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Acre (Crusader Period)
Acre (modern Akko, Israel) became the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem and its main Mediterranean port after the fall of Jerusalem in 118…
Timeline
- 1187–1189Acre · LevantAfter Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187, Acre took over the kingdom's administrative and maritime functions, becoming the Frankish Levant's most important surviving stronghold, with population and merchant shipping rapidly concentrating there.
- 1191Acre · LevantAfter a prolonged Crusader siege from 1189 to 1191, Richard I and Philip II finally forced the Ayyubid garrison to surrender; Acre's walls and harbor facilities were massively reinforced after the war, establishing it as the kingdom's new political center.
- 1192–1200Acre · LevantAfter the 1192 Treaty of Jaffa, Acre maintained limited trade and diplomatic contacts with the Muslim world; Italian merchant houses, the Knights Hospitaller, and the royal court gathered in the city, making it the most concentrated urban node of Crusader civilization in the Levant by the late 12th century.
Sources
- A History of the Crusades, Volume II: The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187 — Steven Runciman (1952)
- The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume V: c.1198–c.1300 — David Abulafia (1999)