Cathar Success

By mid 1209 around 10,000 crusaders had gathered in Lyon and began to march south. In June Raymond of Toulouse, recognizing the potential disaster at hand, promised to act against the Cathars, and his excommunication was lifted. The crusaders headed towards Montpellier and the lands of Raymond-Roger de Trencavel, aiming for the Cathar communities around Albi and Carcassonne. Like Raymond of Toulouse, Raymond-Roger sought an accommodation with the crusaders, but he was refused a meeting and raced back to Carcassonne to prepare his defences.

In July the crusaders captured the small village of Servian and headed for Béziers, arriving on July 21. They surrounded the town and demanded that the Cathars be handed over; the demand was refused. The town fell the following day when an abortive sortie was pursued back into the town. Although Béziers is believed to have held no more than 500 Cathars, the whole population was slaughtered. According to the Cistercian writer Caesar of Heisterbach, one of the leaders of the Crusader army, the Papal legate Arnaud-Amaury, was asked by a Crusader how they might distinguish the Cathars, their enemies, from other citizens. He answered: Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius" — "Kill them [all]! Surely the Lord discerns which [ones] are his."[1] Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead that range between seven and nearly twenty thousand; this latter figure appears in Arnaud-Amaury's report to the Pope. The news of the horror at Béziers quickly spread and many settlements were cowed.

The next major target for the crusade was Carcassonne. The town was well fortified, but vulnerable and over-populated with refugees. The crusaders arrived outside the town on August 1, 1209. The siege did not last long: by August 7 the crusaders had cut the town's access to water. Raymond-Roger sought negotiations but was taken prisoner while under truce, and the town surrendered on August 15. The inhabitants were not massacred, but all were forced to leave the town — naked according to Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay; "in their shifts and breeches" according to another source. Simon de Montfort, who now took charge of the Crusader army, was granted control of the area encompassing Carcassonne, Albi, and Béziers. After Carcassonne most towns surrendered without a struggle. Albi, Castelnaudary, Castres, Fanjeaux, Limoux, Lombers and Montréal all fell quickly during the autumn. However some of the towns quickly taken later revolted.


The yellow cross worn by Cathar repentants.The next struggle centred around Lastours and the adjacent castle of Cabaret. Attacked in December 1209, Pierre-Roger de Cabaret repulsed the attackers. Fighting largely halted over the winter, but many new crusaders arrived. In March 1210, Bram was captured after a short siege. In June the well fortified town of Minerve was invested; it withstood a heavy bombardment, but in late June the town's main well was destroyed, and on July 22, the inhabitants surrendered. The Cathar residents were given a chance to convert, and the 140 who refused were burned. In August the crusade proceeded to Termes, and despite attacks from Pierre-Roger de Cabaret, the siege was solid, and in December the town fell. It was the last action of the year.

When operations resumed in 1211 the actions of Arnaud-Amaury and Simon de Montfort had alienated several lords over the winter, including Raymond of Toulouse, who had been excommunicated again. The crusaders returned in force to Lastours in March and Pierre-Roger de Cabaret soon agreed to surrender. In May the castle of Aimery de Montréal was retaken; he and his senior knights were hanged, and several hundred Cathars were burned. Cassès and Montferrand both fell easily in early June, and the crusaders headed for Toulouse. The town was besieged, but for once the attackers were short of supplies and men, and so Simon de Montfort withdrew before the end of the month. Emboldened, Raymond of Toulouse led a force to attack de Monfort at Castelnaudary in September. De Montfort broke free from the siege but Castelnaudary fell and the forces of Raymond went on to liberate over thirty towns before grinding to a halt at Lastours in the autumn. The following year much of the province of Toulouse was re-captured.

In 1213, forces led by King Peter II of Aragon, I of Catalonia, came to the aid of Toulouse. The force besieged Muret, but in September a sortie from the castle led to the death of King Peter, and his army fled. It was a serious blow for the resistance, and in 1214 the situation became worse: Raymond was forced to flee to England, and his lands were given by the Pope to the victorious Philippe II, a ploy which succeeded in interesting the king in the conflict. In November the ever active Simon de Montfort entered Périgord and easily captured the castles of Domme and Montfort; he also occupied Castlenaud and destroyed the fortifications of Beynac. In 1215, Castelnaud was lost and swiftly recaptured by de Montfort, and the crusaders entered Toulouse. Toulouse was gifted to de Montfort, and in April 1216 he ceded his lands to Philippe.
 

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