History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 130. Episode 137, the Crusade, the Crusade against the Cathars, the invasion of the Argenet.

Hello again.

Last week we saw Simon de Monfor besiege and defeat two separate towns, the town of

Oatpole and the town of Otopol and the town of San Antonin.

While these sieges were relatively minor events in the context of the Crusade as a whole,

they were witnessed by Peter the Monk, who relayed them in great detail

in his chronicle of the Crusade, the Historia Albergensis.

Fresh from these victories and with two armies under his control, one in the

north and the other under the command of his brother Ghee in the count of Fwais lands to the south, Simon de Monfor decides to

march his army to the northwest into the Arginay region.

Now from a crusading point of view and from a geopolitical point of view this was an

interesting move. The Arginay region was traditionally planned

Tagenet territory and had only come under the control of the

count of Toulouse relatively recently.

As such, it didn't really have a Cathar problem.

Well, there may have been the odd practicing Cathar here and there,

it was pretty much acknowledged by the Crusaders that the region held no Cathar perfect and really

there weren't any heretics in any significant numbers to vanquish. The region had been gifted to the count of Toulouse by Richard

the Lionheart when he married Richard's sister Joanna back in 1196. The current feudal overlord of the region was the English

king, King John. So Simon de Monfor is going to be treading on some pretty distinguished toes by invading the region with his army.

So if there are hardly any heretics here why invade at all?

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