The Glory of the Crusades

by Steve Weidenkopf

  Preaching the Second Crusade

  St. Bernard of Clairvaux was the third son of seven children born to a noble family near Dijon in the Burgundy region of France. He was “passionate, full of inner fire” and totally devoted to the Catholic Faith. He had a special reverence for the Blessed Mother that had been inculcated by his own mother.236

  Bernard was endowed with the gift of preaching which, at the insistence of Pope Eugenius, he used to maximum effect for the Second Crusade. Theophilus Reynauld’s sixteenth-century book The Gallic Bee referred to Bernard as the “mellifluous” or “honey-sweet” Doctor of the Church, a name that has stuck through the centuries.237 Pope Pius XII used this moniker as the title for his encyclical on St. Bernard in 1953 on the 800th anniversary of his death. Bernard’s preaching was like “the fragrant aroma of an incense burning in a heart on fire with the Holy Spirit,” which flowed from his in-depth study of the Faith, through which, like “a diligent bee, he has extracted the sweet essence from Scripture and the Fathers and refined it in loving meditation.”238

  St. Bernard undertook his papal-directed preaching tour seriously and, despite his ill health, ventured across Christendom for nine months through the spring and winter of 1146 and into 1147, preaching numerous sermons and traveling several hundred miles. He recognized that the “business of God” was necessary and he endeavored to raise the warriors required to restore Christian lands in the East.239

  Bernard preached the Crusade in France, Flanders, and throughout the German Empire. To those regions he could not visit he sent letters urging the faithful to take the cross to fight in a worthy cause: “[N]ow, O mighty soldiers, O men of war, you have a cause for which you can fight without danger to your souls: a cause in which to conquer is glorious and for which to die is gain.”240

  As with the First Crusade, it was the spiritual benefit of the indulgence that motivated participants, and it was this aspect that Bernard emphasized:

  I call blessed the generation that can seize the opportunity of such rich indulgence as this, blessed to be alive in this year of jubilee, this year of God’s choice. Take up the sign of the Cross and you will find indulgence for all the sins which you humbly confess. The cost is small, the reward is great.241

  Radulf and the Jews

  Bernard was certainly the most well-known preacher of the Second Crusade, but he was not the only one. Other preachers, some approved and others not, traveled throughout Christendom to dispense exhortations, some of which deviated from the official message and instead promoted persecution and harassment of the Jews. Bernard heard of such preaching and made it known that the Jews were not to be harmed: “We have heard with joy that zeal for God burns in you, but wisdom must not be lacking from this zeal. The Jews are not to be persecuted, nor killed, nor even forced to flee.”242

  A fellow French Cistercian monk named Radulf failed to heed the words of Bernard. Traveling to the Rhineland, Radulf incited anti-Semitic fervor in the same cities of Count Emich’s pogroms during the time of the First Crusade.243 Radulf’s message against the Jews was the same as the one used by Emich a generation previously: why risk life to travel far from home when enemies of Christ were near at hand? Although Radulf’s preaching led to outbreaks of violence against certain German Jewish communities, such pogroms were “isolated incidents … not systematic slaughter.”244

  Bernard was greatly upset when news of his fellow Cistercian’s preaching reached him. He expressed his holy anger at Radulf when he wrote, “I find three things most reprehensible in him: unauthorized preaching, contempt for episcopal authority, and incitation to murder.”245 Bernard was so disgusted that he traveled to Mainz in November 1146, confronted and rebuked Radulf, and ordered him to return to his monastery.

  Conrad III and the Germans

  Bernard’s preaching tour and written exhortations were a resounding success as warriors took the cross in great numbers, equaling and perhaps rivaling the total forces of the First Crusade. In some ways, Bernard’s preaching mission was made easy due to the vivid memory of the First Crusade present in twelfth-century Christendom. Knights and nobles spent their evenings regaled with tales of heroics from the First Crusade in the chansons of the troubadours. The warriors of Christendom who heard St. Bernard were honor-bound men who recognized the Second Crusade as an opportunity to measure themselves against the “honor, valor, [and] nobility” of their ancestors who participated in the First Crusade.246

  The most powerful ruler in Christendom, however, was not interested in going on Crusade. There was a plethora of political issues to deal with in imperial territory and, even if there hadn’t been, an exhausting, risky journey to the east was not looked upon favorably by the fifty-four year old monarch.

