Conrad's relationship with
Manuel came under strain when
Conrad's forces began their
march through Hungary and the
Byzantine Empire to
Constantinople.
This was because Manuel had
the Byzantine army,
commanded by Prosuch, follow
the Germans in order to prevent
any efforts to capture territory.
Manuel I and Louis VII was
somewhat more strained
because of the latter's
close association with
Roger of Sicily.
This was partly a result
of Roger's Norman
origins, but mainly
because Roger and
Louis had originally
planned to crusade
together.
The German Campaign 1147-1148
Conrad's overconfidence
caused for his plans not to
work quite as he had hoped.
He believed they could acquire
supplies as they travelled, but
they struggled to do so because
Manuel actually had little
control of the area they
journeyed through.
The French Campaign 1147-1148
The first major problem
was logistics, the French
were extremely short of
supplies
The army came under intense
pressure, the main body of
the army survived due to the
Templars, but Louis's
reputation was damaged
The Antioch Plan
Prince Raymond of
Antioch made a military
proposal to Louis,
alongside the nobles of
Antioch, in May 1148.
His plan was that the
crusaders could help to
capture Aleppo and
Shaizar, which would
neutralise the Muslim
threat to Antioch in the
north.
However, Louis
much to Raymond's
chagrin, rejected the
plan out of hand.
Failure to consult the leaders of the Crusader States
Neither Conrad nor Louis
had consulted with the
leaders of Outremer in
advance of the Second
Crusade, which had several
negative effects in the course
of their campaign.
The crusader's stated
goal was the
recapture of Edessa,
but this had been
completely
destroyed in 1146.
However, as late as
1148, Conrad wrote a
letter explaining his
intentions to take
Edessa, showing the
leaders in Outremer
that their objective
was unrealistic.