basically to, you know, siege Stalingrad and all that stuff, they call it Operation Barbar Roa and they name it after Frederick, who they see as this great German emperor. and that there's legend that Barbar Roa's like his being basically or that he himself is just asleep under a mountain and that Hitler was basically using this as a symbolic invocation of Barbar Roa's name to justify like this new crusade by the Nazis and by the German people to go take the USSR.

[00:37:27]>> I think Mr. Barbar Roa likes that.

[00:37:29]>> Probably not if I had to guess, but I don't know what his political views are.

[00:37:34]Now then we have Philip II of France, later called Philip Augustus, which tells you exactly how history has judged him. Very cold, calculating, and maybe like the sharpest political mind in Europe at the time. But what he really wants is to get back to France and start dismantling the Angivven Empire while Richard is stuck overseas. And then of course you have Richard I of England. He barely speaks English. He grows up in Aquatain. This is the, you know, the world that, you know, his mother Eleanor raised him in. And, you know, he was raised on chivalry and the idea that hesitation is weakness. You remember Elanor from before, obviously married to Louis. This is her son, Richard of England, uh, after she remarries Henry II. And he spends maybe 6 months of his 10-year reign actually in England and doesn't seem remotely bothered by that at all. Now, for Richard, England is just income. It's just like, you know, the way that he sustains himself and uh, you know, his massive wealth. But war, war is what it's all about. And that is the man that is heading east. Now, Barbar Roa leaves Germany in May 1189 with this enormous army. Fights through Byzantine obstruction, defeats a Seljic force in Anatolia. And for a moment, it looks like the one army Saladine is truly fearing is actually going to arrive intact. And then comes June 10th, 1190, the Gau River in southern Anatolia. Frederick Barbarosa rides ahead of his bodyguard to cross and he drowns. This is crazy because the river isn't really that big. You know, at this point he's like nearly 70 years old.

[00:39:09]He's wearing armor, but basically, as the story goes, once he falls in the river, he doesn't come out. Now, the army holding together Europe's best chance at victory just almost immediately falls apart. Like most of the forces are just like, "Well, our guy's dead. We're going home." So this force that terrified Saladine's court is now gone because one old emperor just goes and dies in a river, which is hilarious that Hitler named his siege of Stalingrad and going into Russia after this guy because basically the same thing happened kind of. It's like you go over there, you have this whole thing, you're looking very fierce, and then it all kind of falls apart. Sort of fitting. So now the crusade belongs to the other two kings and that becomes a problem immediately. You see Philip and Richard leave together which is already a minor miracle com like considering how much of the previous decade they've spent fighting over you know disputed French land. Now these two forces meet in Sicily and what's kind of funny almost as like an aside here is that immediately they start arguing over like a family political dispute. You see, Richard's sister was married to a very, you know, rich Sicilian king. And when that guy dies, Richard is like, "Hey, my sister Joan is entitled to a, you know, like a widow's uh like a like a widow's uh payout, you know, like she's married to this guy. He dies. She needs to get some money." And then they start disputing it. And the new king is basically like, "I'm not giving any money to your dumb sister." So, what does Richard do while he's in the middle of going on this third crusade? He just seizes a major Sicilian town called Messina and just says like, "You know what? You don't have to give me, you know, you don't have to give my sister her share. I'm just going to take this whole town. This is mine now." And they kind of like patch things up and just go on their way. And then Richard goes to settle like another political dispute because basically one of his uh Baronarian ships had been blown off course and was seized by a local Byzantine ruler in Cyprus and he was extorting the stranded crusaders. So Richard conquers the island in a few days. And this is important because the island Cypress becomes a critical supply base for everything that follows. which is kind of funny that Richard sort of goes and like takes over this place because like he's got some people there.

[00:41:30]But it also tells you something about Richard. Things around him happen really quickly and really violently. Richard likes to settle things just by taking what he wants. And he eventually reaches Achre in June 1191. Now, by the time Richard arrives, Akre has already been under siege for 2 years. But the reason there's even still a crusader foothold there comes down, strangely enough to a guy we talked about before. guy of Lucinon. Yes, the same guy who lost Jerusalem at the Battle of Hatin. The same guy that was passive, you know, that Baldin was testing, that was kind of seen as like a loser. After being released from Saladine's captivity on oath not to fight the Muslims ever again, he simply renounces the oath on the grounds that promises made under duress don't count. He basically says like fingers crossed and then plants himself outside Acre with a force that was so small it should have been wiped out but somehow he survives with his men like they kind of like post up and just form like this tiny little foothold. Now at the same time Ty is being held by Conrad of Montat who arrived almost by accident in 1187 and then refused to leave and then turned the city into no like the one major coastal stronghold that Solid couldn't take. So you have these two spots, right? Then Guy tries to use Ty as a base. Conrad refuses him.

