Editing Second Crusade (section)

=== Journey to Jerusalem ===
[[File:RaymondOfPoitiersWelcomingLouisVIIinAntioch.JPG|thumb|Raymond of Poitiers welcoming Louis VII in Antioch|alt= Painting of two men meeting in front of a city gate. Both men are in front of crowds of other people. The one on the left is bareheaded and holds his hat in one hand while he bows to the other figure, who is dressed in blue embroidered robes and wears a crown.]]

Though delayed by storms, Louis eventually arrived in Antioch on 19 March; Amadeus of Savoy had died in [[Cyprus]] along the way. Louis was welcomed by Eleanor's uncle [[Raymond of Poitiers]].

Raymond expected him to help defend against the Turks and to accompany him on an expedition against Aleppo, the Muslim city that functioned as the gateway to Edessa, but Louis refused, preferring instead to finish his pilgrimage to Jerusalem rather than focus on the military aspect of the crusade.{{sfn|Brundage|1962|pp=115–121}}

Eleanor enjoyed her stay, but her uncle implored her to remain to enlarge family lands and divorce Louis if the king refused to help what was assuredly the military cause of the Crusade.{{sfn|Nicolle|2009|p=54}} During this period, there were rumours of an affair between Raymond and Eleanor, which caused tensions in the marriage between Louis and Eleanor.{{sfn|Nicolle|2009|pp=18, 54}}

Louis quickly left Antioch for [[County of Tripoli|Tripoli]] with Eleanor under arrest. Meanwhile, Otto of Freising and the remnant of his troops arrived in Jerusalem early in April, and Conrad soon after.{{sfn|Riley-Smith|1991|pp=49–50}} [[Patriarch Fulk of Jerusalem|Fulk]], the [[Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem]], was sent to invite Louis to join them. The fleet that had stopped at Lisbon arrived around this time, as well as the Provençals who had left Europe under the command of [[Alfonso Jordan]], [[Count of Toulouse]].

Alfonso himself did not reach Jerusalem; he died at [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]], supposedly poisoned by [[Raymond II of Tripoli]], the nephew who feared his political aspirations in the county. The claim that Raymond had poisoned Alfonso caused much of the Provençal force to turn back and return home.{{sfn|Nicolle|2009|p=54}} The original focus of the crusade was [[Edessa]], but the preferred target of [[King Baldwin III]] and of the [[Knights Templar]] was Damascus.{{sfn|Brundage|1962|pp=115–121}}

In response to the arrival of the crusaders, the regent of Damascus, [[Mu'in ad-Din Unur]], started making feverish preparations for war, strengthening the fortifications of Damascus, ordering troops to his city and having the water sources along the road to Damascus destroyed or diverted. Unur sought help from the Zangid rulers of Aleppo and Mosul (who were normally his rivals), though forces from these states did not arrive in time to see combat outside of Damascus. It is almost certain that the Zangid rulers delayed sending troops to Damascus out of the hope that their rival Unur might lose his city to the crusaders.{{sfn|Nicolle|2009|p=55}}