Zengi defeats Fulk at Montferrand and captures town.
1138
June
Zengi seizes Homs.
1140
12 June
Joint Frankish/Damascene army recaptures Banyas.
1142
Castle of Kerak constructed.
1143
8 April
Manuel I Comnenus becomes Byzantine Emperor;
10 November
King Fulk dies in a hunting accident;
23 December
Melisende and her son Baldwin crowned jointly; Baldwin rules as Baldwin III.
1144
23-24 December
Zengi captures Edessa; a massacre of the population ensues; all captive Franks executed.
1145
1 December
Pope Eugenius II proclaims the Second Crusade.
1146
14 September
Bernard of Clairvaux preaches the Second Crusade;
November-December
Zengi dies;
Count of Edessa briefly recaptures Edessa before being driven out by Zengi’s son Nur ad-Din.
1147
May
Unsuccessful invasion of Hauran by Baldwin III;
mid-May
Second Crusade: departure of German crusaders under Conrad III;
11 June
Second Crusade: departure of French under King Louis VII;
17 October
Second Crusade: Iberian crusaders capture Almeria;
24 October
Second Crusade: Portuguese with Flemish/English support capture Lisbon;
25 October
Second Crusade: Seljuks obliterate most of Conrad’s army at the Second Battle of Dorylaeum.