Chapter
77 A New Rival from Toulouse.
Simon de Montfort was beside himself at the
news. He was certainly not unhappy to
hear of Raymond’s death, far from it.
This brought him much joy. At
first he assumed that Toulouse and its territories would now belong to him
without the old count to contend with.
But, he was to find out only a day later, that this was not to be. Young Raymond VII, long held back in under
the protection of the King of Aragon, had come to his father’ deathbed, and had
assumed his title and lands upon his father’s request. And this aspect, was not so troublesome
either, to Simon at first. He was still
a youth at nineteen, barely a man at all, and certainly, Simon assumed no
threat to his ambitions. But, then came
the news, on the very day of Raymond VII’s ascension to the seat of St. Gilles,
word had spread that the Yellow Cross of the Cathars had been unfurled as the
new standard of the new count of Toulouse.
Young Raymond had played his hand, and immediately rallied support from
the countryside and the mountain regions.
Even this was not so insurmountable a
problem for Simon, as the young upstart, would-be defender of the Cathars, had
no military experience whatsoever, and was unused to rule. No, it was his parentage that was the problem. For, Raymond’s mother was Joan Planeget,
sister to King John of England and cousin to the French King. The young man was well liked by Innocent in
Rome, though his newfound defense of the heretics would no doubt cause a change
there. And Raymond’s sponsor and liege
lord was the King of Spain. The politics
of his new adversary were arranged well against Simon.
She sat in his great hall, alone as was his
custom, petting one of his many cats.
The buzzing would tell him how to act in this situation. It always did. He opened himself for its wisdom, and the
buzzing came into his head. And Simon de
Montfort communed once again with those things from beyond.
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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