We have seen that the papal privilege of protection for crusaders underwent significant changes under Eugenius III and his successors. From the secular perspective the main change is that from the time of the Second Crusade the papal protection was extended not only over counties but over the kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Given the sacral nature of kingship and the fact that kings were anointed we might expect the defence of people and property to operate differently for them. Yet papal guardianship encompassed the royal realm in the same way as any other domain. The difference between the protection offered to counts or to kings as crusaders was the regal and sacred status of the latter, which meant an intensification of papal effort to uphold that status by its protection. Royal and comital methods of ensuring peace, or at least negating disruption of political stability, were markedly similar, however; both installed ruling bodies of experienced and influential individuals to fill the absent ruler's place.

The focus of this book is predominantly on France; however, comparison with the German regency will illustrate aspects of the French version: how and why regents were selected, and the role of the papacy in upholding the crusade-specific protection. A crucial contrast between royal and comital government was that royal regencies placed a marked emphasis on installing representatives of ‘the two swords’ – the spiritual and secular spheres of authority. In France, the regents were Abbot Suger of St Denis, Archbishop Samson of Rheims and Count Ralph of Vermandois. In Germany, the young Prince Henry represented secular might and he was the heir to the throne, while Abbot Wibald of Stablo provided the requisite ecclesiastical authority.

In the light of the magnitude of the task of protecting kingdoms, we might ask whether the papacy promised more than it could reasonably deliver. Grabois, for example, suggests that implementing this privilege was an impossible task, especially when the crusader was a king. Yet we must bear in mind what the papacy had offered and what the pope had at his disposal to protect the interests of royal crusaders. Chief among papal sanctions was excommunication, which as we have seen was deployed against those who would violate crusaders’ privileged status. For the military protection and continuation of secular government, however, we must look to the temporal authorities installed by Louis VII and Conrad III.