A History of the Crusades-Vol 2 (31 page)

Plate I. Templar
Knights fighting the Saracens.

Plate II.
Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. The Dome of the Rock (Solomon’s Temple) and
the Mosque al-Aqsa are in the left foreground of the city. The Tower of David
shows on the horizon behind them. The Holy Sepulchre is behind the right corner
of the Dome of the Rock.

Plate III.
Tripoli. Raymond’s castle of Mount Pilgrim is in the foreground. The walls
facing the ravine are mainly Raymond’s original construction. The Saracen town,
al-Mina, is in the background on the left.

Plate IV. The
Emperor John Comnenus.

Plate V.
Damascus. Seen from the north-west. The orchards through which the Second
Crusade attacked are on the far side of the city.

Plate VI. Seals
of Baldwin III, King of Jerusalem; Bohemond III, Prince of Antioch; Pons, Count
of Tripoli; William of Bures, Prince of Galilee.

Plate VII. The
Emperor Manuel Comnenus and his wife, Maria of Antioch.

Plate VIII.
Aleppo.

BOOK III

THE SECOND CRUSADE

CHAPTER I

THE GATHERING OF
THE KINGS

‘Arise therefore
,
and
be doing
,
and the Lord be with thee.’
I CHRONICLES XXII, 16

As soon as it was known in Jerusalem that
Edessa had fallen, Queen Melisende sent to Antioch to consult with the
government there about the dispatch of an embassy to Rome, to break the news to
the Pope and to ask for a new Crusade. It was decided that the ambassador
should be Hugh, Bishop of Jabala, whose opposition to the demands of the
Emperor John had given him renown amongst the Latin Christians. Despite the
urgency of his message the bishop did not arrive until the autumn of 1145 at
the Papal Curia. Pope Eugenius III was at Viterbo, as Rome was in the hands of
a commune resentful of papal rule. With him was the German chronicler, Otto of
Freisingen, who recorded the Pope’s reception of the dreadful news, though he
himself was more interested by information brought by the bishop of a Christian
potentate who lived to the east of Persia and was conducting a successful war
against the infidel. His name was John, and he was a Nestorian. Already he had
conquered the Persian capital of Ecbatana, but he had gone northward to a
region of ice and snow, where he had lost so many men that he had returned to
his home. This was the first entry of the legendary Prester John into the pages
of history.

Pope Eugenius did not share the chronicler’s
hope that Prester John would rescue Christendom. He was seriously disquieted.
About the same time a delegation reached him of Armenian bishops from Cilicia,
eager for support against Byzantium. The Pope could not neglect his Oriental
duties. While Bishop Hugh went on to inform the courts of France and Germany,
Eugenius decided to preach the Crusade. But the Papacy was not in the position
to direct the movement as Pope Urban had tried to do, Since his accession in
February, Eugenius had not been able to enter Rome. He could not yet afford to travel
beyond the Alps. Fortunately he was on good terms with the two chief potentates
of western Europe. Conrad of Hohenstaufen, King of Germany, had owed his throne
to ecclesiastical support, and had been crowned by the papal legate. With Louis
VII, the pious King of France, papal relations were even more cordial. After
some early misdemeanours, due to the influence of his wife, Eleanor of
Aquitaine, he had repented and allowed himself to be guided in all things by
ecclesiastical advisers, notably by the great Abbot of Clairvaux, Saint
Bernard. It was to King Louis that the Pope decided to apply for help for the
East. He needed Conrad’s help in Italy, for the subjection of the Romans and
the curbing of the ambitions of Roger II of Sicily. He did not wish Conrad to
assume other obligations. But Louis was king of the land from which most of the
Frankish princes and lords in the East had come; he was the obvious leader for
the expedition that was to relieve them. On 1 December 1145, Eugenius addressed
a bull to King Louis and all the princes and the faithful of the kingdom of
France, urging them to go to the rescue of eastern Christendom and promising
them security for their worldly possessions and remission for their sins.

Sporadic
Crusades

The news of the fall of Edessa horrified the
West. The interest and enthusiasm aroused by the First Crusade had quietened
down. The capture of Jerusalem had fired men’s imagination; and immediately
afterwards large reinforcements had willingly set out in answer to appeals from
the East, as the Crusades of 1101 had shown. But the Crusades of 1101 had ended
in disaster; and, in spite of that, the Frankish states in the East had held
and consolidated their position. Reinforcements still came, but in driblets.
There was a steady stream of pilgrims, many of whom would stay long enough to
fight in a summer campaign. Among these were potentates like Sigurd of Norway;
or there might be a great company of humbler folk, such as the Englishmen,
Flemings and Danes who came in 1106. The Italian maritime cities would from
time to time send a fleet to help in the capture of some seaport; but their
motive was frankly commercial interest, which also brought in a growing number
of individual Italian merchants. But since Baldwin I’s reign there had been few
of these armed pilgrim companies. Of recent years the only one of note had been
that led by King Fulk’s son-in-law, Thierry, Count of Flanders. Immigrants had
continued to arrive, younger sons, like Balian of Chartres, founder of the
house of Ibelin, or barons like Hugh of Le Puiset or Manasses of Hierges, who
hoped to take advantage of kinship with the royal house. A more constant and
valuable element was provided by the knights that came out to join the great
Military Orders, the Hospitallers and the Templars. The Orders were gradually
assuming the role of the standing army of the kingdom; and the many grants of
lands made to them by the Crown and its vassals showed how highly they were
appreciated. But ever since the dispersal of the armies of the First Crusade
there had not been in the East a Frankish force strong enough to undertake a
grand offensive against the infidel.