Siege of Toulouse (1217–1218)

Background

In 1211 Simon IV de Montfort conducted his first siege of Toulouse, one that featured no siege engines and is widely considered a tactical blunder and was ultimately unsuccessful. Two years later at the Battle of Muret much of Toulouse's military forces were defeated along with its Count Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse. Though Simon was practically the Count of Toulouse by 1214, it was not Pope Innocent III's decision following the Fourth Council of the Lateran in November 1215 that it was made official. Simultaneously Raymond VI and his son, Raymond VII, began to plot a double pronged invasion into Languedoc to take their territories back.

While Raymond the Elder went to Spain to raise an army and attack Simon from the rear, his son went to the Rhône valley and laid siege to Beaucaire in May 1216. The citizens of Beaucaire had been forewarned of Raymond VII's return and threw the gates open to welcome him into the city and fight the unprepared crusader garrison. Ultimately the besieged crusaders held out in a castle outside the city walls for four months. By the time Simon arrived to help them, the garrison had been forced to eat their own horses. Raymond the Younger had taken Beaucaire and garrisoned its walls, while also keeping the castle that the former garrison lay in under tight guard. Simon and his crusader forces made numerous attempts to besiege the city and make contact with their fellow men in the castle, all to no avail. Finally on August 24, 1216 Simon was forced to accept terms, and that he had suffered his first major loss of the Albigensian Crusade and to a young unseasoned commander nonetheless.

Immediately following this loss, Simon was informed that the citizens of Toulouse had begun plotting with Raymond the Elder, and he raced back to the city. By this time Simon owed his troops their wages and decided he would make Toulouse pay them. Upon his return he threw a delegation of the distinguished citizens into the Château Narbonnais and had them held under guard. At Simon's bidding "armed bands of crusaders passed through the streets breaking into aristocratic houses, carrying off coins and jewelry".