Directory

1147 CE

A year defined by the launch of the Second Crusade, called by Pope Eugene III and championed by Bernard of Clairvaux, following the fall of the County of Edessa to Muslim forces, and by the successful Christian capture of Lisbon from the Moors.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Pope Eugene III issued the papal bull Quantum praedecessores, calling for the Second Crusade in response to the fall of the County of Edessa to Zengi of Mosul in 1144.
  • King Louis VII of France and King Conrad III of Germany both took the cross and led large armies eastward, marking the first crusade to be led by European monarchs.
  • Bernard of Clairvaux preached the crusade across France and Germany with extraordinary zeal, recruiting thousands of nobles and commoners to take up arms for the Holy Land.

Conflict & Security

  • The armies of the Second Crusade began their march overland through the Byzantine Empire, with Conrad III departing in May and Louis VII following in June.
  • Conrad III's German forces suffered a devastating defeat by Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Dorylaeum in October, losing most of the army to Turkish ambushes in Anatolia.
  • A combined force of English, Flemish, and German crusaders assisted King Afonso Henriques of Portugal in capturing Lisbon from the Moors after a four-month siege ending in October.
  • The Wendish Crusade was launched against the pagan Slavic peoples of northeastern Germany, though it achieved limited military results.

Climate & Environment

  • Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was approximately 275 parts per million, as later confirmed by ice core analysis.

Culture & Society

  • The preaching of the Second Crusade generated intense religious fervor across western Europe, but also triggered violent pogroms against Jewish communities in the Rhineland, which Bernard of Clairvaux publicly condemned.
  • The estimated world population was approximately 340 million.