History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 130 the the Crusade against the Cathars, to Toulouse.

Hello again.

Last week we saw another round of victories scored by Simon de Monfor and his Crusaders in the form of the

surrender of the rebel stronghold of Cabaret and the taking of the town of Lavor.

Now it turns out that the town of Lavor was rather wealthy and following the victory there was a goodly pile of armour and

weaponry, war horses, fine clothes, wine and wheat to be divided up as spoils of victory. Well sort of divided up as spoils of

victory. You see Simon had partly financed his military expedition to date by borrowing money from a banker from the financial centre of France, the city of Cahore. This banker, yet another Raymond, Raymond de Salvignac, managed the finances

of the Crusade and also looked after the taxes raised by Simon in Long dock,

forwarding them on to Rome via a network of Templars in Paris.

The Templars of course operating as the international bankers of the medieval

era. By this stage in the proceedings Simon owed Raymond the banker quite a large sum of money, and it seemed like the

spoils victory at Lavora presented a fabulous opportunity to repay some of the debt.

Some sources have Simon turning the entirety of the plunder at LeVour over to his banker, but in his book the Occitan War, Lawrence Marvin

states that this does not seem likely. Instead, he suggests that Simon transferred the entirety of his share of the spoils, usually

one-third of the booty over to the banker, leaving the remainder to be divided amongst his men and the volunteer crusaders.

Now, as well as providing a means by which Simon could pay off some of his debts, the success of the Crusaders at

LeVour had other consequences. When Simon's men stormed the citadel at LeVour among the garrison they found some of the Count of Toulouse's men.

To Simon this reinforced his view that Count Raymond of Toulouse was now irredeemably an enemy of the church.

Not only had he been excommunicated by the Legates and his lands placed under interdict, but now Simon had

discovered some of Count Raymond's men actively assisting the heretic

harbouring town of LeVour in its defense against the Crusaders.

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