The Second Crusade, preached half a century afterwards by Saint Bernard, and commanded by an Emperor of Germany and a King of France, proved equally unfortunate.  Not a single trophy consoled Europe for the additional loss of two hundred thousand men.  The army melted away in foolish sieges, for which the crusaders had no genius or proper means.

The Third Crusade, and the most famous, which began in the year 1189, of which Philip Augustus of France, Richard Coeur de Lion of England, and Frederic Barbarossa of Germany were the leaders,—­the three greatest monarchs of their age,—­was also signally unsuccessful.  Feudal armies seem to have learned nothing in one hundred years of foreign warfare; or else they had greater difficulties to contend with, abler generals to meet, than they dreamed of, who reaped the real advantages,—­like Saladin.  Sir Walter Scott, in his “Ivanhoe,” has not probably exaggerated the military prowess of the heroes of this war, or the valor of Templars and Hospitallers; yet the finest array of feudal forces in the Middle Ages, from which so much was expected, wasted its strength and committed innumerable mistakes.  It proved how useless was a feudal army for a distant and foreign war.  Philip may have been wily, and Richard lion-hearted, but neither had the generalship of Saladin.  Though they triumphed at Tiberias, at Jaffa, at Caesarea; though prodigies of valor were performed; though Ptolemais (or Acre), the strongest city of the East, was taken,—­yet no great military results followed.  More blood was shed at this famous siege, which lasted three years, than ought to have sufficed for the subjugation of Asia.  There were no decisive battles, and yet one hundred battles took place under its walls.  Slaughter effected nothing.  Jerusalem, which had been retaken by the Saracens, still remained in their hands, and never afterwards was conquered by the Europeans.  The leaders returned dejected to their kingdoms, and the bones of their followers whitened the soil of Palestine.

The Fourth Crusade, incited by Pope Innocent III., three years after, terminated with divisions among the States of Christendom, without weakening the power of the Saracens (1202-4).

Among other expeditions was one called the “Children’s Crusade” (1212), a wretched, fanatical misery, resulting in the enslavement of many and the death of thousands by shipwreck and exposure.

The Fifth Crusade, commanded by the Emperor Frederic II. of Germany (1228-9), was diverted altogether from the main object, and spent its force on Constantinople.  That city was taken, but the Holy Land was not delivered.  The Byzantine Empire was then in the last stages of decrepitude, or its capital would not have fallen, as it did, from a naval attack made by the Venetians, and in revenge for the treacheries and injuries of the Greek emperors to former crusaders.  This, instead of weakening the Mussulmans, broke down the chief obstacle to their entrance into Europe shortly afterward.