take something really big to even have a chance to disrupt their ongoing struggle and this is where fate would intervene far to the east in the embattled holy land of the levant syria and egypt had been unified into a powerful empire known as the ayubid by the sultan al-nasir salah al-din yusuf ibn ayub but he was also known as saladin in early july of NUMBER_TOKEN the sultan had crushed the army of jerusalem at the battle of hatin and a few months later in october had captured jerusalem itself after this he would go on to essentially destroy most of the crusader kingdom news of this disaster shocked western europe in november of NUMBER_TOKEN pope gregory viii announced a new crusade to recapture the holy city and drive the great sultan from what had once been the kingdom of jerusalem the call to crusade was in richard's blood that then of course an insatiable appetite for glory he was among the very first to take up the cross which he did in december of NUMBER_TOKEN and this in turn would put considerable peer pressure on the kings of england and france to do likewise indeed on january NUMBER_TOKEN NUMBER_TOKEN the kings of england and france met at the city of jizor and announced their commitment to the crusade by the way was here that the idea of a salad in tax or tithe to pay for the campaign was created with the added caveat that if you went on crusade you didn't have to pay the tax which would turn out to be an excellent tool for recruitment however negotiations during this conference would break down and the details of logistics would never be worked out this did not deter richard for a bit his yearning to go east was as vibrant as ever but before he could go on crusade he would still have to deal with the ongoing war with his own father and to do this he would require an ally
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