This year 1147 sees Stephen again ostensibly the sole ruler; really, however, devoid of power, as he had always been of counsel, his only strength being the weakness of every one else. This year is marked by the great crusade of the emperor Conrad of Hohenstaufen, and of Lewis VII., and Eleanor of Aquitaine, an expedition in which England nationally had no share, and in which few of the barons took part, but which was recruited to a considerable extent by volunteers from the English ports. The capture of Lisbon from the Moors, and the placing of the kingdom of Portugal upon a sound footing thereby, was the work mainly of the English pilgrims, but it was not a national work, and it touches our history merely as suggesting a probability that some of our most turbulent spirits may have joined the crusade, and thereby increased the chances of peace at home. With 1147, then, begins a new series of movements and a new set of actors, the details of whose doings are involved and obscure. [Sidenote: Proceedings at Rome. ] [Sidenote: Quarrel with the archbishop. ] The death of earl Robert and the departure of the empress left their party without an ostensible head; for Geoffrey of Anjou was far more intent on securing Normandy than England, and his son Henry was only just springing into manhood, David of Scotland being looked upon apparently as the guardian of his interests. Henry of Winchester had lost the legation, which had given him such great strength in the earlier part of the struggle; the popes who had conferred it and promised to renew it, had rapidly given way to successors who were less favorable, and the chair of St. Peter was now filled by Eugenius III., the friend of St. Bernard, who was at this time the great spiritual power in European politics. The scantiness of our authorities does not allow us to speak with certainty, or to decide whether St. Bernard in the English quarrel was moved by a conviction of Stephen’s wrong-doing, or by the influence of the Cistercian order; it is, however, certain that the king and his brother by attempting to force their nephew, afterward canonized as St. William, into the see of York, in opposition to the Cistercian abbot of Fountains, had thrown that strong order, of which Bernard was the ornament, into opposition; and it is also certain that the strings of political intrigue were held by Eugenius III., and that every possible advantage was given by him to Henry of Anjou. The Englishman, Nicolas of St. Alban’s, afterward pope Adrian IV., was a close confidant of the pope, and John of Salisbury, the friend of Becket, was a close confidant of Nicolas; Becket was the clerk and secretary of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury. These may have been the three strands of a strong diplomatic cord. The first impulse, however, which was to bring about Stephen’s final humiliation was, as before, given by himself. In 1148, Eugenius III. called a council at Rheims. Archbishop Theobald asked leave to go.