[00:42:50]So by the time Richard arrives, the crusaders are not just fighting Saladine. They're fighting over what's left of their own kingdom and these two like rogue little kings that are ruling these like little territories. And then the secession issue gets even worse. So in 1190, Guy's wife dies in the siege camp. And since his entire claim rested on her bloodline again, all of his claim to Jerusalem being the king of anything was just because he was married to Baldwin's sister. Well, she dies and all of a sudden his kingship has no foundation. So the barrens move in. They push through the anulment of Isabella's marriage and they marry her to Conrad instead. She's 20 years old and reportedly doesn't want the anulment, but the kingdom is in no mood to wait for anyone. Now there are effectively two rival kings and into that mess walks Richard bringing siege engines and energy and momentum. And just think about what Richard does, what you know about Richard so far. He deploys two massive stonethrowers literally like like a trebuche. One named God's own catapult and bad neighbor. And on July 12th 1191 Acre Falls. And then Philip Augustus decides his crusading vow is fulfilled and Philip is like, "You know what? I did a good job. I'm going home.

[00:44:10]I got some business back there." So, this is crazy. Back in France, Philip immediately starts raiding Richard's territories in direct violation of the oath that he swore not to do anything while Richard was away. That's how petty these guys are. Isn't that crazy?

[00:44:26]Richard is down there in Acre doing his job. Philip is down there and Philip's like, "All right, you got this. I'm going back home." And then while he goes back to France, he immediately starts trying to just take all of Philip's land. Like that's or he's trying to take all of Richard's land. Isn't that crazy for the time? I guess. I mean, it's just petty, dude. That's wild. So, from that point on, every decision Richard makes in the east is shadowed by what Philip is doing in the west. And before leaving, Richard also humiliates Leopold of Austria by throwing his banner off the walls of Acre during his victory celebrations.

[00:45:00]that one actually comes back to bite him later. Just remember that Richard literally takes, you know, like this giant banner of Leopold of Austria and removes it off the walls of Acre during this victory. Now, the secession crisis drags until April of 1192 when the crusades leadership finally agrees that Conrad of Montat is the rightful king of Jerusalem. He's formally elected on April 16th. Now, the message reaches him entire on April 24th. And then just 4 days later on April 28th, Conrad is stabbed in the streets by two members of the Nazari Ishmiley order, the assassins, and he dies that evening. The murderer is never solved. Isabella, now widowed for the second time at just 21 years old, remarried within a week because the kingdom literally doesn't stop for anything. Now, as for Guy, you remember Guy of Lucenon? Well, Richard buys him out and basically just gives him Cypress. Now, again, Guy doesn't even really have any like divine right to be a king at all. But still, Richard says, "Hey, just go handle Cypress. I conquered it before just a few weeks ago. You can have it." This is that island that he just happened to conquer on the way over. Well, a guy now becomes the king of Cypress, and his descendants rule Cypress for nearly three centuries.

[00:46:23]Think about that. Think about guy's life. I mean, what an insane situation.

[00:46:27]He's made some of the worst military decisions of his generation and is kind of like, you know, try to be sununned by Baldwin and his claim to the throne is taken away cuz his wife dies and he's kind of like a loser and he's down and out and gets sieged at Hatton. Da da da da da. Ends up getting this massive island of Cyprus, this modern day country, and then ends up forming a dynasty that goes on for like 300 years.

[00:46:53]And then Conrad, you remember him? He's the guy who held Tyer, saved what he could, you know, after Hatin. Well, he was finally recognized for it and he became like the rightful king of Jerusalem. He did it and now he's dead 4 days later. I mean, like the medieval world is so crazy and there's no fairness anywhere. But the darkest moment of Richard's crusade comes after Acre falls. So, the surrender terms at Acre are very clear. 200,000 gold dinars, the release of 1,500 Christian prisoners, and they want the return of the true cross of Jesus Christ. And Saladin agrees. And then he misses the first deadline. Why? Well, the sources don't settle it. Maybe it's a delay.

