The crushing Christian defeat at Tiberias and subsequent loss of Jerussalem in 1187 left The Turkish General 
Saladdin master of the near east except for Frankish hold on Tyre. By luck, Conrad of Monferrat (in Italy) arrived at Tyre with a shipload of French Knights in the summer 1187, just in time to help repulse Saladdin on the city. For the next year Conrad built up his strength by recruiting armed pilgrims to his standard. Then in July 1188, Saladdin paroled Guy of Lusignan, the defeated king of Jerussalem. The two christian leaders immediately quarreled over supreme command. Finally, in august 1189, King Guy marched out to attack the Moslem garrison at Acre, 20 miles to the south. Conrad followed on september.Acre, a powerful fortress built on peninsula, defied capture. The two rival christian leaders, with all about 30,000 men in all, prepared siege lines a mile to the east on The Hill of Turon. A mile still farther east saladdin built countersiege lines. A deadlock developed, in which both sides suffered more from disease and hunger than from combat, throughout 1190.
Meanwhile the three greatest kings of Europe were moving eastward in the third Crusade. First to start was the red bearded Frederic I, Barbarossa, Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick led a strong contingent of Germans through the Balkans and Asia Minor but drowned in the Calycadnus River in Cicilia on June 10, 1190. His large army soon melted away and his son Frederick V of Swabia arrived in front of Acre in October with only 1,000 men-at-arms. The other two kings, -- colorless Philip II, Augustus, of France and flamboyant Richard I, Coer de Lion, of England -- set off in the summer of 1190, somewhat reluctant allies. They wintered in sicily. Philip then sailed directly to Acre, arriving there on April 20, 1191. Richard stopped over at Cyprus to wrest that island from Byzantine empire and did not land on the beach at Acre until June 8.
The christian host that assembled at Acre, quarreled among themselves to launch a unified assault on the fortress. But their piecemeal attacks, coupled with tight blockade instituted by their ships in the harbor, forced the moslem garrison to capitulate on July 12, ending the two year siege. The victory brought new quarreling among the crusade commanders. Leopold, duke of Austria (who led the German contingent after the death of Frederick V of Swabia in the last year of siege), and King Philip sailed for Europe. Conrad sulk in Tyre. Richard, allied with King Guy, became the sole leader of the Crusade. When Saladdin refused to honor the surrender terms of the garrison, Richard executed all 2,700 Moslem captives. He then took the coast road south to Jerussalem.