Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of abbreviations
- List of maps and plans
- Translation of names and places; calculation of distances
- Preface and acknowledgments
- Maps and plans
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The campaign of 1209
- 3 Simon of Montfort and the campaign of 1210
- 4 The campaigns of 1211
- 5 Drawing the noose: the campaign year of 1212
- 6 The athlete of Christ triumphs: late 1212 through Muret 1213
- 7 From Muret to Casseneuil: September 1213 to December 1214
- 8 The two councils and Prince Louis's crusade, January–December 1215
- 9 The southern counter-attack begins: February 1216 to fall 1217
- 10 The second siege of Toulouse and end of the chief crusader: 1217–1218
- Aftermath and epilogue
- Select bibliography
- Index
4 - The campaigns of 1211
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 July 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of abbreviations
- List of maps and plans
- Translation of names and places; calculation of distances
- Preface and acknowledgments
- Maps and plans
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The campaign of 1209
- 3 Simon of Montfort and the campaign of 1210
- 4 The campaigns of 1211
- 5 Drawing the noose: the campaign year of 1212
- 6 The athlete of Christ triumphs: late 1212 through Muret 1213
- 7 From Muret to Casseneuil: September 1213 to December 1214
- 8 The two councils and Prince Louis's crusade, January–December 1215
- 9 The southern counter-attack begins: February 1216 to fall 1217
- 10 The second siege of Toulouse and end of the chief crusader: 1217–1218
- Aftermath and epilogue
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
The year 1211 was perhaps the most militarily active of the Occitan War. Though Simon of Montfort suffered a minor setback at the first siege of Toulouse, in 1211 he not only conducted some sieges on the scale of Minerve and Termes but also defended himself successfully when besieged at Castelnaudary. Two of the four field battles fought in the Occitan War occurred in 1211. The battle or ambush of Montgey was a lopsided southern victory, but Montfort was not present and thus his reputation did not suffer. Saint-Martin-la-Lande proved that even outnumbered the crusaders could win the supreme test of a medieval army, the pitched battle. The sum total of tactical victories against superior odds in 1211 showed Montfort to be a far more capable general than any of his southern contemporaries, though he made one strategic mistake that year which dogged him to the end of his life. That grave error was turning the people of Toulouse from reluctant allies into implacable enemies.
At the beginning of the year various parties tried to work out a modus vivendi between southern interests and those of the crusade. Especially concerned in this was the Count of Toulouse, whose authority had been shattered east of Lavaur and whose own brother would soon prove disloyal. In late January 1211 Pere II, Simon of Montfort, Raimon of Toulouse, and Raimon-Roger of Foix, as well as several church prelates including Arnaud-Amaury and Master Theodisius, met at Narbonne.
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- Information
- The Occitan WarA Military and Political History of the Albigensian Crusade, 1209–1218, pp. 94 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008