In aid of Poitiers – A crusades timeline

[kasumigenx]

Rereading the POD again, I dont think it is very plausible for Louis to be able to do much at all. After the fiasco of the siege of Damascus, he didn't really have much left at all which is why he just went home. If you want to have him save Raymond of Poiters, the POD ought to happen earlier.

I think it would be better if the POD is 1146 in which we avoid Edessa from being taken by the Saracens.

 

[fdas]

I think it would be better if the POD is 1146 in which we avoid Edessa from being taken by the Saracens.

Then we don't have a crusade.

 

[kasumigenx]

Then we don't have a crusade.

Indeed or have the Count of Edessa retain Edessa.

 

[30PrincesAndAKing]

Then we don't have a crusade.

Which may actually be better for the Crusader States in the long run. OTL their chronic problem was understaffing; they had plenty of institutional 'support' (money) coming in from Europe, but not very many men on the ground to man the fortresses.

Crusaders coming from Europe rarely solved this problem: the crusaders often had their own ambitions which were completely at-odds with the actual foreign policy of the Crusader States; the crusaders were often completely ignorant of or disapproving of the necessary compromises their Outremer counterparts had made to secure their rule, and they almost always went home immediately afterwards. So any manpower gain would be temporary and not actually solve the long-term problems caused by the lack of actual Latin settlers in the Levant.

However, it's hard to prevent Edessa from being taken without giving the Crusader States some extra edge; they need to make up that staffing shortfall somewhere, ideally from somewhere other than 'seasonal' help from the Europeans, or else there's no reason why Zengi wouldn't try to take Edessa (or succeed, for that matter).