  Conrad III was not opposed to the Crusade or the Crusading movement; he had previously taken the cross in 1124 and made the pilgrimage to the Holy Land before his coronation as king of the Germans. Indeed, he was the only major monarch of Christendom to go to Jerusalem twice. The problem was that political unrest in his lands, motivated by those angry at his accession to the throne, weighed heavily on his heart and he sincerely believed it was not prudent for him to go to Jerusalem again.

  St. Bernard had already preached the Crusade to King Louis VII of France, who responded and was busy making preparations to depart. Now it was time for Conrad to follow suit. The “Honey-Sweet” Doctor arrived at the king’s Christmas Court in Speyer in December 1146 and met privately with Conrad. History does not record what was said between the powerful king and the humble preacher, but it does record the actions of both men the next day.

  After celebrating Mass in the cathedral, St. Bernard turned toward Conrad and personally and publicly called him to take the cross. Conrad responded, “Now I recognize clearly that this is a gift of divine grace, nor now shall I be found to be ungrateful … I am ready to serve him!”247 Bernard went to the altar, retrieved a prepared cloth cross, and pinned it on the king.

  The interaction made for great theater, which medieval people highly enjoyed, but more than likely the king had agreed to take the cross the day before during his private meeting with Bernard. Conrad’s embrace of the cross motivated other leading nobles and clergy to do the same, including his half-brothers Duke Henry of Bavaria and Otto of Freising, and his nephew, Duke Frederick of Swabia—the future holy Roman emperor known as Frederick Barbarossa. Now that the king and his leading nobles had taken the cross, preparations were undertaken to ready the massive German army for its march to the east.

  The Road to Constantinople

  Since French preparations were already well underway, it was decided a meeting of the allies should be held to discuss the logistics involved in transporting the two hosts to the Holy Land. King Louis VII, St. Bernard, and several French nobles met on February 2, 1147 with German ambassadors. They agreed that the armies would follow in the footsteps of their ancestors from the First Crusade and take the land route to Constantinople and onward to northern Syria.

  The Germans made efficient preparations. Within six months (the French took fifteen months) Conrad was ready, and in May 1147 he departed Nuremburg with an army of 30,000 to 35,000 soldiers plus noncombatants.

  They had a fairly uneventful trek through Eastern Europe until they reached Byzantine territory,248 where they suffered harassment by imperial troops. Regardless, the Germans eventually reached Constantinople in September.

  The Byzantines viewed the Germans as “greedy and fickle barbarians and heretical.”249 Like Alexius I before him, Emperor Manuel was fearful, suspicious, and anxious about them and believed their true objective was to conquer Constantinople. In order to mitigate the risk of such an operation, Manuel entered into an alliance with the Turks and may have even supplied them with information on the numbers and route of the Western armies. He also encouraged the Turks to attack the French Crusade forces on their way to Antioch.250

  The task of journeying to the Holy Land and liberating Edessa was already a difficult one; it
was made far more so by the treachery of the Byzantines. “At most, Manuel helped only when and how it suited him; at worst, he ensured, if only passively, that the odds were stacked against the Westerners.”251

  Retracing the Steps of the First Crusade

  The Byzantine navy transported the German army across the Bosporus, and it made its way to Nicaea. Conrad’s force left Nicaea on October 15, but only ten days out it became clear the army was consuming too much food and marching too slowly, partly due to constant Turkish harassment. In late October, the army was badly mauled by the Turks near Dorylaeum, the site of victory for the First Crusaders fifty years before. The army had been encamped near Dorylaeum when Conrad allowed the cavalry to leave the main body to search for water. This proved a tactical blunder with severe consequences. The rapid mounted Turkish archers set upon the undefended infantry and slaughtered many. Although the cavalry returned and beat back the Muslim force, the damage had already been inflicted. The killing was so great that veterans, years after the battle, were said to weep at the memory of that day.

