Baldwin succeeded him.

"The history of the last hundred years has been full of fresh efforts to
crush the Moslem power, but hitherto it cannot be said that fortune has
attended the efforts of the Christians. Had it not been indeed for the
devotion of the Knights of St. John and of the Templars, two great
companies formed of men who devoted their lives to the holding of the
sepulcher against the infidel, our hold of the Holy Land would have been
lost.

"Gradually the Saracens have wrested post after post from our hands.
Edessa was taken in 1144, and the news of this event created an intense
excitement. The holy St. Bernard stirred up all France, and Louis VII.
himself took the vow and headed a noble army. The ways of God are not
our ways, and although the army of Germany joined that of France, but
little results came of this great effort.

"The Emperor Conrad, with the Germans, was attacked by the Turk Saladin
of Iconium, and was defeated with a loss of sixty thousand men. The King
of France, with his army, was also attacked with fury, and a large
portion of his force were slaughtered. Nothing more came of this great
effort, and while the first Crusade seemed to show that the men-at-arms
of Europe were irresistible, the second on the contrary gave proof that
the Turks were equal to the Christian knights. Gradually the Christian
hold of the Holy Land was shaken. In 1187, although fighting with
extraordinary bravery, the small army of Christian Knights of the Temple
and of St. John were annihilated, the King of Jerusalem was made
prisoner, and the Christian power was crushed. Then Saladin, who
commanded the Turks, advanced against Jerusalem, and forced it to
capitulate.