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Cathar Castles

Fortresses of the Albigensian Crusade

1209-1300

First published in 2006 by Osprey Publishing

Midland House, West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 OPH, UK

443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA

E-mail:

info@ospreypublishing.com

Dedication

In memory of my father, Christopher Pennington Cowper

(19 June 1936-15 September 2005).

Acknowledgements

research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents

Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical,

optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of

the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed t o the Publishers.

ISBN 10: I 84603 066 8

ISBN 13: 978 I 84603 066 6

I would like to acknowledge the help of the following people

and institutions in obtaining images for this publication: Nikolai

Bogdanovic; Xavier Beaujard, Charge de Communication of the

Communaute de Communes de la Piege et du Lauragais;

AKG-images; and the British Library. I am also very grateful

to Peter Dennis for painting the wonderful artwork plates that

adorn this title, Richard and Hazel Watson of The Map Studio for

creating the maps, and John Richards for drawing the line artwork.

I would like to thank Anita Canonica-Battaglino and Jean-Louis

Cousin of Le Relais Occitan (http://perso.orange.fr/relais.occitan/

index.htm) for their hospitality in the Languedoc.

Finally, I would like to thank my wife Jo for her editorial expertise

and support.

Design: Ken Vail Graphic Design, Cambridge, UK

Typeset in Monotype Gill Sans and ITC Stone Serif

Cartography: Map Studio, Romsey, UK/John Richards

Index by Alison Worthington

Originated by United Graphics, Singapore

Printed in China through Bookbuilders

06 07 08

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Artist's note

Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which

the colour plates in this book were prepared are available for

private sale. All reproduction copyright whatsoever is retained

by the Publishers. All enquiries should be addressed to:

Peter Dennis, Fieldhead,The Park, Mansfield, NOTTS NG18 2AT

e-mail:

magie.h@ntlworld.com

The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence

upon this matter.

FOR A CATALOGUE OF ALL BOOKS PUBLISHED BY OSPREY MILITARY A N D AVIATION

PLEASE CONTACT:

Osprey Direct, c/o Random House Distribution Center, 400 Hahn Road,

Westminster, MD 21 157

Email:

info@ospreydirect.com

Osprey Direct UK, P.O. Box 140, Wellingborough, Northants, N N 8 2FA, UK

E-mail:

info@ospreydirect.co.uk

www.ospreypublishing.com

The Fortress Study Group (FSG)

The object of the FSG is to advance the education of the public

in the study of all aspects of fortifications and their armaments,

especially works constructed to mount or resist artillery.The FSG

holds an annual conference in September over a long weekend

with visits and evening lectures, an annual tour abroad lasting

about eight days, and an annual Members' Day.

The FSG journal

FORT

is published annually, and its newsletter

Casemate

is published three times a year. Membership is

international. For further details, please contact:

The Secretary, c/o 6 Lanark Place, London W 9 IBS, UK

Contents

Introduction

A brief history of the Languedoc • The lords of the south • The Cathar heresy • The Catholic Church's response

Chronology

Design and development

Gallo-Roman sites • The medieval

castra

• The royal fortifications of the Languedoc

Tour of the sites

Carcassonne • Peyrepertuse • Queribus • Cabaret (Lastours) • Montsegur • Other sites of interest

Faidit

lords and crusader knights

The sites at war

Beziers, 1209 • Carcassone • Minerve, 1210 • Termes, 1210 • Lavaur, 1211 • Toulouse • Montsegur, 1243-44

Aftermath

Visiting the sites today

Further reading

Index

Introduction

In the early 13th century, the north of what is now France went to war with

the south in a bloody crusade that lasted for the best part of half a century. It

pitted Christian against Christian in a bitter conflict that saw gross excesses on

both sides.

The ostensible reason for the crusade was to exterminate a heretical sect

known as the Cathars that had grown strong in the south and permeated every

level of society. By the end of the conflict, what had been an independent area

was subsumed under the royal authority of the Capetian kings of France, who

vastly extended their direct authority over the area. A whole way of life had been

destroyed, along with the prosperity of one of the richest regions of the country.

As was the case with most medieval conflicts, pitched battles were rare. The

Albigensian Crusade, as it came to be known, was characterized by small-scale

skirmishes, vicious guerrilla actions and the besieging of the innumerable

fortified sites that dotted the landscape of the south during this period, from

the extensive Gallo-Roman fortifications of the great centres such as Toulouse,

Narbonne and Carcassonne, through to the isolated hilltop fortifications that

proliferated in the countryside. All these defences needed to be reduced - many

of them more than once - and the remains of many of them still exist to this

day, known somewhat inaccurately as 'Cathar Castles'.

