Defensive Posture of the Crusader States (1160s)

Timeline

1. 1160–1163Jerusalem · PalestineDuring Baldwin III's reign he devoted himself to recovering lost lands such as Ascalon and reorganizing the court. In the early 1160s the crusaders still held the coastal corridor, but inland defense relied on chains of castles and limited mobile forces, and Zengid pressure from Syria was increasingly hard to bear.
2. 1164–1167Antioch and Harim · LevantNur al-Din defeated crusader–Byzantine coalitions in battles such as those at Harim and Baniyas, and the borders of the Principality of Antioch and County of Tripoli were in crisis. The crusader states were forced onto the defensive, relying on fortress defense and diplomatic appeals for aid, unable to prevent Muslim powers from recovering inland Syria.
3. 1167–1169Egypt and Jerusalem · EgyptAmalric regarded preventing Nur al-Din from controlling Egypt as key to the kingdom's survival, but his three interventions in Fatimid internal affairs all failed. After Saladin took power in 1169, the crusaders lost their southern shield, and the Levant states fell into the strategic disadvantage of being attacked from both north and south, with their defense system facing fundamental change.