[00:47:38]Maybe it's a logistical issue. Either way, Richard sets another deadline. Then on August 20th, 1191, he marches about 2,700 Muslim prisoners outside the walls of Achre and has them executed in full view of Saladin's army. And the military logic here is pretty brutal, but it's pretty simple, right? He cannot move on Jerusalem while feeding, watering, guarding, and transporting thousands of prisoners after the ransom arrangement is clearly broken down. He's like, "Hey, we got Acre. We got all your boys. Do you want them or not?" And this is where comparison between Saladin and Richard comes into play. At Hatin, Saladin executed a bunch of the Knights Templars that got captured because he couldn't afford to let the most dangerous soldiers in the crusader world go out and fight against him later. And here Richard is making the same kind of calculation but in a different way, a different context, but you know, it's the same basic result. You know, both acts are horrific, but they're done in subtly different context. And now the true cross demanded as a part of the deal, it's also never handed over. And at this point again, it just disappears from the historical record. Solid responds by executing most of the Christian prisoners that he was still holding. Now after that, the crusade becomes something narrower and harder and more tragic in some ways because now Richard has to win. So Richard marches south along the coast towards Jaffa.

[00:49:04]Saladin shadows him constantly with horse archers basically trying to like find a break in the formation, but he doesn't get one. Richard keeps the army moving in disciplined order, absorbing attack after attack. One eyewitness actually says the crusaders had so many arrows stuck in their padded armor that they looked like porcupines and literally just like yanking the arrows out as they marched and handing them back to the engineers in order to reuse their own arrows back at them. And then at Ars on September 7th, 1191, two knights finally snap and charge without orders. Now, at that point, Richard has maybe like a second to decide whether to like pull them back or like commit the entire army. And in true Richard fashion, he commits. These two knights just run off and then Richard with the rest of his army, he's just like, "All right, let's do it." The cavalry slams in. Saladin's lines start to buckle and Richard wins a very clear victory. He actually takes Jaffa. But here's the problem. Ars is the only major pitched battle of the Third Crusade. And it kind of changes nothing. You see, because Jerusalem is still inland, it's still exposed and still impossible to hold without reinforcements that aren't coming. So in late 1191, Richard marches with basically like all of his armies within like 12 miles of the city. And his advisers, especially the Templars, who are very versed in this terrain. And I mean, they've been defending the Holy Land and they know the path. They start to tell him the truth. Yes, you might take it, but you're probably not going to keep it.

[00:50:35]Your arm is going to go home and Saladin will still be here with his armies right nearby, and they will try to take it back. So, Richard turns around. In the summer of 1192, he gets that close again, and then he turns back again. And the pilgrims are devastated. Richard reportedly refuses even to look at Jerusalem from the hills because he cannot bear to look at a city that he wants, that he can get, but that he cannot keep. Richard understands something that a lot of crusaders never really do. Taking a city and holding a city are not the same thing. Like, he can win the first battle and he can get the city, but he's going to lose the war before the winter. So, he refuses the symbolic victory just because he knows that it would do nothing. And maybe that's smart, but to the people living through it, it feels like a failure. And that's what makes what happens next so strange because the two men on opposite sides of this war actually start to talk. You see, now Richard and Saladine never actually meet face to face.

[00:51:35]Everything goes through intermediaries like bishops, envoys, especially Saladin's brother, Aladil. And the surviving tone of those exchanges is really interesting and why Saladin is remembered so much throughout European history. So, for example, when Richard falls sick with a fever, Saladin sends him fruit and sends him snow from Mount Herman, not as like a formal treaty, but just as like a gift. And it's actually interesting. In letters, Richard says something like, "The Muslims and the Franks are bleeding to death. The country is being ruined. Goods and lives have been sacrificed on both sides. The time has come to stop this."

[00:52:12]Solid answers that Jerusalem belongs to the Muslim world just as deeply as it belongs to the Christian world and that he's not going to surrender it, you know, any easier than Richard can just abandon the crusade. Like it's not friendship, but it's like this it's this relationship where they understand each other. It's close enough to make the whole thing feel stranger than just like this simple holy war narrative thing.

