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	The Crusades 1126-1156: Crusades in the East																				The Crusades 1126-1156: Crusades in the East																				The Crusades 1126-1156: Crusades in the East																					< back
	• Battle of Tel el-Saqhab: Baldwin II tries to take Damascus and is fought off at this bloody but indecisive battle. • Oct: the son of Bohemond, also called Bohemond, arrives to stake his claim to the Principality of Antioch. Baldwin II, who has acted as regent, agrees and offers Bohemond his daughter Alice's hand in marriage.						• May: Fulk, Count of Anjou, lands at Acre. Baldwin II has promised Fulk his daughter Melisande's hand in marriage and the kingdom of Jerusalem after his death. • Nov: Baldwin takes the Assassins' fortress of Banyas.		• Feb: Bohemond II of Antioch is killed and his army destroyed by Danishmend Turks while on a raid in Cilicia.		• 21 Aug: Baldwin II, King of Jerusalem, dies and is succeeded by his chosen successor Fulk of Anjou. • Battle of Rugia; the first battle fought between two crusading armies - those of King Fulk and Pons of Tripoli - ends with victory for the King.		• (about this date) Fulk defeats of Zengi of Mosul at a battle near the castle of Harim. • (About this date) King Fulk invests Raymond of Poitiers as Prince of Antioch.										• Aug: Fulk of Jerusalem is besieged in the fortress of Montferrand by Zengi. With relief forces on the way the King agrees to surrender the castle in return for being allowed to go free. • 29 Aug: the Byzantine Emperor, John II Comnenus, besieges Antioch, which has always been claimed by the Empire. The siege is abandoned when Prince Raymond of Antioch takes an oath of fealty.		• 28 April: Emperor John Comnenus leads an attempt to take the Muslim stronghold of Shaizar. • 21 May: John Comnenus ends his siege at Shaizar but exacts tribute from its emir. He returns to Antioch, determined to demonstrate his overlordship of the Principality, but soon leaves for Cilicia (Lesser Armenia). • June: Zengi captures Homs which is ruled from Damascus. With Zengi threatening Damascus itself, its ruler asks King Fulk for help in defending his city. Fulk agrees and an alliance between Christian Jerusalem and Muslim Damascus begins. Zengi withdraws his army. • In this year Saladin is born.								• Sept: the Byzantine Emperor, John Comnenus blockades Antioch, claiming it for the Empire. Raymond of Antioch resists and John withdraws to Cilicia. • 10 Nov: Fulk, King of Jerusalem, dies in a hunting accident. His widow, Melisande, becomes regent for their 13 year old son, who is crowned Baldwin III. He is the first king of Jerusalem to be born in the Holy Land.		• 8 April: the Byzantine Emperor, John Comnenus, dies and is succeeded by his son, Manuel I.		•25 Dec: Zengi takes advantage of the feuding between the crusader kingdoms and captures Edessa, massacring the Frankish population but sparing the native Christians. The loss of Edessa, the oldest crusader territory, is felt throughout Christendom, and will lead to the second crusade.		• Christmas: Louis VII of France tells his barons that he will take the cross and asks them to join him.		•1 Mar: Eugenius III issues a papal bull proclaiming the Second Crusade. • Bernard of Clairvaux begins a preaching tour to rally support for the crusade. • 14 Sept: Zengi is assassinated. He is succeeded by two sons: Sayf-ad-Din Ghazi, in Mosul, and Nur-ad-Din in Aleppo.		• May: Conrad III and the German crusaders depart for the Holy Land taking the same route as the First Crusade. • 8 June: Louis VII and the French crusaders depart from St Denis. • 25 Oct: Conrad loses three-quarters of his army near Dorylaeum when he is attacked by Turks, having failed to follow the coastal route to the Holy Land as advised by the Byzantines. • 3 Nov: Joscelin II of Edessa is defeated by Nur-ad-Din after an unsuccessful attempt to recover Edessa. • 31 Nov: Conrad and Louis meet at Nicaea, after which illness forces Conrad to return to Constantinople.		•8 Jan: Louis VII's crusader army is heavily defeated by Turks at Mount Cadmon. The remaining force reaches the coast and embark ships for the Holy Land. • 19 March: Louis VII reaches the port of St. Symeon. •24 April: the crusaders, including Conrad and Louis, take the advice of Melisande of Jerusalem and decide to attack Damascus, to which Jerusalem is still allied. • 24 July: the crusaders camp outside Damascus but soon lose their nerve. • 28 July:the crusaders retreat from Damascus, putting an effective end to the Second Crusade. • 8 Sept: Conrad departs for Constantinople. • Anna Comnena, completes Alexiad, a life of her father, Alexius I.		• 29 June: Raymond of Antioch is killed while on a raid in territory held by Nur-ad-Din, who rides past Antioch to the sea and seizes the fortress of Harim. • 15 July: the remodeled and enlarged Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, is dedicated.		• April: Nur-ad-Din imprisons Joscelin of Edessa and blinds him; he will be held until his death nine years later.		• Baldwin of Jerusalem prevents Nur-ad-Din from capturing Damascus, his Muslim ally.				• 25 Jan: Baldwin III with a large army that includes knights of the Hospitalers and Templars begin a siege of Ascalon, the port which is still held by the Egyptians and which has never fallen to the crusaders. The city is well defended and Baldwin conscripts extra assistance from pilgrims visiting the Holy Land. • 19 Aug: the garrison of Ascalon finally surrenders to Baldwin III.		• 25 April: Nur-ad-Din takes Damascus, which acted as an important buffer for the crusader states.				• Reynald of Chatillon, Prince of Antioch attacks Cyprus, part of the Byzantine Empire. • Mas`ud I, Sultan of Rum, dies and is succeeded by his son, Kilij Arslan II.
	Crusades in Europe and North Africa																				Crusades in Europe and North Africa																				Crusades in Europe and North Africa																					< back
																																											• April: Abd-al-Mu'min, having conquered Morocco, takes Marrakesh and crosses into Spain, where he threatens the Muslim kingdoms. • 25 Oct: English and Flemish crusaders, sailing to the Holy Land, help in the capture of Lisbon by Afonso of Portugal.
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