The German crusaders, accompanied by the papal legate and Cardinal Theodwin, intended to meet the French in Constantinople. Nevertheless, it was decided to follow Conrad, and to set out on June 15. Many of the French nobles distrusted the land route, which would take them through the Byzantine Empire, the reputation of which still suffered from the accounts of the First Crusaders.

The Germans had already decided to travel overland through Hungary, as the sea route was politically impractical because Roger II, king of Sicily, was an enemy of Conrad. On February 16, 1147, the French Crusaders met to discuss their route. Joscelin II had tried to take back Edessa, but Nur ad-Din defeated him in November 1146. Traveling by ship from England to the Holy Land, the army stopped and helped the smaller (7,000) Portuguese armyВ capture Lisbon, expelling its Moorish occupants. The only Christian success of the Second Crusade came to a combined force of 13,000 Flemish, Frisian, Norman, English, Scottish, and German Crusaders in 1147. It would ultimately have a key influence on the fall of Jerusalem and give rise to the Third Crusade at the end of the 12th century. The Crusade in the east was a failure for the Crusaders and a great victory for the Muslims. Louis and Conrad and the remnants of their armies reached Jerusalem and participated in an ill-advised attack on Damascus in 1148. The main Western Christian source, Odo of Deuil, and Syriac Christian sources claim that the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos secretly hindered the CrusadersвЂ™ progress, particularly in Anatolia, where he is alleged to have deliberately ordered Turks to attack them. After crossing Byzantine territory into Anatolia, both armies were separately defeated by the Seljuq Turks. The armies of the two kings marched separately across Europe. The Second Crusade was announced by Pope Eugene III, and was the first of the crusades to be led by European kings, namely Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, who had help from a number of other European nobles. While it was the first Crusader state to be founded, it was also the first to fall. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by King Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098. The Second Crusade was started in 1147 in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The Second Crusade (1147вЂ“1149) was the second major crusade launched from Europe as a Catholic holy war against Islam. The Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages, who initially were Berber and Arab peoples of North African descent. Conrad IIIДЇirst German king of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, who led troops in the Second Crusade. Manuel I KomnenoДЄ Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean, including the Second Crusade.

A Capetian king of the Franks from 1137 until his death who led troops in the Second Crusade.

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