History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 162, the crusade against the Cathars, the Siege of Toulouse,

1218.

Hello again.

Last week we saw the City of Toulouse rise in rebellion after Raymond the 6th arrived with a small army.

The new Count of Toulouse Simon de Monfort raced to his main city and after trying

unsuccessfully to storm it he began building a new town, unimaginatively called New Toulouse, which was most likely

located to the south of the city walls near the Nabinet's castle.

Now, before we proceed any further I think we need to take a look at the layout of the city of Toulouse. For your convenience I have placed a map of the city on the website and on the Facebook page.

The town lay on the northeastern bank of the River Giron. It was roughly circular in shape with the southern part of the

circle jutting up against the riverbank. The D'Arbanez castle, which you might remember was built around one of the gates leading out of the city,

lay in the southeastern section of the wall, not far from the river.

The river Garon was wide at the point where the city lay

and was forwarded by two bridges leading from the city across to an unfortified suburb on the other side of the

Garon called the suburb of Saint Seprian. Now this suburb and the two bridges leading from the suburb across the river into the city

were causing Simon de Monfor some problems. Rebel reinforcements were able to enter the town via the suburb and bridges,

while Simon and his men could do no more than watch from their position on the other side of the river.

So, as winter was setting in and the year

1217 was drawing to a close Simon made the decision to split his army in two, leaving one half in New Toulouse, while taking

the other half over the river to occupy the suburb of Saint Seprian. Now this was quite an undertaking. As I've mentioned the

river Garon was formitably wide and couldn't be crossed without using the bridges.

The Crusaders, of course, couldn't use the bridges,

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