History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 35 the Second Crusade Roman numeral 7.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the Second Crusade start rather badly for the Latin Christians.

The mighty German army was defeated by the Turks while traversing the route taken by the

first Crusade, and the remnants of the army joined up with a French army, taking the coast road towards Antioch.

When we left the Crusaders last week, they were at the small town of Antioch in Pessidia, where the Turks had taken refuge behind the town's walls.

Wisely, the Latin Christians decided not to pursue the Turks further and left them sheltering within the small town.

They marched onwards and three days later around the 4th of January 1148 they arrived at Leodicea where they had hoped to restock.

Two disappointments awaited them.

Firstly, they had now merged with a road taken by Bishop Otto and the non-combatant section of the German forces.

Unfortunately, the road was littered with German corpses, indicating that things hadn't gone so well for the German contingent.

Secondly, Leidicea was abandoned. The reputation of the Latin Christians had

preceded them. The citizens of Leidicea, learning of the Army's approach, gathered all their supplies and items of value

and vanished into the mountains. There was nothing to trade, nothing to eat, and nothing to plunder. The city was totally deserted.

The Crusaders spent a fruitless day trying to locate the townspeople, then decided they had better move on.

To say things were grim at this stage is an understatement.

It's still 15 days or so much until they reach the coastal town of Adalia.

It's the middle of winter and the terrain is mountainous.

It's cold and miserable.

Le Odysseia was the last major town on the way to the coast and the Latin Christians were hoping to restock there.

Now they can't. To make things worse, they are deep in Selyuk Turk territory.

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