History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 32, the Second Crusade Roman numeral 4.

Hello again.

Last week we saw Pope Eugenius issue a Papal bull calling for a crusade.

And we followed Bernard of Clervo as he embarked on a massive and successful recruitment drive for the

crusade. There are now tens of thousands of citizens

across Europe, mainly from France and Germany, preparing to set out for the Middle East.

Now before we join the participants of the Second Crusade as they prepare

for their expedition, there are events happening in other parts of Europe that we need to take a brief look at.

Crusading zeal had taken a firm hold in Europe, and while the main arena was always going to be

the Holy Land, the Second Crusade ended up manifesting itself on two

fronts within Europe itself.

The most significant of these occurred on the Spanish Peninsula.

In the spring of 1147, a fleet of ships containing Crusaders from England and Northern Europe

set sail for the Holy Land. They didn't end up in the Middle East

though. Instead, they found themselves landing on the Portuguese coast.

Now, historians have debated. on the

historians have debated for many years whether this was intentional

or whether the ships were driven to seek shelter in Portugal

due to bad weather.

On one side of the debate the ships were

leaving for the Holy Land prior to the main field of Crusaders who were going

...