Richard the Lionheart: The Crusader King of England by W. B. Bartlett

Author:W. B. Bartlett [Bartlett, W. B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2018-03-26T23:00:00+00:00

12

Facing up to Reality (1191)

‘With God’s grace we hope to take the city of Jerusalem’

Letter from Richard I dated 1 October 1191

There were inevitably deaths resulting from the brutal fighting at Arsuf though those who died were not just mourned. If a crusader lost his life in battle against the Infidel it was considered the most honourable of ends. To die fighting the enemy would help to remit a man of his sins and ensure a reduced stay in the never-never world of purgatory (still a developing concept at the time and not formally adopted by the Catholic Church until the First Council of Lyon in 1245), allowing a quicker entry into Paradise.

Amongst the fallen was James d’Avesnes, one of the best-known of contemporary knights. He came from a French noble family with its roots in the north of the country. He had taken the Cross almost at once on receiving the bitter news of Hattin. He had been amongst the first to arrive at Acre in 1189, leading a contingent of French, Flemish and Frisian troops as the siege unfolded. At Arsuf, he had been unhorsed and then fought grimly to survive, taking fifteen Muslim warriors down as he was cut off and surrounded. But he was eventually overwhelmed or simply collapsed from his wounds.

His body was recovered from the battlefield after the fighting was over; he was found dead with three of his family by a party of Templars and Hospitallers along with a body of Turcopoles (mounted local auxiliaries who acted primarily as skirmishers and scouts) who searched the battlefield on the following day, a Sunday. He could not easily be recognised for his face was covered by congealed blood; but they washed it off and saw it was him. He was buried with all due honour at Arsuf in a ceremony attended by both Richard and Guy of Lusignan at the Minster of Our Holy Lady (coincidentally and appropriately, it was the Festival Day of her Nativity). A party of nobles carried the corpse on their shoulders and lowered it gently into the earth. But in the aftermath of the battle there would be persistent gossip that he had been abandoned at the end by Robert of Dreux.1

That night, the crusader army encamped outside Arsuf. Whilst some dealt with their wounds, others returned to the battlefield in search of loot. Despite the intensity of the fighting, Ambroise suggested that Muslim losses (about 750 bodies were counted on the field, though some may of course have died elsewhere of their wounds) massively outnumbered those incurred by the crusader army.2 In addition, Saladin’s army had suffered heavy losses amongst their horses and camels, which would have a significant logistical impact.

Richard’s army completed their march to Jaffa in another three days, arriving there on 10 September with the Templars now forming the rear-guard; perhaps Richard bore a grudge that the Hospitallers had not obeyed his orders during the recent fight or maybe they were exhausted after their exertions there.

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