A closer look
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa drowned in knee-deep water during the Third Crusade in 1190 because he was too impatient to wait for a bridge to cross the Saleph River. The legendary military commander, encased in heavy medieval armor, confidently plunged his horse into the current, only to be immediately swept off his mount and dragged underwater by the sheer weight of his own metal suit. The sudden and entirely preventable death of their supposedly invincible leader caused massive panic among his troops, leading the vast majority of his massive crusader army to simply turn around and walk back to Europe in despair. It is a spectacular reminder that no matter how much divine right you claim to possess, basic physics and heavy iron plates will always humble you in the end
