History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 171, the crusade against the Cathars, the Last Stand.

Hello again. Last week we saw resistance against both the Inquisition and rule by the French

Crown in Long dock rise, culminating in a failed attempt by the Troncival family to take the city of Carcason in the year 1240.

Following the failed uprising, which the Inquisition attributed to disaffected Cathars, which may have been correct, the Inquisition enjoyed a resurgence.

Count Raymond the 7th of Toulouse continued to walk a difficult line

between accepting Northern French rule while secretly supporting ways to undermine it, and promoting the persecution of heretics

while also moving to curb the Inquisition of its excesses.

In the year 1242, however, it seemed like Count Raymond's chance to eject King Louis from

Long dock once and for all had finally arrived.

It all really came about due to a personality clash between King Louis's

formidable mother, Blanche of Castile, and the widow of King John of England, Isabella, who had remarried

Hugh of Luzignon, the Count of Lamache.

Isabella had once been Queen of England and although she was now only married to a

count she still liked to be treated with a respect due to a queen. One person who insisted on treating her like a

countess and not a queen was Blanche of Castile. The two women had never really hit it off and things came to a head in mid 1241 at an

investiture ceremony in which King Louis theth knighted his brother Alphonse, husband of Count Raimond the 7th's daughter

Joanna and formerly handed to Alphonse the counties of Poito and Avenier. The haughty Isabella was outraged at the ceremony

to be brushed off by Blanche of Castile, who she believed treated her in a manner which bordered on

contemptuous.

So furious was Isabella at Blanche's insistence on treating her like the countess she was, instead of the

Queen that she had once been, that Isabella decided that a war was in order. She convinced her husband, the Count of Lamash, to declare war against King Louis.

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