Editing Louis VII of France (section)

==Early reign==
[[File:Louis7seal.jpg|thumb|[[Equestrian seal|Equestrian image]] of Louis VII on two-sided royal seal. Legend: ET DVX AQVITANORVM.]]

Following the death of Duke [[William X of Aquitaine]], Louis VI moved quickly to have his son married to [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]] (who had inherited William's territory) on 25 July 1137.{{sfn|Jones|2012|pp=31–33}} In this way, Louis VI sought to add the large, sprawling territory of the duchy of Aquitaine to his family's holdings in France. On 1 August 1137, shortly after the marriage, Louis VI died, and Louis became king. The pairing of the monkish Louis and the high-spirited Eleanor was doomed to failure; she reportedly once declared that she had thought to marry a king, only to find she had married a monk.{{sfn|Turner|2009|p=47}} There was a marked difference between the frosty, reserved culture of the northern court in the [[Île-de-France]], where Louis had been raised, and the rich, free-wheeling court life of the Aquitaine with which Eleanor was familiar.{{sfn|Jones|2012|pp=31–33}} Louis and Eleanor had two daughters, [[Marie of France, Countess of Champagne|Marie]] and [[Alix of France|Alix]].{{sfn|Jones|2012|pp=31–33}}

In the first part of his reign, Louis was vigorous and zealous in the exercise of his [[prerogative]]s. His accession was marked by no disturbances other than uprisings by the [[Burgess (title)|burgesses]] of [[Orléans]] and [[Poitiers]], who wished to organise [[Medieval commune|communes]]. He soon came into violent conflict with [[Pope Innocent II]], however, when the [[archbishopric of Bourges]] became vacant. The king supported the chancellor Cadurc as a candidate to fill the vacancy against the pope's nominee [[Pierre de la Chatre]], swearing upon relics that so long as he lived, Pierre should never enter Bourges. The pope thus imposed an [[interdict]] upon the king.

Louis then became involved in a war with [[Theobald II of Champagne]] by permitting [[Raoul I of Vermandois]], the [[seneschal]] of France, to repudiate his wife, Theobald II's sister, and to marry [[Petronilla of Aquitaine]], sister of the queen of France. As a result, [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]] decided to side with the pope in the dispute over Bourges. The war lasted two years (1142–44) and ended with the occupation of Champagne by the royal army. Louis was personally involved in the assault and burning of the town of [[Vitry-en-Perthois]].{{sfn|Kaeuper|2016|p=202}} At least 1,500 people who had sought refuge in the church died in the flames.{{sfn|Kaeuper|2016|p=202}} Condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities, Louis removed his armies from Champagne and returned them to Theobald. He accepted Pierre de la Chatre as archbishop of Bourges and shunned Raoul and Petronilla. Desiring to atone for his sins, he declared his intention of mounting a crusade on Christmas Day 1145 at Bourges. [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] assured its popularity by his preaching at [[Vezelay]] on Easter 1146.

[[File:II Geza es VII Lajos KK.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|[[Géza II of Hungary]] and Louis VII of France. Image from the Hungarian ''[[Chronicon Pictum]]'' (1358)]]

In the meantime, [[Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou]], completed his conquest of [[Normandy]] in 1144. In exchange for being recognised as Duke of Normandy by Louis, Geoffrey surrendered half of the county of Vexin—a region vital to Norman security—to Louis. Considered a clever move by Louis at the time, it would later prove yet another step towards [[House of Châteaudun|Angevin]] rule.

In June 1147, in fulfillment of his vow to mount the [[Second Crusade]], Louis and his queen set out from the [[Basilica of Saint-Denis]], first stopping in [[Metz]] on the overland route to [[Syria]]. Soon they arrived in the [[Kingdom of Hungary]], where they were welcomed by the king [[Géza II of Hungary]], who was already waiting with King [[Conrad III of Germany]]. Due to his good relationships with Louis, Géza II asked the French king to be his son [[Stephen III of Hungary|Stephen]]'s godfather. Relations between the kingdoms of France and Hungary remained cordial long after this time: decades later, Louis's daughter [[Margaret of France, Queen of England and Hungary|Margaret]] was taken as wife by Géza's son [[Béla III of Hungary]].{{sfn|Laszlovszky|2016|p=84}}

After receiving provisions from Géza, the army continued its march to [[Constantinople]].{{sfn|Berry|1969|p=488}} After meeting with Manuel and receiving some supplies, the French crusaders moved to join up with Conrad's army. Louis conferred with Conrad and decided to wait for the Germans to reorganize before joining him at Lopadium.{{sfn|Tyerman|2007|p=323}} Louis set out on what he assumed would be simpler paths into Philadelphia.{{sfn|Tyerman|2007|p=323}} Concerned about the winter shortage of supplies in hostile, Seljuk-held central Anatolia, Louis and Conrad made the decision to alter their journey by 11 November.{{sfn|Tyerman|2007|p=323}} After a month of travel Louis' army arrived at Ephesus.{{sfn|Tyerman|2007|p=324}} He chose, despite warning from Byzantine messengers, to march inland towards the Maender valley.{{sfn|Tyerman|2007|p=324}} Just beyond [[Laodicea on the Lycus|Laodicea]], at [[Honaz]], the French army was ambushed by Turks.{{sfn|Berry|1969|pp=499}} In the resulting [[Battle of Mount Cadmus]], the Turks first bombarded the French with arrows and heavy stones, then swarmed down from the mountains and massacred them. The historian [[Odo of Deuil]] gives this account:
<blockquote>During the fighting the King Louis lost his small and famous royal guard, but he remained in good heart and nimbly and courageously scaled the side of the mountain by gripping the tree roots [...] The enemy climbed after him, hoping to capture him, and the enemy in the distance continued to fire arrows at him. But God willed that his [[cuirass]] should protect him from the arrows, and to prevent himself from being captured he defended the crag with his bloody sword, cutting off many heads and hands.
</blockquote>

[[File:RaymondOfPoitiersWelcomingLouisVIIinAntioch.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|[[Raymond of Poitiers]] welcoming Louis VII in [[Antioch]] (15th-century illustration)]]

After this battle, Louis refused to travel by land any further and boarded ships at [[Antalya]]. He finally reached Antioch in March 1148. His queen Eleanor supported her uncle, [[Raymond of Poitiers]], and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis' interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret and went to [[Jerusalem]].{{sfn|Hodgson|2007|pp=131–134}} He united with King Conrad III of Germany and King [[Baldwin III of Jerusalem]] to lay [[Siege of Damascus (1148)|siege to Damascus]]; this ended in disaster and the campaign was abandoned after just four days.{{sfn|Berry|1969|p=507{{endash}}510}} Louis decided to leave the Holy Land, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wanted to help her doomed uncle Raymond, after Easter of 1149. Departing from [[Acre, Israel|Acre]], he returned to France via Italy, and after visiting [[Roger II of Sicily]] and [[Pope Eugene III]],{{sfn|Berry|1969|p=511}} crossed the Alps and reached Paris in November.{{sfn|Marvin|2019|p=38-43}}