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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY

From Hutton Webster's, Early European History (1917); edited for this on-line publication, by ELLOPOS

XVII. THE OCCIDENT AGAINST THE ORIENT, THE CRUSADES, 1095-1291 A.D.

Em. Macron, Rediscovering the Path to Europe

» Contents of this Chapter

Causes of the Crusades   * First Crusade, 1095-1099 A.D.   * Crusaders' States in Syria   * Second Crusade, 1147-1149 A.D., and Third Crusade, 1189-1192 A.D.   * Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire of Constantinople, 1202-1261 A.D.   * Results of the Crusades

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SECOND CRUSADE, 1147-1149 A.D., AND THIRD CRUSADE, 1189-1192 A.D.

ORIGIN OF THE SECOND CRUSADE

The success of the Christians in the First Crusade had been largely due to the disunion among their enemies. But the Moslems learned in time the value of united action, and in 1144 A.D. succeeded in capturing Edessa, one of the principal Christian outposts in the East. The fall of the city, followed by the loss of the entire county of Edessa, aroused western Europe to the danger which threatened the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and led to another crusading enterprise.

PREACHING OF ST. BERNARD

The apostle of the Second Crusade was the great abbot of Clairvaux, St. Bernard. Scenes of the wildest enthusiasm marked his preaching. When the churches were not large enough to hold the crowds which flocked to hear him, he spoke from platforms erected in the fields. St. Bernard's eloquence induced two monarchs, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, to take the blood-red cross of a crusader.

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THE MAKING OF EUROPE / EARLY EUROPEAN HISTORY: Table of Contents

url: www.ellopos.net/politics/european-history/default.asp

IN PRINT

Cf. The Ancient Greece * The Ancient Rome
Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) * Western Medieval Europe * Renaissance in Italy