History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 132, the Crusade, the Crusade against the Cathars, the Siege of Castel-Naudry.

Hello again. Last week we saw Simon de Monfort fail in his ambitious attempt to take the city of Toulouse.

Keen to recover from this setback, he took his army on a slash and burn mission through much of

the territory held by the two men who had opposed him at Toulouse, Count Raymond the 6th of Toulouse and the Count of

Foula.

The lands of the Count of Foulir, a man disliked intensely by both Simon de Monfor, and one of the

chroniclers of the Crusade, Peter the Monk, were especially targeted.

Simon's army rampaged through the county of Foire,

doing their utmost to destroy or pillage anything of value they came across.

The capital city of the county, the city of Foix itself, came in for special treatment.

Simon and his army spent eight days in the region surrounding the city of

Poir.

While they didn't mount an attack on the castle of Fwah itself, they burned crops in fields which were close to being ready to harvest.

They burnt vineyards and uprooted fruit trees.

No doubt feeling better after this exercise Simon de Monfort then needed to determine his next move.

If you take a look at a map of southern France,

the county of Fois lies to the south of the county of Toulouse.

The city of Toulouse. The city of Houlouse is almost as far south as you can go in

southern France. Go any further south and you come to the border of the Kingdom of Aragon.

So here is Simon, way down south with a sizable army, many of whom are shortly due to complete their 40 days service.

What does he do? He marches them northwards.

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