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The states built by the First Crusade. Odessa, 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. 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, 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. 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, 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 1 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 my extremely wealthy billionaire friend get richer and richer every single day. And his name is Christos. Papadopados. Christos, how are you? Oh, is that for me? Sorry, I was counting money. Yeah, see, that's what I'm saying. That's. That's part of the reason when people say eat the rich, they're talking about you. All right. Million one. Million one. You take one break off of your expensive vacation and Amalfi on your yacht to join me in the tent to record. And for that, I'm grateful. But also, it's just disgusting. 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, proto medieval time, it is fascinating. Okay, if you didn't watch that episode, great news. I have a little summary for you. All right, basically, First Crusade starts in, like, 1095. Pope Urban II calls on a bunch of Western Christians to take up arms after the Byzantine Empire asked for help against the Celtic Turks because these Celtic 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, 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 pretty brutal massacre, I think you can say, and established four Crusader states. Odessa, Antioch, Tripoli, and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Now, for a lot of 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 Odessa. Now, Odessa is the vulnerable one. It is the one that is for this 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, Odessa 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, fallen 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 Imad Al Din Zengi, 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 Jocelyn's army disappears, Zangi 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, Zangi separates the foreign Latins from the native Christian population. So the Armenians and the Syriacs, who had lived there long before the Crusaders arrived, and, you know, the invaders and anyone, the Latin men, the invaders are killed. The native Christians got a protected status. Now, don't get the wrong idea here. This wasn't like 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? 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, Zangi 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, Zangi is assassinated by one of his own servants. His son, Nur Ad Din inherits Aleppo, and more importantly, inherits his father's life mission. So when Jocelyn turns around and tries to retake Odessa, Nur Ad Din, 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, Edessa, 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 II did at Claremont in the First Crusade, someone who can stand in front of a crowd and turn these feelings and the anger and the emotion into a movement. So what does he do? He calls Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard was a physically broken Cistercian 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 could 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. He's like, dude, I chose monastic life to live, like, basically in poverty and without taking a wife, and to live like this purely ascetic 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 31, 1146, Palm Sunday at Vezale 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 VII 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 VII of France. So right off the bat, Conrad is organized, right? This Guy's German. He's capable and 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 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, Louis is much more pious and sincere, but very weak as a, you know, military commander. So he's also traveling with Elanor of Aquitaine. And that brings a whole other layer of tension to the story, because Elanor is not just the Queen of France by marriage, she is Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. So she controls, technically, more territory than Louis does. She's extremely smart, 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 Seljuk Turks to attack. But Conrad ignores him, doesn't stay near the coast and cuts straight across the plateau and near Dora Lyum, the same place where the First Crusade nearly got wiped out 50 years before. The Seljuk surrounded him. They cut off his water and started to just destroy his army. 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 Louis 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 Knights 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 Eleanor and Louis, that whole thing? Well, Eleanor's uncle Raymond, Prince of Antioch, wants Louis to strike north at Aleppo, the center of Noradin's power. And strategically, he's actually right here. If Edessa is the reason that this entire military operation, this crusade, exists, then weakening Nur Ad dinner makes far more sense than marching straight to Jerusalem and trying to take it. You know, Eleanor agrees with him publicly, but Louis 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. Louis 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 annulled, basically just canceled out. And Eleanor remarries 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. 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 Odessa, right? But Odessa'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 Zangi and Noor Ad Din. And the local barons 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 Nor Adin's relief forces approach, and the Crusaders leave. 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. Louis blames Conrad, Conrad blames the local barons that, you know, were giving advice. The barons are blaming the Templars, everyone's blaming the Byzantines. It's a mess. Here's the thing, the real damage here is strategic. You see, before Damascus, nor Ad Din is really powerful, but not dominant in the way that he becomes. And after the Crusaders attack the city, Damascus has every reason 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, Nuredin, 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. 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. Noradin, 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. 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. You gotta remember that name. It's an important one. Now, Bernard of Clairvaux, 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 is 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. 