They had intended to sail directly to the Holy Land, but weather forced the ships to stop on the Portuguese coast at the northern city of Porto on 16 June 1147.

Also reported by the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi is that the citadel was holding 154,000 men, not counting women and children; as the medieval account put it, after 17 weeks of siege "the inhabitants were despoiled and the city cleansed".

[14] No prince or king was in charge of the expedition, and its participants seem to have been largely made up of townsmen, who organised themselves using a sworn oath.

Bad weather forced the ships to stop on the Portuguese coast, at the northern city of Porto on 16 June 1147.

[15] The undisciplined multi-national group agreed to help him there, with a solemn agreement that offered to the crusaders the pillage of the city's goods and the ransom money for expected prisoners.

He reserved the power of advocatus and released those who were at the siege and their heirs trading in Portugal from the commercial tax called the pedicata.

[19] Some led by William Viel and his brother, however, refused to take part[clarification needed] on account on an earlier joint attempt to capture Lisbon 1142.

After four months, the rulers agreed to surrender on 21 October because the Crusaders' siege tower reached their wall (thus causing a one-day standstill) and because of hunger within the city, which was sheltering populations displaced from Santarém as well as "the leading citizens of Sintra, Almada, and Palmela.

"[20] After a brief riotous insurrection the Anglo-Norman chronicler attributes to "the men of Cologne and the Flemings",[21] the city was entered by the Christian conquerors, on 25 October.

[15] According to the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, The enemy, when they had been despoiled in the city, left the town through three gates continuously from Saturday morning until the following Wednesday.

[18]Furthermore, according to the De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, the Flemish and those from Cologne were the ones who broke their oath but even according to this they were more concerned with plundering than killing any of the inhabitants: They ran hither and yon.

[22]Some of the crusaders set sail and continued on their journey around the Iberian Peninsula and were invited by Count Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona to help him capture the city of Tortosa on the Ebro.

Gilbert of Hastings was elected bishop marking the beginning of the historic relationship between England and Portugal which would later form the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance.