The Battle of Jaffa, which was fought on August 5, 1192, was the final battle of the Third Crusade. It led directly to a peace deal between England’s King Richard I (popularly known as Richard Coeur de Lion, or Lionheart) and Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, that restricted the Christian presence in the Holy Land to a thin coastal strip but ensured its survival for another century.
After his victory at the Battle of Arsūf, Richard spent months capturing castles and winning skirmishes, but he never reached his goal of retaking Jerusalem. He was in Acre planning his return to England when, in late July, Saladin attacked Jaffa (now part of Tel Aviv, Israel), taking the town but not the citadel, whose garrison consisted largely of sick and wounded troops whom Richard had left there after an earlier campaign against Saladin. On August 1, Richard arrived unexpectedly by sea with a force including 80 knights and 400 (some estimates give as many as 2,000) crossbowmen and waded ashore to drive the Muslims out of the town.
A few days later Saladin, having gathered a force of about 7,000 cavalrymen and perhaps twice as many foot soldiers and auxiliaries, attacked Richard’s camp outside Jaffa at dawn. Richard put his infantry in the front line and the crossbowmen behind them with orders to aim at the enemy horses. Richard and 17 mounted knights were positioned at the rear ready to deliver a charge where and when it would do the most good. The 63 knights without horses were put among the infantry. Several Muslim cavalry charges were driven off with loss. Richard countercharged several times to cut down dismounted Muslims and hasten the retreat of the rest. In a chivalrous gesture, Saphadin, Saladin’s brother, noticing that Richard’s horse was wounded, sent him a fresh mount.
About midafternoon Saladin launched a ferocious assault designed to mask a column of cavalry hurrying around Richard’s flank to make a surprise attack on Jaffa. Richard saw the move and led his mounted knights back to block the city gates. Desultory fighting continued until nightfall, when Saladin retreated from Jaffa and then opened peace negotiations, concluding with a three-year truce signed before Richard sailed to England in October, never returning to the Holy Land.
Losses: Crusader, 2 dead of 80 knights and 2,000 infantry; Muslim, 700 dead.