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 Yusuf IBN Ayyub. And Saladin is a title. The title basically meaning righteousness of the faith. So he's born in Tikrit in 1137 into a Kurdish military family. His father actually serves Zengi, that, you know, military leader we talked about before. And then the family passes into the surface of Nor Ad Din. 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, Nur ad Din 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. 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 slash exile type thing. And what's crazy is that he never actually leaves. Instead, he rises through military skill and political intelligence and ends up becoming the vizier of Egypt, basically the most powerful man in the entire country. And then in 1174, Noor ad Din dies. And this is where the clean, heroic legend kind of starts to change. You see Noor ad Din's heir, this guy Al Saleh, he's a child. And Saladin briefly serves as a regent, then begins absorbing Noradin'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 Saladin 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 know, 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. You have a much more unified sort of, I guess, Muslim 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. But it was not sudden. It was delayed. You see, Baldwin IV is diagnosed with leprosy at around 9 years old. His tutor, this guy, William of Tyre, 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 Gussard. 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. Saladin actually barely escapes in this moment, fleeing into the night on a racing camel. Muslim chroniclers treat Montgisard as one of the most humiliating defeats of Saladin's career. Baldwin keeps fighting for another eight years, but as the disease worsens, he keeps governing and 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 Guy, I'm going to say Guy. Guy of Lusignan, 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 Saladin'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. 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 Lusinan 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 Lucenan. He's king, right? He was able to seize power from, technically, his son and is like, no, no, no, I'm actually the king. But the barons don't respect Guy, and for good reason. They've seen him command before, and they know what that looks like. Hesitation, bad judgment, kind of being too passive. So his position rests almost entirely on his wife's bloodline. I mean, without her, he's nothing. He's only there because he married into the family. And then there's Raymond III of Tripoli, probably the sharpest military mind in the entire kingdom. He spent eight years in captivity under Nur ad Din, 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 Reynald of Chatillon, 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, Renauld hands him that moment by attacking a Muslim caravan dream 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 Renald 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 Hattin. So In July of 1187, Saladin crosses the Jordan with his largest army yet. He besieges Tiberius, which is held by Escheva, 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, Guy's War Council meets at Sephora, where the Crusader army has water and rest and a good defensive ground. 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. It's. It's too hot. He makes the argument that Saladin'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. 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. I mean, not. Dude, that's crazy. That's. That's your girl. You gotta pull up on her. I don't know about that. Dude, you gotta. You gotta slide for your shorty. Stop simping. 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. They're going to crack. And then Gerard Deride for the Grand Master 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? 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. 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 thousand men are trapped. They're dehydrated. You have the Fire coming towards them. 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 resistance. So by basically, like noon on July 4, 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 Reynald of Chateau, 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 Tyre 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 him. Once Hatson 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 Saladin. Then on October 2, 1187, Jerusalem surrenders. When Saladin 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. 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. 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Tell them you heard about them from, you know, the good folks here at the campsite Mark and Christo sent you. And whenever you do that, it really helps, you know, support the show. And thank you so much to GLD and thank you to you for tuning in. Let's get back to the show. What's up, guys? We're gonna 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 drops 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. And as I get older, I'm realizing more and more sleep is like the only thing that really matters. 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 over the counter sleep med. Like, yeah, that's gonna completely nuke your sleep. And you don't wanna just be like dependent on a heavy duty medication just to be able to sleep like a normal. 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 ingredient 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, 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. 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So with these sleep patches, 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. 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 C A M p to take 15% off when they go to takeultra.com that's takeultra.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. 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 and 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. Herb shock. Like, he literally hears that Saladin and, you know, the Turks basically get all of Jerusalem and he just dies. Now his successor, Gregory viii, 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. All the kings have to go on this one. Now, interestingly, this guy, Frederick Barbarossa, 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 Barbarossa and they name it after Frederick, who they see as this great German emperor. And that there's legend that Barbarossa's like, his being basically, or that he himself is just asleep under a mountain and that Hitler is basically using this as a symbolic invocation of Barbarossa's name to justify, like, this new crusade by the Nazis and by the German people to go take the USSR. I think Mr. Barbarossa likes that. Probably not, yeah, if I had to guess. But I don't know what his political views are 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 Angevin Empire while Richard is stuck overseas. And then, of course, you have Richard the First of England. He barely speaks English. He grows up in Aquitaine. 