[00:52:33]These two men seem to understand what no one else does, that these two men are burdened with something bigger than them. And then Richard proposes something even stranger that his widowed sister, remember Joan from Sicily, when he goes and takes the whole island of Messina, he says this. Basically, he says, "Joan, what if you marry Aladil, Saladin's sister, and that the two of them jointly rule Jerusalem as a Christian Muslim monarchy?" And it's crazy. It's like a wild idea, but it's kind of smart. Well, here's the issue.

[00:53:07]The church says, "No." The church is like, "No, you're not going to do a Christian Muslim marriage like to rule Jerusalem." That's crazy. Kind of a good idea though. But also Jones says, "No."

[00:53:15]And the idea kind of goes nowhere. But the fact that Richard would propose this at all tells you a lot about how his mind works and kind of how he felt about Saladine and his brother. He doesn't just try to win inside the structure of the problem. He tries at least to replace the structure altogether. He's like, "What if we came up with a brand new thing? like if you're not going to stop and I'm not going to stop, what if there's a third thing that could maybe make all of this work instead? On September 2nd, 1192, the two sides actually sign the Treaty of Jaffa. The crusaders keep the coastal strip north from Jaffa. Jerusalem remains under Muslim control, but Christian pilgrims are allowed to visit safely. Richard leaves on October 9th, 1192, and he never returns. And then almost immediately the giants of this story started dropping out of it. Saladin dies on March 4th, 1193, just 6 months after this treaty was signed. He was 55 years old and by all accounts exhausted from years and decades of fighting. And almost as soon as he's gone, the empire that he built starts to fracture amongst the sons and the brothers. And again, just another secession issue. And it's pretty devastating because it means that even Saladin couldn't fully solve the same problem that haunts everyone else in this story. It's the ability to hold on to what you've accomplished. You know, Richard can't hold on to the city of Jerusalem. And Saladine can't hold on to this empire that he built. So on the way home, Richard is actually captured.

[00:54:41]And who is he captured by? Leopold of Austria. Remember the dude when he tore the banner and he threw it down at Achre when they're all celebrating and now he's held captive for more than a year and the ransom that Leopold of Austria wants for Richard almost bankrupts the entirety of England and he eventually returns fights more campaigns in France and then dies in 1199 at the age of 41.

[00:55:08]Now Eleanor of Aquotain outlives almost everyone. She lives 1204 long enough to actually watch Richard die. watch Jon inherit this disaster and then watch the crusading movement become something uglier than you know the one that she once saw with Louisie. Now Bernard of Clairvo he dies in 1153 never finding an answer as to why the crusader idea that he was pushing so hard turned into such a mess and the crusader states hang on but only barely. Acre becomes the capital of what remains of the crusader states and then finally Acre falls in 1291. The crusading era in the Holy Land ends not with this big final showdown once and for all, but kind of just with the city collapsing and the survivors just kind of retreating into the sea and going home. The first crusade succeeded in a fragmented Muslim world. The second crusade failed in a fragmented crusader world. And the third crusade kind of ends in a draw because for one brief moment both sides were strong and they were organized and they were led by men that were honorable and capable in their own ways and they really understood just how costly a total victory would actually be. So Richard actually writes, "The Muslims and the Franks are bleeding to death. The time has come to stop this. But the time has actually not come because there's still one more bloody, confusing, and messy crusade on the horizon.

[00:56:38]So, what do we do with this? You know, the easy version of understanding the story is that the crusader states were doomed. They were surrounded from all sides. is they didn't have enough supplies and reinforcements and armies and that Saladine was just inevitable and Jerusalem was always going to be you know lost again to you know the Seljic Turks or you know that's that's one version but I think that the interpretation here is actually a little deeper and maybe even shows the opposite. You see Baldin IV proves that the kingdom could survive under a capable leader. Raymond proves disaster could be seen clearly in advance.

[00:57:12]Richard proves that winning battles and solving problems are not the same thing.

[00:57:16]And what breaks these states over and over is not just pressure from the inside. It's a bunch of things that are happening on the inside. It's pride and rivalry and politics and bad timing and you know like personal grievance being used as policy and and just think about that right because the pattern is bigger than just the Crusades. I mean, I think that's why this story is so interesting to me and to so many other people because it repeats itself over and over in so many different places. Like a city holy to multiple worlds, claimed by memory and faith and blood all at once.

