Siege of Acre
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The Siege of Acre was the first major engagement of the Third Crusade—one that would span almost the entirety of the war. With the assistance of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitalier, the Kingdom of Jerusalem first launched an assault of Acre in 1189 before the arrival of the formal Crusader forces from Europe. Alerted by the siege, Sultan Saladin of Egypt and Syria hastily rallied his forces to relieve the coastal city only to mire himself in a prolonged stalemate against the besiegers.
The Saracens, faced with their inability to lift the siege, had little recourse but to settle into their own blockade around the Crusaders. As this double siege dragged on into the next year, the frustrated Templars began to devise a plot to murder the entire population by poisoning their water supply, hoping that this would force a capitulation. Before the order could be carried out, however, it was sabotaged by the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, who infiltrated their camp and assassinated the commander responsible for the operation.
Nevertheless, neither this setback nor the demise of many of the Christian leaders proved capable of breaking the siege. In 1191, the arrival of long anticipated reinforcements led by King Richard the Lionheart and King Philip II of France turned the tide in the Crusaders favor. Armed with greater siege weapons, the Crusaders breached Acre and effected its surrender, scoring a critical victory that would allow them to recover ground lost to the Saracens the previous years.