Second Crusade

The crusade called after the fall of Edessa, ending in the failed siege of Damascus and a severe blow to Frankish credibility in the east.

The Second Crusade was called after Zengi captured Edessa in 1144, destroying the first of the four crusader states founded after 1099. Preached in the west by Bernard of Clairvaux, it brought King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany east with royal armies.

After heavy losses in Anatolia, the crusade reached Jerusalem and joined the local barons in an attack on Damascus in 1148. The siege collapsed after only a few days, leaving Damascus alienated from the Franks and increasingly vulnerable to Nur ad-Din. Instead of recovering Edessa, the crusade accelerated the political conditions that would later allow Syria and Egypt to be united against the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Read more on Wikipedia: English article · עברית