WI: Barbarossa lives?

What if Barbarossa had remembered to take off his armor before bathing, and was not swept away by the river Saleph? How much more successful could the Third Crusade have been?
 
Potentially, as fully as had been hoped for by the West and dreaded by Saladin.

But anything much beyond Jerusalem (and Outlrejordain) is probably more than anyone will actually commit to. Kingdoms to run back home and all.
 
I still think the Crusader States would've lasted about as long as they did IOTL. Maybe a decade more at most, but in the grand scheme of things, I think it wouldn't be all that different.
 
I still think the Crusader States would've lasted about as long as they did IOTL. Maybe a decade more at most, but in the grand scheme of things, I think it wouldn't be all that different.

I kind of agree. A lot depends on how much has been done to damage the Muslims as well as to favor the Crusader states.

If the only real difference is that Saladin goes down as an ultimate failure, one of his family will probably pull together enough of the pieces in Syria and and another in Egypt to keep those formidable threats (or at least one of those two).

And so long as that's the case, the Crusader States have no long term future. If Saladin's defeat provokes something worse, that might matter for a little while.
 
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