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crisis came on which resulted in the Second Crusade. Four Christian sovereigns had already occupied the throne of Jerusalem. The history of the kingdom is briefly and quaintly summed up by Fuller, "Under Godfrey and the first two Baldwins, it was a gainer; under Foulk, it was a saver; but under the succeeding kings, it was a constant loser, until it was gone."*

Foulk had been invited by Baldwin II. from France to Palestine, with the promise of the hand of his daughter. Dazzled by the prospect of a royal alliance and a matrimonial crown, the count abandoned his extensive French fiefs to his son, and on his arrival in the holy land his nuptials with Melisinda were solemnized, and he immediately acknowledged as the heir to the throne. The death of Baldwin, which shortly ensued, gave him the undisputed possession of the crown; and during a reign of thirteen years, Foulk, without performing any brilliant achievement, defended the kingdom. His decease left the state in the hands of his widow and their son, who was crowned as Baldwin II. Then it was that the Latin kingdom began to decay. Edessa, situated on the frontier of the country, had ever been considered its safeguard. Its defence, however, had for some time been feebly sustained, and the prince of Antioch is suspected of having compromised its security. Edessa, therefore, being suddenly entered by Zenghi, the Turkish emir of Aleppo, its capital was besieged, and * Fuller's Historie of the Holy Warre, book ii, cap. xxvii,

taken by storm, before the forces of Jerusalem could come to its aid.

The fall of Edessa shook the Latin kingdom to its foundations, and the consternation of its people became loud and general. The empire of the Crusaders was obviously enfeebled and endangered, if its final overthrow had not already become inevitable. From this event its history was one continuous struggle for existence against Turkish invasion, until at length every vestige of it was gone, and the crescent again floated triumphantly from the walls of the holy city.*

* Gulielmus Tyrii, lib. xvi. caps. iv. v. xv.

CHAPTER V.

THE SECOND AND THIRD CRUSADES. A.D. 1145-1192.

THE excitement of Europe, consequent on the fall of Edessa, was scarcely less than the consternation of Palestine. Intelligence of the event was accompanied by earnest entreaties to the states and courts of the west, appealing for fresh succour. Eugenius III. occupied the papal chair. Conrad I., duke of Franconia, was emperor of Germany; and Louis VII., surnamed the Young, to distinguish him from his father, who had caused him to be crowned in his lifetime, was king of France.

Louis was the first to espouse the cause of the Latin kingdom. In an ecclesiastical contest, he had been guilty of the most inexcusable cruelty, from the remembrance of which he suffered the severest compunction. The dispute had originated in the election of the archbishop of Bourges without the king's consent. Thibalt, count of Champagne, had armed in support of the pope's authority, which the question was supposed to involve. Louis marched his troops against the rebellious vassal, and subdued him. But even after his defeat and submission, the anger of the

king, still unappeased, vented itself in recklessly setting fire to the church of Vitry, in which nearly thirteen thousand people are said to have taken refuge. Not long after the cruel deed, the king was seized with a severe illness, and reflection brought remorse. At that time, the news of the fall of Edessa was fresh in Europe, and Louis, in the vain hope of expiating his crime-for the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, alone cleanseth from sin-determined to promote a CRUSADE, and led his forces in person to the aid of Jerusalem.

Ambassadors were immediately sent to the pope, who cordially seconded the king's proposal. Eugenius commissioned Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux, by whose advice the messengers of Louis had been sent to him, to preach the cross through France and Germany, and summon the chivalry of Europe to the defence of the land which their swords had won from the power of the Mussulman. A more fitting agent for the work could not have been found.* He commenced his career in France, at Vezelay, where the king had summoned an assembly of his nobles and others. So great was the concourse, that neither the abbey nor the large square of the town could contain it. Overflowing even the suburbs, the eager devotees adjourned to a neighbouring hill, at the foot and on the ascent of which they arranged themselves as in an amphitheatre. Eugenius had been invited to consecrate this

*Gulielmus Tyrii, lib. xvi. cap. xviii.

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assembly by his presence, but he delegated Bernard as his representative. The meagre and attenuated form of the orator contrasted strongly with the fiery spirit of his address. With all the enthusiasm of Peter the Hermit, but with a loftier style of eloquence, he set forth the miseries of the faithful in Palestine, invoking vengeance on their oppressors. He proclaimed the present danger of the holy city, and called upon the knights of Christendom, by every consideration of religion and of valour, to hasten to the defence of that sepulchre, which had already been redeemed at so great a sacrifice. But long ere he could bring his speech to a conclusion, it was interrupted by loud shouts from the surrounding auditors of "The cross! the cross !" The crosses prepared for the occasion were accordingly distributed, and rapidly exhausted; and when the zealous abbot perceived the deficiency, he tore strips from his own clothes, and presented the holy symbols thus rudely fashioned to those who needed them.* On this occasion it was that Louis, together with his queen Eleonora, whose conduct so shamefully dishonoured the king, and disgraced the expedition, assumed the sacred symbol; the latter also afterwards receiving at St. Denis the consecrated banner as a warrior.†

From France, Bernard proceeded to Germany. For some time, Conrad the emperor suffered him to call the inhabitants of his dominions to the

Odo de Diogilo de Ludovici vII.; Profectione in Orientem, lib. i. p. 12. † Ibid. lib. i. p. 16.

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