Editing Second Crusade (section)

=== French route ===
[[File:C croisade2 Louis7.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Louis VII of France]]
The French crusaders had departed from [[Metz]] in June 1147, led by Louis, [[Thierry of Alsace]], [[Renaut I of Bar]], [[Amadeus III of Savoy]] and his half-brother [[William V of Montferrat]], William VII of [[Auvergne (province)|Auvergne]], and others, along with armies from [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]], [[Brittany]], [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundy]] and [[Aquitaine]]. A force from [[Provence]], led by Alphonse of Toulouse, chose to wait until August, and to cross by sea. At [[Worms, Germany|Worms]], Louis joined with crusaders from [[Normandy]] and England. They followed Conrad's route fairly peacefully, although Louis came into conflict with King [[Géza II of Hungary]], when Géza discovered that Louis had allowed a failed Hungarian usurper, [[Boris Kalamanos]], to join his army. Relations within Byzantine territory were also grim, and the Lorrainers, who had marched ahead of the rest of the French, also came into conflict with the slower Germans whom they met on the way.{{sfn|Runciman|1952|pp=259–263}}

Since the original negotiations between Louis and Manuel I, Manuel had broken off his military campaign against Rûm, signing a truce with his enemy Sultan [[Mesud I]]. Manuel did this to give himself a free hand to concentrate on defending his empire from the crusaders, who had gained a reputation for theft and treachery since the First Crusade and were widely suspected of harbouring sinister designs on Constantinople. Nevertheless, Manuel's relations with the French army were somewhat better than with the Germans, and Louis was entertained lavishly in Constantinople. Some of the French were outraged by Manuel's truce with the Seljuks and called for an alliance with Roger II and an attack on Constantinople, but Louis restrained them.{{sfn|Runciman|1952|pp=268–269}}

[[File:Manuelcomnenus.jpg|thumb|left|Emperor Manuel I|alt=A standing male, dressed in elaborate robes with a fancy hat. He has a halo around his head and is holding a long staff in one hand.]]
When the armies from Savoy, [[Auvergne (province)|Auvergne]] and [[Montferrat]] joined Louis in Constantinople, having taken the land route through Italy and crossing from [[Brindisi]] to [[Durazzo]], the entire army took ship across the [[Bosporus]] to Anatolia. The Greeks were encouraged by rumours that the Germans had captured Iconium, but Manuel refused to give Louis any Byzantine troops. [[Roger II of Sicily]] had just invaded Byzantine territory, and Manuel needed all his army in the [[Peloponnese]]. Both the Germans and French therefore entered Asia without any Byzantine assistance, unlike the armies of the First Crusade. Following the example set by his grandfather [[Alexios I]], Manuel had the French swear to return to the Empire any territory they captured.{{sfn|Runciman|1952|p=269}}

The French met the remnants of Conrad's army at [[Lopadion]], and Conrad joined Louis's force. They followed Otto of Freising's route, moving closer to the Mediterranean coast, and arrived at [[Ephesus]] in December, where they learned that the Turks were preparing to attack them. Manuel also sent ambassadors complaining about the pillaging and plundering that Louis had done along the way, and there was no guarantee that the Byzantines would assist them against the Turks. Meanwhile, Conrad fell sick and returned to Constantinople, where Manuel attended to him personally, and Louis, paying no attention to the warnings of a Turkish attack, marched out from Ephesus with the French and German survivors. The Turks were indeed waiting to attack, but in at the [[Battle of Ephesus (1147)|Battle of Ephesus]] on 24 December 1147, the French proved victorious.{{sfn|Runciman|1952|pp=270–271}} The French fended off another Turkish ambush at the [[Battle of the Meander]] in the same month.

They reached [[Laodicea on the Lycus]] early in January 1148, just after Otto of Freising's army had been destroyed in the same area.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1991|p=51}} Resuming the march, the vanguard under Amadeus of Savoy became separated from the rest of the army at the [[Battle of Mount Cadmus]], where Louis's troops suffered heavy losses from the Turks (6 January 1148). Louis himself, according to [[Odo of Deuil]], climbed a rock and was ignored by the Turks, who did not recognize him. The Turks did not bother to attack further and the French marched on to [[Attalia]], continually harassed from afar by the Turks, who had also burned the land to prevent the French from replenishing their food, both for themselves and their horses. Louis no longer wanted to continue by land, and it was decided to gather a fleet at Attalia and to sail for Antioch.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1991|p=50}} After being delayed for a month by storms, most of the promised ships did not arrive at all. Louis and his associates claimed the ships for themselves, while the rest of the army had to resume the long march to Antioch. The army was almost entirely destroyed, either by the Turks or by sickness.{{sfn|Runciman|1952|pp=272–273}}