[00:57:52]And you have these men that are convinced that they are defending God while failing to, you know, govern themselves. And you have these enemies who sometimes understand each other better than like their own allies, their own people do. Like Richard wrote that the Muslims and the Franks are dying and that all of this has to be stopped and then centuries later wars are still being fought over a perceived authority, you know, and a desire to reclaim what people believe is theirs. And this brings us to a deeper question which I don't even know if you can even really answer. But, you know, it's not just who can take Jerusalem, but it's how do you really define a victory? Is it taking it? Is it keeping it? And I don't know if we really have a clean answer for that. But that ladies and gentlemen is an a bridged history of the second and the third crusades.

[00:58:43]I mean there's a lot there. I mean a fascinating story you know like that's the thing like the first crusade you can kind of understand. It's like all right look you got the the the Turks that are kind of like the Seljic Turks are taking Bzantium and we need some reinforcements. So you know let's uh so let's get some reinforcements. So they send their troops and uh you know the crusaders don't do everything perfectly, but they're able to take the Holy Land.

[00:59:09]They get Jerusalem. Nice. Now they have it and now you got to keep it. But once one by one things start to fall apart.

[00:59:16]Politics get in the way. Secession becomes a problem. And then you have a very capable leader on the other side that's able to organize everyone around this enemy. And then Saladine's able to come in and he's able to take it. And then all of a sudden you go back and forth. You're like, "Well, we need to get it back, right? Cuz we had it once.

[00:59:30]we need it again. And so now you're just in like this sunk cost situation where you're like, we're going to go back.

[00:59:35]We're going to get it. We're going to get it. And then you see at the third crusade, Richard and Saladine actually like having this mutual respect for each other because it's an interesting thing.

[00:59:44]I've heard other people say this like even in modern war that like you almost feel like your enemy gets you better than your family because you're in a war. It's like yeah, only people that are here really understand this. and the only person that understands the pressure that Richard has on himself, you know, as like the technical king of England, but really, you know, like a Frankish like French person. But like that pressure that he has of like upholding the Christian faith and like standing up for, you know, Western power and standing up for like the true cross of Christ and all this stuff. The only person that really gets that is Saladine who's doing the exact same thing. And he's like, I'm standing up for, you know, the my the Muslim people and I'm standing up for, you know, the prophets and I'm standing up for Allah. This is what these are this is my place and these are the people that I'm supporting and we need to control this land. You know, like you they are the only two people that really get each other in a way like their mutual respect.

[01:00:42]It kind of shows itself even in the Treaty of Jaffa where they're like, "Hey, let's come together. let's sign something to say that you guys can control it, but we want the Christians to come through. Which is kind of smart, right? Because that's really like Richard knows that he can never actually hold Jerusalem. He knows that if he has Jerusalem, eventually some if it's not Saladine, it's be the person after him or the person after him and they're constantly going to be just like attacking the city. So he's like, "Look, you guys can control it. You're closer geographically. Our supply lines are not big enough. We can't have an army big enough to station here at all times.

[01:01:15]just let us come by and just check it out. Let us buy your little gift shop.

[01:01:19]You know, we'll come through, we'll throw some dinars at you, pick up little, you know, Jesus statue, something like that, and uh everyone wins. And it's kind of a good move. I also think Richard's idea would be like, yo, marry the brother. That's a fire kind of idea. I mean, I get why the church didn't let it happen, and I also get why Joan was like, no. But it's kind of funny, you know? that it's an interesting uh it's an interesting predicament. I don't know. Like I think that's the best way to put it. First crusades, that's a win for the for the Catholics. Second Crusade, that's a massive loss. Big L. And the third crusade, that's a draw. So that brings us to the fourth crusade. Are you on the edge of your seat trying to find out what happens next? You can't tell, but yes. Did you learn anything from this?

[01:02:05]Anything you took away?

[01:02:06]>> Uh, a couple things. Barbar Roa. So this is the river that he drowns in.

[01:02:14]>> You think you can make it across that?

[01:02:15]>> 100%. But I'm also not 70 wearing armor, you know?

[01:02:18]>> True.

