Historical. When Simon de Montfort, “executioner” of the South, lost his life during the Siege of Toulouse
By Toulouse editorial staff
Published on
“And the stone came straight where it needed to be. Venc tot dreit la peira lai on era mestiers”. On the side of the Virebent entrance to the Jardin des Plantes, next to the Sorano theater, Toulousea plaque recalls that it was at this place that Simon IV of Montfort collapsed on June 25, 1218, killed by a stone produced by a trebuchet fired from Saint-Sernin and operated, according to legend, by women.
“Lo Lop is dead! Long live Tolosa »
That day an immense clamor runs through the Languedoc city, to the sound of bells and horns and trumpets and the cries of “Lo Lop is dead! Viva Tolosa”.
Galvanized, the besieged ended up definitively repelling the men of the young Amaury VI, Simon’s son. Inexperienced and uncharismatic, he ended up losing all his father’s conquests (county of Toulouse, viscounty of Albi, Béziers and Carcassonne) and signed his capitulation on January 14, 1224, before Raimon VII and Roger-Bernat de Foix, in foot of the ramparts of Carcassonne. He had his father’s body repatriated to the royal priory of Haute-Bruyère of the Order of Fontevrault, near Montfort-l’Amaury (Yvelines)the family stronghold.
A nobleman from Ile de France
This is where Simon was born (between 1164 and 1175, according to different sources). Like any son of good family, the eldest of the House of Montfort shows a remarkable appetite for the handling of weapons. He thus skimmed many tournaments in Ile-de-France where he carved out a solid reputation.
Cautious, he still does not prefer to steal politics, not taking part in Franco-English rivalries, if only to avoid losing his rights to the county of Leicester, land belonging to his maternal grandfather Robert de Beaumont. . His marriage to Alix de Montmorencythe sister of Mathieu, future constable of France, nevertheless sits it a little more in the high spheres.
In 1199, his ardent devotion finally caused him to leave his lordship. Fascinated by the eloquence of Foulques de Neuilly who preaches the fourth crusade given by Innocent III, he enlists. To pay the Venetian shipowners, the Crusader leaders agree to sack the Christian town of Zara (Dalmatia). Simon refuses this blackmail but accepts, during his return to lead a punitive expedition in Tiberias on behalf of King Amaury II of Lusignan.
The crusade against the Albigenses
A new crusade, against the Albigensian heretics, leaves him skeptical. But Guy, the abbot of Vaux de Cernay, commissioned to preach against the Cathars in Occitania, who knows his formidable qualities as a warrior, ended up convincing him in 1209.
The Incarnation of Terror
For nearly ten years, he will embody terror by devastating the South with his army. He conquers Castres (Tarn), Pamiers (Ariège), Albi (Tarn) and made himself infamous for acts like that of Minerva (Herault), where he burns 140 Cathars. Despite the failure of a first siege in Toulouse in June 1211, he succeeded in defeating the alliance forged between Raimond VI and King Peter II of Aragon during the Battle of Low wall (Haute Garonne)September 13, 1213.
In 1215, he seized Narbonne (Aude) and Toulouse, where he moved his family to the Château Narbonnais, the palace of the counts.
Matthew Arnal
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