Chapter
82 Toulouse
Once word
had spread to Rome that young Raymond had raised the Yellow Cross of the
Cathars over Toulouse, Innocent wasted no time in excommunicating the young
upstart. In fact, he went so far as to
remove all the Saint Gilles clan’s claims to all territory…ceding it all to
Simon de Montfort. Toulouse was to be
the crown jewel in Simon’s new kingdom.
And, officially, it was already so.
However, in practice this proved a completely different matter. All the Occitan nobles, the St. Gilles’, the
Trencavels, the Foix’s all rushed to the defense of the young Count Raymond. Though the pope had given Simon Toulouse,
taking it was another matter entirely.
Complicating
matters considerably was the fact that the young Raymond VII was not only an
inspiring presence who completely reinvigorated the cause of the Occitan
princes and their Cathar subjects, but he was proving to be a fierce warrior
and a tactful general. He stole victory
after victory from Simon’s troops. The
Yellow cross banners once again fell from towers and fortresses all over
Languedoc, throughout places that Simon had counted has conquered. The tide was turning under the young rebel
leader, the Occitans called the youthful Raymond, the Lamb of God, and in their
stories he amassed evermore victories against the Lion de Montfort. The Pope and Amaury were becoming impatient
with Simon and the buzzing in his head grew ever more strident and
bloodthirsty. Simon knew what he had to
do. That which he should have done, but
had not the courage, nor papal authority to undertake before. Lay siege to Toulouse.
The siege
was hard fought on both sides. Both
armies knew that this war determined the fates of all who fought in it. Each side had learned from ten years of
warfare with each other what strategems and devices, what counterattacks
worked, and which did not. Despite young
Raymond’s reputation as the Lamb of Languedoc, his tactics were ruthless. Any besiegers that were captured by the
Toulousians had their eyes and tongues removed and were dragged around the city
streets by horse, and left to be finished off by the dogs and crows. Finally their hands and feet were removed and
returned by trebuchet to their comrades’ base camp. Raymond had learned a trick or two from
Simon.
Simon was
not to be outdone, however, and the buzzing in his head gave him an idea to
break the siege before his men deserted him and his long campaign in Languedoc
amounted to nothing. He had his men
built the greatest siege engine the world had yet seen…a monstrous cat, Simon
called it. It was a tall wheeled platform
which was covered in animal hides and blood to keep it from burning from flaming
arrows the defenders would rain upon it.
In the top, archers could shoot down into the fortified city and below,
Simon’s engineers, under its protection could dig beneath the walls and breach
them.
The
Toulousians watched in horror as the cat was brought near their great
city. Raymond the Younger knew exactly
what the cat meant. This day was to be
the deciding day. All or nothing. The cat would mean doom to Toulouse if it
were allowed to draw near the walls.
Raymond had to risk assault directly on Simon’s forces and destroy the
cat…or the Crusadors would destroy them.
And so it
was that Raymond VII rode with his host of Occitan knights broke forth from the
gates of Toulouse and rode out to join in this final battle for life or
death. No Northern crusader could stand
against the fearsome wrath of Raymond.
Where his father had been a diplomat, Raymond was a warrior first and
foremost.
Simon saw
Raymond and his knights approach the cat, and took his fiercest men to
intercept him personally. Swords and
axes fell. Blood covered everyone near
the cat that day. Arrows flew. The trebuchet’s rained rocks down from
Toulouse onto the battlefield. They were
manned by women and girls, as Raymond had ordered every man and boy to the
battle.
At last
Simon neared Raymond. They stared into
each other’s eyes with deep hatred and bloodlust. And then it happened. A rock launched by two young girls found its
target in Simon’s head, crushing both his helmet and his brain, knocking body
from his horse, dead before he even hit the ground.
A stunned
silence fell instantly over the battle.
Cheers rose from the defenders of Toulouse and all knew that the day was
decided. The cat was burned to the
ground and the crusaders retreated from the battlefield. Count Raymond VII had shown his defiance with
a crucial victory. The Abliginsian
Crusade ended that day.
Sadly, for
the Cathars and their defenders, as they celebrated their victory over their
hated foe, Simon de Montfort, in Rome the Pope, a buzzing in his head, had
decided upon a new stratagem to deal with the herectics of Languedoc. And the Inquisition was born.
copyright 2017 Diana Hignutt
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