Vasilief, A History of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantium and the Crusades

Policies of Manuel I and the Second Crusade 

Page 4

Historians strongly disapprove of Bernard's idea of adding Germany to the crusade. The German scholar Kugler, who was especially interested in the Second Crusade, considered it as a most unhappy idea; the Russian scholar Th. Uspensky called it a fatal step and great error of St. Bernard and attributed the sad results of the crusade to the participation of the Germans. In truth, the antagonism between the French and Germans during the crusade was one of its peculiar traits and of course could not contribute to its success.

The news of the crusade alarmed Manuel, who saw in it a danger to his state and to his influence with the Latin princes of the east, particularly at Antioch, which with support from the west could ignore the Byzantine Emperor. Also the participation of Germany in the crusade deprived Byzantium of the guarantee upon which the alliance of the two empires was based. If the king of Germany left his country for the East for long, he could not take care of the western interests of the Byzantine Empire, which was therefore open to the ambitious plans of Roger. Knowing how dangerous to the capital the first crusaders had been, Manuel commanded its walls and towers to be restored, having evidently no confidence in the ties of friendship and relationship which bound Conrad to him.

According to V. Vasilievsky, undoubtedly Manuel hoped to stand at the head of the whole Christian army against the common enemies of Christianity. Besides the fact that Byzantium was very greatly interested in the future destinies of Islam in the East, Manuel, in the epoch of the Second Crusade, had also some special reasons for such a hope: at that time the Christian world had but one emperor, namely Manuel, because Conrad III Hohenstaufen had not been crowned by the pope in Rome and therefore did not bear the title of emperor.

In 1147 the leaders of the crusade decided to go to Constantinople by land, the way by which the first crusaders had already gone. First Conrad set out via Hungary; a month later Louis went the same way. The march of the crusaders towards Constantinople was followed by the same violence and pillaging as in the First Crusade.

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