Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to hel...
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Eleanor supported her uncle, Raymond of Antioch, and prevailed upon Louis to help Antioch against Aleppo. But Louis VII's interest lay in Jerusalem, and so he slipped out of Antioch in secret. He sided with Conrad III of Germany and Baldwin III of Jerusalem to lay siege to Damascus. A disaster, the project was abandoned. Louis VII decided to leave, despite the protests of Eleanor, who still wantedto help her doomed uncle Raymond of Antioch. Louis VII and the French army returned home in 1149. The expedition was a great cost to the royal treasury and military. It also precipitated a conflict with Eleanor (Louis arrested her), leading to the annulment of their marriage at the council of Beaugency (March 1152). Consanguinuity was the basis; in fact, it owed more to the state of hostility between the two, and the decreasing odds that their marriage would produce a male heir to the throne of France. At the same time the emperor Frederick I (1152–1190) in the east was making good the imperial claims on Arles. When the schism broke out, Louis VII took the part of the Pope Alexander III, the enemy of Frederick I, and after two comical failures of Frederick I to meet Louis VII at Saint Jean de Losne (on 29 August and 22 September 1162), Louis VII definitely gave himself up to the cause of Alexander III, who lived at Sens from 1163 to 1165. Alexander III gave the King, in return for hisloyal support, the golden rose.