A brief history of the Languedoc

In the early 13th century the area of southern France known as the Languedoc

stretched from the Rhone Valley in the east to the River Garonne in the west,

and from the Auvergne in the north down to where the modern region of

Roussillon begins in the south. This area had a cultural unity that distinguished

it from the north of France - it had different systems of land ownership and

inheritance and even spoke a different language, the

langue d'oc

Occitan.

The Romans had occupied the region following their victory over the

Carthaginians in the Second Punic War and founded the city of Narbo

(modern-day Narbonne). By 70 BC the whole area south of Lyon and Toulouse

was known as Narbonensian Gaul. Further conquests by Julius Caesar and his

imperial successors pacified the rest of Gaul and the Languedoc became an

imperial province in 27 BC, with Narbonne as its capital.

By the 5th century AD the impact of waves of migrant Germanic tribes began

to be felt in the area. First the Vandals passed through, then the Suevi and

finally the Visigoths, who established a kingdom in the area based on the city

of Tolosa (Toulouse). Initially the Roman authorities authorized this kingdom

and the Visigothic king ruled as an imperial governor; however, the region

rapidly became independent of any Roman authority.

In the late 5th and early 6th centuries AD the area was attacked by yet another

wave of Germanic invaders, the Franks under their king Clovis. He defeated the

Visigothic king Alaric II in AD 507 and absorbed much of his kingdom, including

Toulouse itself, though some areas remained independent, such as Carcassonne.

Further invasions came from the south in the 8th century AD, as Arab Muslim

forces destroyed the Visigothic kingdoms both in Spain and across the Pyrenees.

The Frankish leader Charles Martel turned the Muslim conquest back at the

battle of Poitiers in AD 732 and the region was gradually reconquered by

the Franks, first under Pepin the Short and then, decisively, under his more

illustrious son Charlemagne. The region was split between the kingdoms of

Aquitaine, Septimania (so named after the seven cities of Narbonne, Agde,

Beziers, Maguelone, Lodeve, Nimes and Uzes) and the Spanish March, later to

become the county of Barcelona. In order to rule his vast empire, Charlemagne

instituted the comtal system - with appointed officials, counts and viscounts,

possessing land and honours in return for undertaking governmental and

defensive duties. With Charlemagne's death central authority over the counts

grew weaker, and areas on the fringes - such as the county of Barcelona - rapidly

became independent, whilst the appointed officials began to treat their offices as

hereditary possessions, creating a new territorial aristocracy.

The lords of the south

These independent lords became the new masters of the south, creating a

patchwork of territories with complicated ties of allegiance. As a result, no

single central power could dominate the whole of the Languedoc.

The most important single lord in the region was the count of Toulouse,

a hereditary honour held by the St Gilles family. Descended from Fredelon,

appointed by Charles the Bald in AD 849, the family - named after the town

from which they ruled their domains - grew in power throughout the 10th and

11th centuries through a series of prudent marriage alliances until they directly

controlled large areas of the Languedoc. In the late 11th century Raymond IV

of St Gilles became one of the leaders of the First Crusade, dying in the County

of Tripoli in 1105.

The greatest rival of the house of Toulouse for control of the Languedoc was

the house of Barcelona, which acquired the kingship of Aragon in 1137 through

marriage. These two great houses fought for power throughout the 12th century

and the lesser noble families - the counts of Foix, and viscounts of Beziers,

Carcassonne, Narbonne and Montpellier - sought to exploit the conflict by

transferring their allegiances from one lord to another to obtain the maximum

independence for themselves. In 1150 the Trencavel viscount of Beziers and

Carcassonne did homage to the king of Aragon for his territory, as did the count

of Foix the following year. By the time peace was confirmed by the Treaty of

Perpignan in 1198 the house of Toulouse was forced to concede that it had lost

control of a substantial part of its territories - particularly the Trencavel lands,

the county of Foix and the viscounties of Narbonne and Beziers. These lands

passed into the realm of influence of the kings of Aragon and were the reason

The silhouette of the fortress of

Queribus stands out against the

skyline, revealing clearly the three

different levels of fortification.

Although Queribus was largely

rebuilt following the end of the

Albigensian Crusade remnants

remain of the original fortification

dating from the time of the Cathars.

(Author's collection)

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