[01:02:19]>> Like talk to me in like 40 years when I'm wearing a armor on the back of a horse. I might struggle. Kind of crazy that that's what took him out.

[01:02:27]>> Yeah.

[01:02:27]>> Like he like that he was he was coming through swinging. He was feeling good.

[01:02:31]Bang. Done. Another thing is the second crusade. It's just a massive measuring of You know what contest >> it is a little penile in a way. Yeah.

[01:02:43]But that's kind of like I don't want to say all war. It's a little reductive to say that. But like a lot of conflicts are just between two people being like, "Dude, I'm better than you. No, dude.

[01:02:51]I'm better than you, dude. Dude, my religion is way sicker than yours. No, mine's better." Guys, I get it.

[01:02:58]Sometimes you need to stand up for your people and you need to push back an invading force. But sometimes you got to be like, "Hey, this is getting a little out of hand. Let's just all chill out."

[01:03:06]Also, the taking down of the banner thing, that's just a massive slap with a glove. That's >> what I'm saying, dude. That's a dumbass move. Come on, Rich. You're smarter than that.

[01:03:15]>> Don't do it.

[01:03:15]>> Lowkey, the winner of this whole story might be old Phil. Philip Augustus.

[01:03:20]>> Yeah.

[01:03:20]>> You know what I mean? He's like, "Look, I got the victory at Acre. I pulled up.

[01:03:24]We got our thing back. I brought the catapults. I was I was doing my thing.

[01:03:27]We're good." And then he runs back to France and then starts claiming all this. He starts battling for territory.

[01:03:34]And then the guy that got Cypress and ruled it for like three generations. So I'm saying Guy >> Yeah.

[01:03:40]>> Like Guy is also like one of the big winners here, which he was a loser the whole time and then at the very end pulls it out.

[01:03:46]>> Got his comeuppins. So let's do like the top winners and the top losers.

[01:03:50]>> Okay, >> I'll say like Saladine is kind of a winner here, I think. I mean, unfortunately his whole, you know, his whole empire kind of crumbles after he's gone, but he's gone. But he does a good job. So shout out to Saladine. Shout out to Richard. I think Richard puts up a good fight, does his best, but he makes some mistakes along the way. Um, and then I mean I'm going to give Guy of Lucen. I mean, he's >> took some L's.

[01:04:14]>> Took some L's, >> but at the end he figures it out. And then uh and then Philip Augustus. I'm going to give it to him and say like, yeah, he he really I mean he's petty and kind of sneaky and conniving, but game recognize game.

[01:04:28]>> Elanor is a little bit of a dark horse.

[01:04:30]Yeah, that's a good point. Eleanor also is like, "No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna I'm switching up. I'm changing sides." You know what I'm saying? And then, uh, who are the big losers here? I mean, Barbar Roa.

[01:04:42]>> Yeah.

[01:04:42]>> Like, sure, he's great. He ran an empire, but like to go out like that, that's just a bummer, dude. And then, uh, I mean, who else are we missing?

[01:04:50]There's a >> Richard.

[01:04:52]>> Which one?

[01:04:53]>> Richard.

[01:04:54]>> Which Richard?

[01:04:55]>> Uh, like when Philip and Richard leave together. Mhm.

[01:05:00]>> So, >> well, Richard goes down there, gets Cypress, also gets Msina like when they leave like he kind of like I think kind of gets he comes up on that one, >> I guess. And then loses Cypress.

[01:05:12]>> Well, he kind of gives it away, but yeah. And then who are the guys that uh lose at Hatin? All the other guys that lost there. I mean, those are probably those are probably the bigger losers, I guess.

[01:05:23]>> Sorry, dudes. Anyway, that has been an a bridge history of the second and third crusades. I hope you learned something.

[01:05:30]I sure did. If there's anything that I missed, please don't hesitate to drop a comment. Let me know what you think. If there's uh anything that you learned, if there's anything you didn't know, drop a comment. I'd love to know what tickled your fancy. Um, if you like religious content, kind of like how we talked about today, this is obviously more historical, but if you like religious stuff, guess what? We have Religion Camp. If you like deep diving into the mysteries of the day, we have Camp Gagnon. And of course, if you like the history camp Bible, great news. We drop these episodes every single week. So, make sure to subscribe, comment, all that good stuff. And I will see you in the future to talk about the past.