Prompted by the catastrophic fall of the Crusader state of Edessa to the Muslim ruler Zengi, Pope Eugenius III issued a papal bull calling for a new holy crusade. He commissioned the charismatic Cistercian abbot Bernard of Clairvaux to preach the campaign across Europe. Bernard's fiery, passionate oratory at Vézelay ignited an unprecedented spiritual frenzy, convincing King Louis VII of France and Holy Roman Emperor Conrad III to personally lead their massive armies east in a unified military pilgrimage.

The Second Crusade triggered a massive outpouring of vernacular lyric poetry across Europe, giving rise to the 'Kreuzlied' (Crusade song) genre among German Minnesingers and French Troubadours. These poems beautifully captured the intense psychological tension between a knight's sacred duty to God and his courtly love for his lady left behind. The absolute failure of the crusade later induced a deep spiritual crisis in European literature, prompting poets to bitterly question divine favor.