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 Eleanor from before, obviously married to Louis. This is her son, Richard of England, after she remarries Henry ii. And he spends maybe six months of his ten 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 you know, his massive wealth. But war. War is what it's all about. And that is the man that is heading east now. Barbarossa leaves Germany in May, 1189 with this enormous army. Fights through Byzantine obstruction, defeats a Seljuk force in Anatolia. And for a moment, it looks like the one army Saladin is truly fearing is actually going to arrive intact. And then, come June 10, 1190, the Goxu river in southern Anatolia. Frederick Barbarossa 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. 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 Saladin'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 commit, 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. Like a. Like a widow's 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 gonna 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 Barangarian 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, Cyprus, 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. 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 Acre in June 1191. Now, by the time Richard arrives, Acre has already been under siege for two 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 Lusignan. Yes. The same guy who lost Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin. The same guy that was passive, you know, that Baldwin was testing, that was kind of seen as like, a loser. After being released from Saladin'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, Tyre is being held by Conrad of Montferrat, 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 Saladin couldn't take. So you have these two spots, right? Then Guy tries to use Tire as a base. Conrad refuses him. So by the time Richard arrives, the Crusaders are not just fighting Saladin, 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 barons move in, they push through the annulment of Isabella's marriage, and they marry her to Conrad. Instead, she's 20 years old and reportedly doesn't want the annulment. 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 stone throwers, literally, like. Like a trebuchet, one named God's own catapult and bad neighbor. And on July 12, 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. 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? 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. 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. 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 crusade's leadership finally agrees that Conrad of Montferrat is the rightful King of Jer. He's formally elected on April 16th. Now, the message reaches him entire on April 24th. And then just four days later, on April 28th, Conrad is stabbed in the streets by two members of the Nazari Ishmaeli order the assassins, and he dies that evening. The murder is never solved. Isabella, now widowed for the second time at just 21 years old, remarried within a week because the kingdom of literally doesn't stop for anything. Now, as for Guy, Remember Guy of Lucy? Non. Well, Richard buys him out and basically just gives him Cyprus. 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 Cyprus. 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, Guy now becomes the king of Cyprus and his descendants rule Cyprus and for nearly three centuries. Think about that. Think about Guy's life. I mean, what an insane situation. He's made some of the worst military decisions of his generation and is kind of like, you know, try to be sunned by Baldwin and his claim to the throne is taken away because his wife dies and he's kind of like a loser. And he's down and out and gets sieged at Hudson, 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. And then Conrad, you remember him, he's the guy who held tire 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 four 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 1500 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, maybe it's a logistical issue. Either way, Richard sets another deadline. Then on August 20, 1191, he marches about 2700 Muslim prisoners outside the walls of Acre 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 contexts. 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. Saladin 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. 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 the their own arrows back at them. And then at arf, on September 7, 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. Arsif 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 advisors, especially the Templars, who are very versed in this terrain. 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. Your army's 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 Saladin never actually meet face to face. Everything goes through intermediaries, like bishops, envoys, especially Saladin's brother, Al Adil. 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 Hermon, 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. Saladin 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. 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 Al Adil, 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. 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, 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 Saladin 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 2, 1192, the two sides actually signed 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 9, 1192, and he never returns. And then almost immediately, the giants of this story start dropping out of it. Saladin dies on March 4, 1193, just six 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 the 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 Saladin can't hold on to this empire that he built. So on the way home, Richard is actually captured. And who is he captured by? Leopold of Austria. Remember the dude when he tore the banner and he threw it down at Acre 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. Now, Eleanor of Aquitaine outlives almost everyone. She lives 1204 long enough to actually watch Richard die, watch John inherit this disaster, and then watch the crusading movement become something uglier than, you know, the one that she once saw with Louis. Now Bernard of Clairvaux. 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. 