History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 141, the Crusade against the Cathars, the Kingdom strikes back.

Hello again. Last week we saw King Peter II of Aragon formulate a plan to strike back against

the recent success of the Crusade against the Cathars.

King Peter had recently risen high in the favour of the Catholic Church,

due to the key role he played in a major Spanish crusading victory at the Battle of Las Navas de Toulosa.

However, while he had been away crusading in Al-Andalous, one of his vassals in southern France, Simon de Monfor, had overrun most of

Long dock, leaving two of his other vassals, the counts of Foois and Camage, without territory, and leaving his brother-in-law,

Count Raymond the sixth of Toulouse, with only the city of Toulouse and the town of Montable still in his hands. For King Peter, this situation

was intolerable. Simon de Monfort was technically his vassal, but he had little control over him, and it's quite likely

that King Peter disliked Simon intensely on a personal level.

Throughout his reign, King Peter had been working on extending the influence of

the Kingdom of Aragon into southern France and he'd been reasonably successful.

In addition to holding a firm grasp on Montpellia, King Peter was overlord to all the southern French counties bordering his kingdom

on the French side of the Pyrenees, the county of Camage, the county of Fois, and the Vai County of Carcasson. While the French King, King Philip II was

overlord to Count Raymond's vast land holdings, King Peter held influence there too. Count Raymond was his brother-in-law,

and just as importantly, the two men appeared to be genuinely close and fond of each other. But now all of this

had been upset by Simon de Monfort. Clearly Simon de Monfort's aim was to become ruler of the entire region of Long dock,

relegating the counts of Foix, Camage, and Toulouse to the feudal dust bin, and bringing the customs,

laws and rule of northern France to the south.

While Simon de Monfour was technically vassal to the King of Aragon, this wasn't the cause for

any celebration by King Peter. King Peter was keen to see the laws and culture of Aragon spread across the Pyrenees

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