Carcassone and the Crusade

The settlement of the site of Carcassonne dates to the sixth century BC when it was a Celtic fortress. It was part of the Roman province of Narbonensis until the 600’s AD when it was incorporated into the Visigothic kingdom that ruled this remnant of Roman Gaul. A hundred years later the Muslim invaders coming up from North Africa through Gibraltar and Spain became its overlords. In the 800’s it became part of the kingdom of the Franks.

In the early 13th century a small group of monks in the nearby town of Albi became dissatisfied with the wealth, corruption and immorality of the Church. Their public criticism of the excesses of the Church won many converts, and the monks’ success alarmed the civil and religious authorities. Some of the more extreme converts became known as the Catharii (meaning “the pure, or cleansed ones”). They took literally Jesus’ ethical teachings, giving away all of their possessions to the poor, even their clothing. Many gave away all of their food as well and died within a few days from starvation or exposure. Nevertheless, the contrast between their selflessness and the venality of the priesthood was apparent, and adherents came to this new reform movement in droves, even including many noblemen such as Raymond Roger Trencavel, Viscount of Carcassone.

Pope Innocent III declared these Albigensians to be heretics and mounted a crusade to exterminate them. Count Simon de Montfort was appointed as commander of an army to march to Occitania to erase the heresy. A number of military operations were conducted in the area around Albi against the Catharii. Given their literal interpretation of Jesus’ teachings, the pacifist Catharii offered little resistance. Most of these military operations can only be described as slaughter. Still, Trencavel offered the Catharii the use of his castle at Carcassone as a place where the reformers might have some sort of defense until God provided a miraculous rescue or until the Pope lost interest in his crusade. Neither occurred. While the castle was never breached, in 1209 de Montfort poisoned the water supply upstream until most of the resistors in the castle died. The few remaining Catharii surrendered and were executed by the civil authorities at the request of the Church. In 1226 the castle was handed over to the King of France. For centuries thereafter it served as a royal fortress protecting the border between France and Spain.Read more