But they could get to the root of the matter, could recognize, in spite of the shower of words with which the Byzantines sought to deceive them, what was right and what was wrong. They lost patience occasionally, and when they saw that their opponents were endeavoring to entangle them in words, boldly told them that they were not to be thus deceived. Man for man, they felt themselves stronger than the Byzantines, and with the contempt of ignorance despised them on account of their wealth and learning. On the other hand, the Byzantines wrote and spoke of them as barbarians, recognized their superiority in strength and energy, but thought of them in return as ignorant men and as fanatics.
The disastrous failures of the second and third crusades were attributed, for the most part unjustly, to the intrigues and hostility of the Emperor of the Kew Borne. In the
second crusade, which commenced in HIT, the armies of the Cross were led, respectively, by Conrad, the first with the sec- Swabian kin”, and founder of the line of fewabian oud crusade emperors of the western division of the Koman Empire, and by Louis VII. of France.
Crusaders would be well received
Conrad’s army was the first to reach the dominions under the rule of Constantinople. There was fair reason to believe that the Crusaders would be well received. The Eastern Empire, even more than the West, was at this time interested in resisting and driving back the various Moslem races that had already swamped so considerable a part of its territory, and had invited the Crusaders to share in this task.
Moreover, Conrad and Manuel, the reigning Byzantine emperor, had married sisters, and family affection might have aided the two to work harmoniously together. But the brothers-in-law were jealous of each other, and family quarrels added fuel to the unfriendly feeling which soon displayed itself. It must be noticed, in fairness to the empire, that it was hardly possible that the Western army should march across the Balkan peninsula without giving cause for dissatisfaction.
Bulgaria 