Aimery de Montréal

Aimery de Montréal († May 3, 1211 in Lavaur ) was a southern French nobleman, lord of Laurac and co-lord of Montréal and a prominent opponent of the Albigensian Crusade .

origin

He was a son of Mr. Sicard von Laurac and his wife Blanca. After the death of his father he inherited the rule over Laurac and Montréal and as such was a vassal of the Vice Counts of Carcassonne from the House of Trencavel . Although Aimery himself confessed to the Roman Catholic faith, he was a member of a Cathar family with extensive branches in Languedoc , in which female relatives in particular played a key role. His mother was ordained as a widow ( Consolamentum ) to the “ perfecta ”, as did his sisters Esclarmonde, Girauda, ​​Navarra and Mabilla. In Laurac as well as in Montréal they ran houses for Catharian women, where they hosted councils of the Catholic Church and disputes with the Roman Church. In 1207 such a dispute took place in Montréal, in which, among other things, Guilhabert de Castres acted as spokesmen for the Cathars and the bishop Diego von Osma for the orthodox. Three of his sisters were also married to leading Cathar nobles.

Albigensian Crusade

After the outbreak of the Albigensian Crusade, Aimery took part in the defense of Carcassonne , but after giving up the city in August 1209, he submitted to the new crusader leader Simon de Montfort . Since he had also been appointed the new Vice Count of Carcassonne, Aimery recognized him by paying homage to him as a liege lord for his property. But already in 1210 he joined the opponents of the crusade around Raimund de Termes and Pierre Roger de Cabaret . Like this, Aimery turned down the offer of King Peter II of Aragón to become his direct vassal, as he was not prepared to grant the king the required access rights to his possessions. The denial of access, even to their own liege lord, was an important expression of independence for the Languedoc nobility, which was traditionally deeply anchored in the social order of this region. They viewed each other as equals rather than subordinate (see paratges ), which also stood in contrast to the clear hierarchical order of the northern French feudal system, which found its way into the Languedoc with the Albigensian Crusade. With their rejection, Aimery and his colleagues did not have a powerful patron either, especially because the Count of Toulouse was still part of the crusade at that time. After the fall of Termes in December 1210, Aimery had to surrender again to Simon de Montfort and agree to a peace that cost him his property, for which he was to be compensated with income from goods of equal value.

As early as 1211, Aimery resumed his resistance to the crusade. He had broken his word with Simon de Montfort for the second time, which is why he was described by the crusade writer Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay as a "traitor of the worst kind". Aimery took command of the heavily fortified town of Lavaur , whose mistress was his widowed sister Girauda. Montfort personally led the siege on the part of the crusaders, but his army was not large enough to completely enclose the city, which allowed the defenders to have constant supplies. But when the crusaders were reinforced by the militia of the so-called “white brotherhood” of Bishop Fulko of Toulouse , the defenders lost contact with the outside world.

On May 3, 1211 Lavaur had to surrender to the crusaders, which was followed by the harshest criminal court of the entire crusade. Between 300 and 400 Cathars who refused to renounce their faith were burned in a car dairy. That of heresy pendant Girauda was overthrown in a well and stoned until she died. Aimery himself and over eighty other knights were hanged. This measure was probably an example and at the same time a warning from Montfort to the lords of the castle of Carcassonne, who had openly opposed the crusade and were therefore to be seen in his eyes as traitorous apostates ( Faydit ).

Aimery de Montréal was not married. His possessions were divided among the crusaders, such as Alain de Roucy . After Montfort's death in 1218, however, his nephew Bernard-Othon de Niort , a son of his sister Esclarmonde, was able to recapture Laurac and Montréal and in 1226 make a peace with the French crown. The Niort family lost this property to the crown after their participation in the uprising of Raymond II Trencavel in 1240.

literature

• Malcolm Barber: The Cathars, Dualist heretics in Languedoc in the Middle Ages. Pearson Education Ltd, London and New York 2000; (German translation: Die Katharer: Ketzer des Mittelalters , Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 2008. ISBN 978-3-491-96220-0 )