1. Hattin in 1187 – Campaign Roots

In the 1180’s there was a turning point in the Crusades, as the nations that were the successors to the original Crusader states did not have expansionist plans in their purview, something that made the original Crusader states actual “Crusader states” in the traditional definition of what it meant to be a Crusader. Contrary to this, many of the descendant Crusader states were having difficulties holding their own and protecting Christian states from the Islamic hordes. In addition to this, foreign policy and attitudes in new leadership shifted from one of xenophobia to one of cooperation with Muslim populations living within the states as well as along the borders of these states.

The most vital of the Latin states in the area of Palestine and Syria was the Kingdom of Jerusalem. The County of Edessa also known as Urfa, had been taken over yet again by the Muslims, the Principality of Antioch was increasingly being penetrated by the Byzantines and the County of Tripoli, a mere fly speck in contrast to the power wielded by Jerusalem, was not willing to bend to the rule of Jerusalem, even as a semi-autonomous vassal. In the 1180’s, of the 400,000-500,000 population that lived in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, only 120,000 were “Latins”, or Christians of Western European roots. The bulk of the population consisted of natives to the region who converted to Christianity, as well as Muslims, Jews and Samaritans. There is a lot of vague historical information regarding internal conflicts between feudal lords and the ruling class in the late 12th century in Jerusalem, but the critical pieces of information point to a reality where the king and ruling class were losing to the feudal lords and their land grabs. In the meantime, the military-religious orders of the Knights Templars and the Hospitallers were the only ones able to mount an effective defense in the increasing amount of castles they were given to stage themselves in.

In 1148 during the failures of the Second Crusade, despite the mantra of the times being all Christian Western Europeans would be responsible for the defense of their rimworld lands like Jerusalem, these fringe states were left to fend for themselves. Now the leadership saw it was more effective to bring professional troops in addition to financial backing from Western Europe that would do the job in a manner that wasn’t blatantly inflating the infantry ranks with rabble that would go to an area and destroy everything then go home, offering no possibility for long term sustainability. While this was going on, the defeat of the Byzantines by the Seljuk Turks at Myriokephalon in 1176, as well as the mass murder of Western Europeans in Constantinopole 8 years later, strongly indicated the Byzantines were not to be relied upon to help their Latin compatriots against the Islamic hordes.

Internal strife was brewing within the state of Jerusalem itself. Armenian settlers to Palestine were increasingly uncommon and the warlike mountain dweller Maronite Christians lived in areas not close to the cities where the power was centered, and the general consensus among the Syriac-Jacobite Christians was that they were not very fond of the Latins or Western European population there. The adoption of cultural norms and traditions as well as Eastern style clothing by Western European settlers was an artificial display of assimilation and cooperation with the locals, and the actual social dynamics of the cultural differences between the natives and the Western Europeans were distinctly noticable by both parties. The ideological rift between the Latin and Muslim states that bordered each other was so apparent and so unmoving that war was continuously inevitable and neither side was willing to compromise to adapt to each other’s ideological
style.

The easy victories in battle achieved by the Latin states during the First Crusade instilled a sort of arrogance among the highest ranking military echelons of the successor states during the Second Crusade in such a way that rendered their resolve inadequate in the face of future threats. In terms of motivation and purpose, this fostered a sense of high levels of morale among the troops of the Latin states, but the blind arrogance allowed for an impending military catastrophe. Despite this, the seemingly changing of fates repeatedly favoring the Muslim armies helped sow discontent and uncertainty among the ranks, eventually degrading their self confidence. Due to this many new defensive garrisons, castles and fortifications were erected.