Decline of the Byzantine Empire of its territory in Asia Minor, and was in immediate danger of complete annihilation. It recovered following the Komnenian restoration, as Alexios I Komnenos restored relations with the Papacy, and requested aid against the Turks from Pope Urban II at the Council of Piacenza in 1095. Later that same year, the pope preached the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont. In the wake of the success of the First Crusade, the three competent Komnenian emperors, especially Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180), may have had the power to expel the outnumbered Seljuks, several factors combined to ensure that they never
Pope Urban II than to his own desire that Jerusalem be freed from Muslim rule. It was believed that originally that Urban wanted to send a relatively small force to aid the Byzantines, however after meeting with two prominent members of the crusades Adhemar of Puy and Raymond of Saint-Guilles, Urban decided to rally a much larger force to retake Jerusalem. Urban II refers to liberating the church as a whole or the eastern churches generally rather than to reconquering Jerusalem itself. The phrases used are "churches of God in the eastern region" and "the eastern churches" (to the Flemish), "liberation of the