History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 159, the Crusade, the Crusade against the Cathars, to Loose 1216.

Hello again.

Last week we saw Young Raymond, the disinherited son of the former Count of Toulouse, take up the rebel

banner and besiege one of Simon de Monfors castles, the castle of Bocare.

Simon and his brother Ghee arrived to lift the siege, however, after four failed attacks on the castle and with the

northern French garrison inside the citadel unable to hold out much longer,

Gee of Monfort is having a gentle word to Simon, suggesting he should perhaps surrender

and leave the castle to young Raymond. This is a situation Simon de Monfort is totally unfamiliar with.

In the six years since he has been fighting the crusade, he has never once considered surrendering or admitting defeat.

Until now, seemingly unable to defeat the 19-year-old first-time military commander and his ragtag army,

Simon now has to consider the unthinkable.

In the end, two factors convinced him to seek terms.

The first came sometime between the 15th and 24th of August,

when a member of the besieged Garrison from the citadel managed to somehow

make it out of the citadel into Simon's camp.

Telling Simon that the men inside the citadel had run out of water, wine and food three weeks ago,

and were close to perishing from hunger,

the man made it clear that if the garrison were to survive,

Simon needed to either break the siege or surrender, and he needed to do it quickly.

With his previous efforts to break and he needed to do it quickly.

With his previous efforts to break the siege having failed spectacularly,

...