  Despite the heavy losses at Dorylaeum, Conrad’s army continued the march. After three days it became apparent that they should not continue. The leading nobles demanded a council with Conrad to discuss the future of the army. Morale was low and casualties continued to mount.

  Things went from bad to worse when Conrad was struck by two Muslim arrows—one was to the head, causing a gruesome injury. The nobles begged Conrad to retreat. He agreed. The mighty German army, once full of promise and hope of victory, was demolished as an effective fighting force. The weeks-long march had brought nothing but a 20-percent casualty rate, a demoralized army, and a severely wounded king.

  They returned to Nicaea in early November. Louis VII’s French army soon joined them and was shocked to hear of the German defeat. The two armies marched together to Ephesus to celebrate Christmas, and it was then that Louis decided to move out and continue his journey through Anatolia. Conrad, still suffering from his arrow wound, decided to go to Constantinople to convalesce. After spending the rest of winter and early spring there, he informed Emperor Manuel that he was leaving to re-join the Crusade. Conrad’s group celebrated Easter at Acre and then marched to Jerusalem, were he visited the holy sites. In May 1148 he entered into an agreement with King Baldwin III and the Templars to lead his remaining forces to Damascus.

  Louis VII and the French

  The twenty-six year old Louis VII (1120–1180) was a pious and devoted Catholic steeped in the Crusading history of his ancestors. The heroic tales of the First Crusade were read aloud at his coronation ceremony in 1137.252 His pious and austere lifestyle contrasted greatly with that of his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the most famous woman of the medieval period.

  Pope Eugenius knew of Louis’s interest in the Crusade, which is why he addressed the bull Quantum Praedecessores to the French king and his subjects. Louis eagerly took the cross because the martial ethos of the medieval French demanded it, and a desire to emulate the actions of the First Crusaders pushed him. Of course, it was no easy decision, since “to raise the money necessary for the Crusade, to be away from one’s lands for two or three years and to stand a fair chance of losing one’s life constituted a serious set of calculations for any individual, let alone one with the God-given responsibilities of a crowned head.”253

  St. Bernard traveled to Vézaly at Easter in 1146 to attend an assembly called by Louis. Here the Second Crusade would be announced and French warriors would be urged to participate. The choice of Vézaly was deliberate. It was well known as the starting point for the pilgrimage, or Camino, to Santiago de Compostela. There could be no better place to call forth soldiers to engage in the penitential and armed pilgrimage of the Crusade.

  Bernard preached eloquently and the nobility and clergy of France responded. The great French fervor manifested itself in an unexpected multitude of individuals taking the cross; so many, in fact, that the cloth crosses ran out and Bernard improvised by tearing his own habit to make more!254 Louis VII’s family and relatives joined him in taking the cross, including his wife (one of several women who joined the Crusade), his brother Robert of Dreux, and his uncle Amadeus of Savoy. Crusading veterans and sons of First Crusaders also signed up.

  Over the next fifteen months, Louis assembled the men and materiel needed to conduct combat operations in the east. Besides the military and political preparations Louis focused on spiritual preparation. In a show of immense humility and penance, the king visited a leper house outside of Paris to minister to the poor souls by washing their feet.255

  By the summer of 1147, Louis VII must have felt confident and hopeful for the journey ahead. He had spent over a year getting ready for the grand adventure. Political and military preparations were complete. His spiritual preparations helped center the true nature of the expedition in his heart. All was ready for the king of France and his mighty soldiers to march to war.

  The French Head East

  The French, as the Germans had before them, enjoyed an uneventful march through Eastern Europe but troublesome setbacks once they entered Byzantine territory. Emissaries from Emperor Manuel demanded the French agree to return any liberated former imperial territory, just as Alexius had demanded of the First Crusaders. The French had believed Greek towns along the way would be open to them in order to buy food, but most refused to allow them entry and instead lowered (insufficient) food in buckets by ropes over the city walls. Advance units of Louis’s army were even attacked by Byzantine forces outside the walls of Constantinople.

