Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

And what had been an unlikely journey in the 1090s was now an impossible one. A new Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–80), had not summoned crusaders, did not want them on his doorstep, and did only the bare minimum to help them on their way. A new “sultan of Rum”—Qilij Arslan’s son Mas’ud—had an even firmer grip on Asia Minor than his father had enjoyed. Both Conrad’s and Louis’s armies were savaged by Turkish warriors as they stumbled through Asia Minor: in October 1147 Conrad fought the Turks at Dorylaeum. But this time the crusaders were crushed and Conrad lost much of his baggage train. Several months later, in January 1148, Louis VII only narrowly escaped with his life when his own army was ambushed at Mount Cadmus (Honaz).