Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/190

 1 78 THE LATER MIDDLE AGES the seaboard from Asia Minor to the borders of Egypt. Baldwin was succeeded by Fulk of Anjou, followed by his son Baldwin Fall of IIL ' wn0 was no more tnan a boy at the time of Edessa, his accession. Almost immediately afterwards the 1145. Turks attacked and captured Edessa at the north- east of the Christian kingdom. The fall of Edessa was the immediate cause of the second crusade ; its inspiration came from the great monk, Bernard of Clairvaux, the greatest figure in the ecclesiastical world of that time. The second crusade was not a success, although it was Second headed by the German Emperor Conrad and the Crusade, French king, Louis vn. The expedition was a 1147, mighty one, but mismanagement, dissensions and treachery broke it to pieces. The way was being made ready for a great advance of the Moslem arms. During these earlier years of the kingdom of Jerusalem there had grown up the two famous orders of the Knights Templars „ ., A and the Knights of St. John or Hospitallers. These Knights, & r ,. , J. , ,. . Templars were orders of knights who took religious vows of and celibacy and poverty like monks, but were sworn to pi ' give their lives to fighting against the infidels. They admitted to their ranks none but men of high birth. At first brilliant soldiers in the service of the Cross, the orders soon acquired great wealth and vast possessions. In later days the Templars at least were charged with having entered into treasonous relations with the Turks, which is quite possible, and also with having leagued themselves with the powers of dark- ness — a less plausible charge to modern ears. But there is no manner of doubt that they did entirely degenerate from the ideals which moved the founders of the order. The Latin kingdom did not recover ground, though much might have been done by a more skilful prince than Amalric, the brother and successor of Baldwin in. For Amalric Egypt was rent with faction, and one of the factions appealed for aid to the Christians. The opportunity was thrown away; a Seljuk general and his army were also called in, and it was the Seljuk who made himself master of Egypt in the character of vizier or chief minister of the Egyptian kaliph.