Louis VII King of France

�����Louis VII King of France was born 1120. He was the son of Louis VI King of France and Adelaide of Maurienne. He married Eleanor of Aquitaine, daughter of William X Duke of Aquitaine and Aenor de Chattelerault, on July 22, 1137 in Bordeaux.¹ He married Constance of Castile in 1154 in Orléans.¹ He married Adela of Champagne, daughter of Theobald IV Count of Blois and Matilda of Carinthia, on November 13, 1160 in Paris.¹ He died on September 18, 1180.
�����After the fall of Edessa in 1146, Pope Eugenius III addressed a bull to Louis VII 1 Dec 1145 urging a new crusade. He assembled his army at Metz 15 Jun 1147, and arrived in Constantinople 4 Oct 1147. He left the government in the hands of Suger Abbé de Saint-Denis, his brother Henri Archbishop of Reims and his cousin Rudolf Count of Vermandois. Although the crusade failed in its aim to capture Damascus, Louis VII gained much prestige as the first western king to lead a crusading army. After leaving Palestine in Summer 1149, he landed in Calabria where he discussed launching a new crusade aimed at taking vengeance on Byzantium with Roger II King of Sicily and Pope Eugenius III, but the scheme was later dropped for lack of support from Conrad III King of Germany who had entered an alliance with Emperor Manuel I. He arrived back in Paris at the end of 1149.¹