  Despite Byzantine harassment the main French army arrived at Constantinople in early October 1147. After being transported to Anatolia they proceeded to Nicaea, where they watched in horror as the battered army of Conrad III returned from its disastrous march.

  Louis and his army moved inland and were ambushed and constantly harassed by the Turks. The king countered the mobile tactics of the Muslims by organizing his army so that the knights were in the front and sides, protecting the infantry and baggage train within a shell of heavily armored soldiers. Although the march was difficult due to constant Muslim attacks, the army was holding and Louis was confident of their safe arrival in the Holy Land.

  Disaster at Mount Cadmus

  As the French army approached Mount Cadmus in southern Anatolia, Louis gave strict orders that the line of march should not be broken for fear the Turks would exploit the gap. Unfortunately, his orders were not followed. The vanguard made good time through the mountain pass but allowed a gap to form between its units and the long, slower-moving baggage train. The rearguard had not even moved out of camp yet. Seeing the baggage train exposed, the Turks attacked.

  The news reached Louis in the rearguard and he immediately sprang into action, leading his elite personal bodyguard into the fray. After heavy fighting and narrowly escaping capture, the king made his way back to the shattered remnant of his army and surveyed the scene. Many of his nobles were now dead, along with a number of infantry. On top of that, the marauding Muslims had plundered his baggage train. The once-promising Crusade was in crisis.

  The Antioch Affair

  Louis and his nobles finally arrived in Antioch on March 19, 1148. Their time in that city produced the most salacious story of the entire Crusade. It was a tale of political intrigue and marital difficulties that became one of the most remembered episodes of the Crusading movement.

  Prince Raymond of Antioch welcomed King Louis but saw in his arrival an opportunity to increase his control over the surrounding countryside. Raymond hoped the consolidation of territory using French muscle would secure his independence from the Byzantines, who had attacked the city a decade previously and still maintained that the city was imperial territory. Raymond also wanted to take advantage of the local Muslim political situation and believed the time was right for an attack on Aleppo, ruled by Zengi’s son Nur al-Din.

  Louis recognized that an attack on Aleppo would not be advantageous and decided the be
st course of action was to march south to Jerusalem and link up with Conrad’s remaining forces. This decision infuriated Prince Raymond and set into motion the “Antioch Affair.”

  Louis’s wife Eleanor of Aquitaine had been pleased with the decision to travel to Antioch. Prince Raymond was her uncle, although he was only eight years older, and they had known each other for years. Raymond spent a great deal of time with Eleanor during her stay in Antioch and after Louis’s rebuff of his plans, his time with the Queen increased. Eleanor welcomed the attention. She “was indeed flirtatious, flighty, and already tired of her husband.”256 Sources differ and historians argue over what did or did not occur between Prince Raymond and Eleanor, but the historian of the Latin East, William of Tyre, believed the queen was “a foolish woman” who, “contrary to her royal dignity,” was unfaithful to Louis.257

  Throughout this time in which she was possibly having an adulterous—and incestuous—affair, Eleanor tried to convince Louis to support Raymond’s plan to march to Aleppo. She was furious at Louis’s decision to travel to Jerusalem instead and threatened to seek an annulment on the grounds of consanguinity (they were third cousins once removed) if Louis refused to go to Aleppo. The queen’s threat did not move Louis to reconsider and he marched to the Holy City.

  After they returned from the Crusade, Eleanor did follow through on her threat and sought an annulment, which was granted in 1152. Two months later she married Henry Plantagenet, the future king of England. That marriage produced eight total children; three of the sons became kings of England—including Richard I the Lion-Hearted and his infamous rival, John.

  Damascus

  By the summer of 1148 the Second Crusade was in near shambles. The major armies had suffered horrific casualties during their marches through Anatolia and the remnants arrived in Jerusalem disheveled and disheartened.