Overview

1147 is best remembered for major movements of the Second Crusade and related campaigns in western and northern Europe. The military expedition called by the papacy and influential preachers drew rulers and thousands of warriors from France, Germany and other lands. While the crusading effort aimed primarily at the Holy Land, it also produced strikingly local operations — most notably the Siege of Lisbon and the so-called Wendish Crusade against pagan Slavs in the Baltic region.

Second Crusade: departure and Anatolia

Following the fall of Edessa (1144), calls for a large new crusade culminated in 1147 when the kings of France and Germany led principal contingents westwards. King Louis VII of France and Emperor Conrad III of Germany each set out with large armies; their passage across Byzantine and Anatolian territory was difficult and at times hostile. Crusading columns suffered ambushes and heavy losses in Anatolia at engagements commonly associated with Dorylaeum and other confrontations with Seljuk Turkish forces, weakening the expedition before it reached the Levant.

Iberian peninsula: the Siege of Lisbon

One of 1147’s most consequential events took place on the Iberian Peninsula, where Portuguese forces under Afonso Henriques (later Afonso I of Portugal) cooperated with northern European crusaders who had diverted en route to the Holy Land. The combined force besieged and captured Lisbon from Muslim rulers, an advance that greatly strengthened the Christian foothold in what is now Portugal and became a celebrated episode in the Reconquista.

Wendish Crusade and northern campaigns

Concurrently, groups of German and Danish nobles carried out the Wendish Crusade against Slavic tribes along the southern Baltic coast. Framed by contemporary leaders as a campaign against pagans, these operations aimed to expand Christian rule, convert local populations and secure trade routes. Results were mixed: some strongholds were attacked or compelled to accept missionary activity, while resistance and political complexity limited comprehensive conquest.

Consequences and significance

The events of 1147 illustrate how crusading impulses affected multiple regions beyond the eastern Mediterranean. The year combined high-profile royal participation, the blunt realities of warfare in unfamiliar terrain, and local opportunism that reshaped territories such as Lisbon. Militarily and politically, the campaigns revealed limits to coordinated pan-European action and set the stage for further crusading efforts later in the 12th century.

Notable figures and records

  • Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany — principal monarchs who led armies on the Second Crusade.
  • Afonso Henriques of Portugal — local ruler who secured Lisbon with crusader assistance.
  • Contemporary chroniclers and church leaders, including Bernard of Clairvaux, were influential in promoting and organizing crusading zeal.

Several births and deaths of medieval nobles and clerics are associated with this period, though precise dates are often uncertain in the records; consequently scholars commonly use approximate years for some individuals connected to the events of 1147.