<P> King Henry II of England died on 6 July 1189 after a surprise attack by his son Richard the Lionheart and King Philip II . Richard inherited the crown and immediately began raising funds for the crusade . In the meantime , some of his subjects departed in multiple waves by sea . Some of them together with contingents from the Holy Roman Empire and France conquered the Moorish city of Silves in Iberia during the summer of 1189 , before continuing to the Holy Land . In April 1190 , King Richard 's fleet departed from Dartmouth under the command of Richard de Camville and Robert de Sablé on their way to meet their king in Marseille . Parts of this fleet helped the Portuguese monarch Sancho I defeat an Almohad counterattack against Santarém and Torres Novas , while another group ransacked Christian Lisbon , only to be routed by the Portuguese monarch . Richard and Philip II met in France at Vézelay and set out together on 4 July 1190 as far as Lyon where they parted after agreeing to meet in Sicily ; Richard with his retinue , said to number 800 , marched to Marseille and Philip to Genoa . Richard arrived in Marseille and found that his fleet had not arrived ; he quickly tired of waiting for them and hiring ships , left for Sicily on 7 August , visiting several places in Italy en route and arrived in Messina on 23 September . Meanwhile , the English fleet eventually arrived in Marseille on 22 August , and finding that Richard had gone , sailed directly to Messina , arriving before him on 14 September . Philip had hired a Genoese fleet to transport his army , which consisted of 650 knights , 1,300 horses , and 1,300 squires to the Holy Land by way of Sicily . </P>
who left england to lead the armies of the third crusade in 1189
Richard the Lionheart