ABSTRACT
By Alexander III's pontificate princes and bishops across Latin Christian Europe and the Levant had come to expect the pope to take a leading role in the defense of Christendom and to use his authority to grant the arms-bearers spiritual and temporal rewards for their service. The various Christian and Muslim states of the region continued to fight, in order to expand their territories and secure essential resources. Alexander was visited in Benevento in southern Italy by envoys from the East, led by Archbishop Frederick of Tyre, who brought reports of the dangers facing the Frankish settlers, including the capture of Egypt by Nur ad-Din's forces. King Henry II of England was, as duke of Normandy, count of Anjou, Maine and Touraine and duke of Aquitaine overlord over most of western France and Louis VII's most powerful vassal. The Alexandrine Curia received petitions requesting support for a mission to the pagan Estonians in the easternmost part of the Baltic region.
