The Albigensian Crusade
In 1209 after the death of his papal legate Pierre de Castelnau, Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade, also known as the Cathar Crusade, to eliminate the unorthodox Cathar heresy that had originated in the Languedoc region of Southern France in the 11th century, Cathars were known as Albigensians due to their association with the city of Albi.
Read on to discover more about this shocking side of humanity…
The Cathars were a dualistic religious movement, meaning they believed in the existence of two gods: a good god who created the spiritual world, and an evil god who created the physical world. They believed that the human soul was created by the good god and was trapped in the physical world, where it was subject to suffering and evil. Cathars rejected the Catholic Church and its teachings, and they did not believe in the sacraments or the authority of the Pope. Cathars were also known for their simplistic lifestyle, which involved rejecting material possessions and leading a life of poverty. They believed that by living in this way, they could purify their souls and prepare for their eventual release from the physical world.
The crusade began with the swift and brutal massacre at Béziers on the 22nd of July 1209, resulting in the deaths of almost 20,000 people, Catholics and Cathars alike. In the midst of the chaos of the battle the Abbot of Citeaux, Arnaud Amaury was asked “how will we know the heretics?”, it was then that he uttered those famous words “Kill them all, God will recognise his own”.
On the 1st of August 1209, the city of Carcassonne fell, at the time the city did not possess the fortifications we see today, with most of them being built in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. At the siege of Minerve in 1210, any Cathars who had not yet reached the status of Perfecti were allowed to go free, three of this spiritually elite group who repented were pardoned, but 140 others who refused to do so were subsequently burnt at the stake. Finally in May 1243, the siege of the castle of Montségur began, an impregnable fortress sitting on a rocky spur at an altitude of 1207m, it was only through trickery that the crusaders managed to enter and control the barbican.
By March 1244, the fortress had surrendered. Montségur was the symbol of the resistance and resilience of the Cathars, it was the last stronghold to fall to the crusaders, sadly at this point, the hopes of the entire Languedoc people were dashed. After the fall of Béziers and Carcassonne, a minor French nobleman Simon de Montfort was chosen not only to govern those lands, but also appointed as the new military leader of the crusade. He was a ruthless but effective commander, and although noted for his cruelty and ambition, he was widely regarded as one of the great military commanders of the Middle Ages. After winning the significant Battle of Muret in 1213, the lands of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse were also given to him, he would then style himself Count of Toulouse, Viscount of Béziers, and Carcassonne. Raymond, however, was not willing to give up without a fight and in 1217 he managed to reconquer Toulouse, the following year de Montfort was killed whilst besieging the city. His son Amaury, not having the same zeal for the crusade as his father, abandoned it in 1222, and de Montfort's lands were ceded to Louis VIII, King of France. What is interesting to note for those of us with a passion for the Plantagenets, de Montfort was the sire of the same Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who caused so much grief for Henry III only a couple of decades later in the Second Baron’s War.
Throughout the course of this brutal crusade, aside from the loss of so many innocent lives, many of these sites were centres of cultural and intellectual vitality, and their destruction would go on to have a profound impact on the entire region. As I researched this blog post, I was struck by the stories of so many ordinary people caught up in the conflict, like the Cathars who stood firm in their beliefs even as they faced persecution and death, and the Catholics who were caught in the crossfire and suffered along with their heretical neighbours.
This period was a deeply tragic and violent chapter in the history of the Catholic Church and it can often be difficult for us, living in the 21st century, to fully understand the level of violence and destruction that took place during this military campaign that lasted for over 30 years. Despite the immense suffering and loss caused by this dark period in history, it is a poignant example and a valuable lesson on the devastating consequences of religious intolerance.
Carcassonne is one of the incredible places we will visit on our Plantagenets in France tour, for those of you who enjoy reading historical fiction I would highly recommend ‘Daughters of the Grail’ by Elizabeth Chadwick, it relays the tragic story of this crusade, woven into a fictional novel…. absolutely brilliant!
Max
Carcassonne photo © Plantagenet Discoveries, Illumination Creative Commons/Public Domain
