Raymond-Roger

Around ten thousand northern crusaders from northern France under baronial leader Simon IV de Montfort (father of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, famous in English history), who had participated in the siege of Zara and later fought in Syria, had gathered in Lyon, before marching south in mid-1209.

In June, Raymond of Toulouse, recognizing the disaster at hand, finally promises to act against the Cathars, and his excommunication is lifted.

The crusaders turn towards Montpellier and the lands of Raymond-Roger de Trencavel, aiming for the Cathar communities around Albi and Carcassonne.

Raymond-Roger is viscount of Béziers and Albi (and thus a vassal of the count of Toulouse), and viscount of Carcassonne and the Razès (and thus a vassal of the count of Barcelona, which is also ruling Aragon at this time).

Like Raymond of Toulouse, Raymond-Roger seeks an accommodation with the crusaders, but he is refused a meeting and races back to Carcassonne to prepare his defenses.

Montfort’s crusaders capture the small village of Servian in July and head for Béziers, arriving on July 21.

They invest the city, call the Catholics within to come out, and demand that the Cathars surrender.

Both groups refuse.

The city falls the following day when an abortive sortie is pursued back through the open gates.

The entire population is slaughtered and the city burned to the ground.

Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead ranging between seven and twenty thousand, including two hundred Jews.

The latter figure appears in the Papal Legate Arnaud-Amaury's report to the Pope.

The news of the disaster at Béziers quickly spreads and afterwards many settlements surrender without a fight.

One of the massacre’s leaders, upon being asked how to tell heretics from Christians, allegedly replies “Slay them all.

God will know his own.” This implacable holy war throws the whole of the nobility of the north of France against that of the south.

Provence, not being a stronghold of the Cathari, escapes devastation.

The crusaders’ next major target is Carcassonne, a town well-fortified but vulnerable and overpopulated with refugees.

The crusaders, led by a papal legate, Arnaud Amaury, Abbot of Cîteaux, arrive outside the town on August 1, 1209.

As vassal of King Peter II of Aragon, Raymond-Roger had hoped for protection, but Peter is powerless to oppose what is effectively a papal army and can act only as a mediator.

The siege does not last long.

By August 7, the crusaders have cut the town's access to water.

Raymond-Roger accepts a safe-conduct to negotiate terms of surrender in the Crusader camp.

At the conclusion of these negotiations he is taken prisoner while still under safe conduct, and imprisoned in his own dungeon, where he will die in November, possibly of dysentery, though there are suspicions of poisoning.

The town of Carcassonne had surrendered on August 15.

The inhabitants are not massacred but were forced to leave the town.

Simon de Montfort is granted control of the area encompassing Carcassonne, Albi, and Béziers.

When most of the crusaders depart after the 40-day term they had promised to serve, he is left with large territories still to conquer.

Jews are removed from office and their children are forcibly baptized.

Raymond-Roger's dispossessed son, Raymond II (1204-1263), will formally cede his rights to Louis IX of France in 1247, after several failed attempts to recover his patrimony.

Other towns surrender without a fight after the fall of Carcassonne.

Albi, …

…Castelnaudary, …

…Castres, …

…Fanjeaux, …

…Limoux, …

...Lombers, and Montréal all fall quickly during the autumn.

However, some of the towns that had surrendered will later revolt.

The next battle centers around Lastours and the adjacent castle of Cabaret.

Attacked in December 1209, Pierre-Roger de Cabaret repulses the assault.