is mainly remembered outside Austria for his participation in the Third Crusade. Border disputes with King Béla III of Hungary had initially impeded the duke from accompanying Emperor Frederick on his departure in May 1189. When he heard about the emperor's death in 1190, he went to Venice, where he embarked to the Holy Land. Autumn storms forced him to winter in Zadar on the Adriatic coast. He arrived in Palestine to take part in the final stage of the Siege of Acre in spring 1191. Leopold assumed command of the remnants of the Imperial forces after the death of the emperor's son Duke Frederick of Swabia in January. According to legend, his tunic was blood-soaked after the fights. When he doffed his belt, a white stripe appeared. The new emperor Henry VI granted him the privilege to adopt these colours as his new banner, that later would become the flag of Austria. Acre surrendered on July 12, after the arrival of King Philip II of France and King Richard I of England. Duke Leopold, as commander of the German contingent, demanded rights equal to those of the two kings but was rejected. When the banners of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, England, France and Leopold's ducal flag were raised in the city by Leopold's cousin, Marquis Conrad of Montferrat, Richard removed Leopold's colours and the duke wrathfully left for his Austrian home, where he arrived by the end of 1191. In January 1192 he proceeded to the court of Emperor Henry VI and complained bitterly about Richard, who also was suspected of involvement in the murder of Conrad, shortly after his election as King of Jerusalem in April the same year. The emperor probably agreed with King Philip, already in conflict with the English king, on Richard's capture. When King Richard left the Holy Land in late October 1192, he found the French ports closed and sailed up the Adriatic Sea. He took the country road from Aquileia and then across to Austria to reach the Bavarian estates of his Welf brother-in-law Henry the Lion. Whilst travelling under disguise, he stopped at Vienna shortly before Christmas 1192, where he was recognized (supposedly because of his signet ring) and arrested in Erdberg (modern Landstraße district). Initially Duke Leopold had the king imprisoned in Dürnstein, and in March 1193 Richard was brought before Emperor Henry VI at Trifels Castle, accused of Conrad's