History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 140, the Crusade against the Cathars, King Peter II of Aragon Part 2.

Hello again.

Last week we discussed the creation of the Muslim Al Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula

and the establishment of the so-called five Christian kingdoms in the north of the peninsula.

The landlocked kingdom of Aragon secured its future by joining with its neighbor the County of Barcelona and

spread its influence further into southern France.

King Peter II of Aragon was forced to turn away from the military conflicts

and political struggles of southern France in early 1212 because in early 1212, Pope Innocent III formerly called for a new crusade, a crusade

against the Muslims of Al-Andalus.

Pope Innocent sent letters to every bishop in France, urging them to convince members of their

congregations to go to the assistance of King Alfonso the eighth of Castile, who would be conducting the campaign.

The new Archbishop of Toledo travelled across the Pyrenees to drum up support for the

Crusade. Affecting, as we've seen in the narrative previously, Simon de Monfor's ability to attract recruits

for the Crusade against the Cathars. The French Volunteers, the King of Castile and his army, and King Peter the 2nd of Aragon and

his army, arranged to meet up in Toledo in late May 1212 to start the crusade.

The King of Navarre would join the crusade later. The King of Leon, King Alfonso the ninth,

didn't join the crusade. Instead, he invaded Portugal, which had been thrown into chaos following the death of the Portuguese king Sancho I.

Despite the fact that the kings of Leon and Portugal were too busy fighting each other to join the

Crusade, many of their subjects made the journey to Toledo to take part in the campaign.

Late May and early June in Toledo

saw the arrival of a varied enthusiastic

...