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. They didn't have enough supplies and reinforcements and armies, and that Saladin was just inevitable, and Jerusalem was always going to be, you know, lost again to, you know, the Seljuk 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, Baldwin IV proves that the kingdom could survive under a capable leader. Raymond proves disaster could be seen clearly in advance. Richard proves that winning battles and solving problems are not the same thing. 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 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. 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, 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 abridged history of the Second and the Third Crusades. I mean, there's a lot there. I mean, a fascinating story. You know, like, that's the thing. I 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 Celtic Turks are taking Byzantium, and we need some reinforcements. So, you know, let's. So let's get some reinforcements. So they send their troops, and, you know, the Crusaders don't do everything perfectly, but they're able to take the Holy Land, 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, 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 Saladin'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? Because we had it once, we need it again. And so now you're just in, like, this sunk cost situation where you're like, we're gonna go back, we're gonna get it, we're gonna get it. And then you see at the Third Crusade, Richard and Saladin actually, like, having this mutual respect for each other, because it's an interesting thing. 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 Saladin, 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 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 Saladin, 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. Just let us come by and just check it out. Let us buy your little gift shop. You know, we'll come through. We'll throw some dinars at you, pick up a little, you know, Jesus statue or something like that, and 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, it's an interesting. 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 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? Anything you took away a couple things. Barbarossa. So this is the river that he drowns in. You think you can make it across that? 100. But I'm also not 70 wearing armor, you know? True. 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. Yeah, like, he, like, he was. He was coming through swinging. He was feeling good. 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, 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, I'm better than you. Dude, dude, my religion is way sicker than yours. Nah, mine's better. Guys, I get it. 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. Also, the taking down of the banner thing, that's just a massive slap with a glove. So I'm saying, dude, that's a dumbass move. Come on, Rich, you're smarter than that. Don't do it, Loki. The winner of this whole story might be old Phil. Philip Augustus. Yeah, you know what I mean? He's like, look, I got the victory at Acre. I pulled up, we got our thing back. I brought the catapults. I was. I was doing my thing. We're good. And then he runs back to France and then starts claiming all this. He starts battling for territory. And then the guy that got Cyprus and ruled it for, like, three generations. So I'm saying Guy, yeah, 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, got his comeuppance. So let's do, like, the top winners and the top losers. Okay, I'll say, like, Saladin 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 Saladin. Shout out to Richard. I think Richard puts up a good fight, does his best, but he makes some mistakes along the way. And then, I mean, I'm gonna give Guy of Lucanon. I mean, he's took some Ls, took some Ls, but at the end, he figures it out. And then. And then Philip Augustus, I'm gonna give it to him and say, like, yeah, he. He really. I mean, he's petty and kind of sneaky and conniving, but game recognized. Game. Eleanor is a little bit of a dark horse. Yeah, that's a good point. Eleanor also is like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, I'm gonna. I'm switching up. I'm changing size. You know what I'm saying? And then who are the big losers here? I mean, Barbarossa. Yeah, like, sure, he's great. He ran an empire. But, like, to go out like that, that's just a bummer, dude. And then, I mean, who else are we missing? There's a Richard. Which one? Richard. Which Richard? Like, when Philip and Richard leave together. So. Well, Richard goes down there, gets Cyprus, also gets Messina. Like, when they leave, like, he kind of, like, I think kind of gets. He comes up on that one. I. Yes. And then loses Cyprus? Well, he kind of gives it away, but yeah. And then who are the guys that lose at Hatin? All the other guys that lost there. I mean, those are probably. Those are probably the bigger losers, I guess. Sorry, dudes. Anyway, that has been an abridged history of the second and third crusades. I hope you learned something. 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 anything that you learned, if there's anything you didn't know, drop a comment. I'd love to know what tickled your fancy. 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 you subscribe, comment all that good stuff and I will see you in the future to talk about the past. Peace.
Host: Mark Gagnon
Date: May 27, 2026
In this deep-dive solo episode, Mark Gagnon traces the dramatic arc of the 2nd and 3rd Crusades, unpacking their roots, their bloody failures, and their moments of unexpected consequence for both Christian and Muslim worlds. Through vivid storytelling, Mark details not just the military history, but the personalities—flawed, fearful, and legendary—who shaped the fate of Jerusalem and the Crusader states. The episode concludes with reflections on success, defeat, and the real meaning of 'victory' in the swirling chaos of holy war.
Mark Gagnon brings an engaging, informal, sometimes playful tone—infusing historical narrative with humor, modern analogies (“You gotta slide for your shorty, stop simping now,” “Massive slap with a glove”), and pointed observation. He frequently brings the human flaws and motivations of historical figures to the fore, making them relatable without shying from the violence and complexity of the period. The show is as much character study as military chronicle.
This summary delivers the main arc, key details, and unique insights from a deeply researched but informal storytelling episode. Whether you’re interested in crusading history, leadership in crisis, or want to understand how and why cycles of conflict repeat, this is both an accessible introduction and a potent reminder: in the Crusades, as in all history, victory is rarely as clear—nor as clean—as it seems.