Béatrice de Planisolles

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Béatrice de Planisolles also de Planissoles ; Occitan Béatris de Planissolas ; married de Roquefort and de Lagleize (* 1274 in Caussou France , † after 1322 in Varilhes ?), country nobles from the County of Foix , was the key witness in the heresy trial against the country pastor Pierre Clerque 1320/21.

Life

Ruins of Montaillou Castle

Béatrice de Planisolles was born in 1274 in the Pyrenean village of Caussou near Ax-les-Thermes in what is now the Ariège department into a family who had been devout Cathars for generations . The village is also considered to be the ancestral home of the de Planisolles family. She spent her childhood in Celles , a village halfway between Tarascon and Foix . Around 1291 she married, probably in the church of Notre Dame de Carnesses , Bérenger de Roquefort, castellan on Montaillou .

After the death of her husband (around 1298) she had to leave the castle and moved to a house nearby. At that time she had a relationship with Pathau Clerque, who, according to her own statements, had raped her in the castle in early 1297. At the end of 1299 she began a relationship with the village pastor Pierre Clerque , a relative of Pathau. A year later she left Montaillou and moved into a "small" house near the church of Prades without breaking off relations with him.

On August 15, 1301, Bátrice de Planisolles finally left the Pays d'Aillou to marry a nobleman from Dalou , Guillaume-Othon de Lagleize, in his hometown on August 19, 1301 . She lived with him for a short time in Crampagna before they moved to Dalou. Here, too, she continued to meet with Pierre Clerque. Her second husband also died after a short marriage around 1308. After his death, she spent some time in Varilhes, ill . She did not return to Dalou until she recovered.

There she became the lover of the young Catholic priest Barthélemy Amilhat in 1316. With him she moved to Lladrós / Aragon - an area where priests could live openly with their loved ones. But just a year later they moved back to (temporarily) part with him. Barthélemy Amilhat went to Carcassonne and Béatrice de Planisolles probably to Rieux-de-Pelleport to their daughters, and then settled again in Varilhes.

1209 - the Cathars are expelled from Carcassonne

There she reached on July 23, 1320 the summons of the Inquisition in Pamiers for July 26. After her first unauthorized interrogation, she fled. On July 29, 1320, while fleeing from the Inquisition, she was arrested by Amilhat. In the nine interrogations by the inquisitor, Bishop Jacques Fournier , she became a key witness against the village pastor Pierre Clerque, who was suspected of heresy . She herself was convicted of heresy on March 8, 1321 and imprisoned in Allemans and released on July 4, 1322 under the condition that she should wear the "double yellow cross".

meaning

The fate of the Béatrice de Planisolles has been preserved in the records of the Papal Inquisition. These files are now a unique source of information about everyday life in the Middle Ages. There are numerous details that the Catholic Church wanted to make forgotten in its fight against the Cathars . The files of Jacques Fourniers, later Pope Benedict XII, occupy a special position . , a.

Béatrice de Planisolles became one of the most important people in this inquisition process because of her ancestry and her relationship with the village pastor Pierre Clerque . Her testimony made it possible for the first time to put an end to the double game of the pastor of Montaillou.

Due to unknown circumstances, within a few years he had attained an abundance of power that is more than unusual for a simple village pastor. His connections reached as far as the dungeons of the Inquisition in Carcassonne and as far as Toulouse . Initially, Clerque used his power to protect the village's Cathar families . But more and more he used his power for his interests. Under pressure from the Inquisition of Carcassonne, he betrayed the people he claimed to be protecting.

Today it can no longer be proven why she incriminated the man who was her lover for years with her testimony. The stake threatened him . It seems most likely that she had learned of the priest's reprisals against the Cathar families in Montaillou. And since it has been proven that she at least belonged to this belief, she could not be indifferent to the fate of these people. She withstood the interrogation by the Inquisition for eight days.

Yellow heretic cross as a mark of shame for Cathars

Before the last day of the trial, she became faint and retracted all statements made about the pastor. This amounted to an admission of guilt. Why she did that remains open. Some sources believe that she was tortured . It has been shown that this was not a means used by Jacques Fournier; he preferred interrogation . More closely is the suspicion that she had been put under pressure by Pierre Clerques himself. There is evidence that he often tried to influence witnesses, even after he was imprisoned by the Inquisition.

Béatrice de Planisolles herself was sentenced to prison, and with her all the other suspects from Montaillou. Only one of the suspects was sentenced to death at the stake by Fournier . About a year later she was released on condition that she wore the “double, yellow crosses” for life, the widely visible mark of shame for a Cathar believer ( see also heretics ). After that, their track is lost.

The name Béatrice de Planisolles still has a special ring to it in the Ariège and Languedoc. He became synonymous with an upright and steadfast woman.

family

  • Great-granddaughter of Raymond de Planisolles
    • Granddaughter of Arnaud de Planisolles
      • Daughter of Philippe de Planisolles
  • Sister of Ava, Gentille, Guillaume and Bernard
  • Children from 1st marriage
    with Bérenger de Rouquefort (⚭ ≈1291) († ≈1298)
    • 2 sons (names not recorded) (* between 1292–1294)
    • Beatrice (* 1295) († between 1309-1320)
    • Condors (* between 1296-1298)
    • Escarmonde (* between 1296-1298)
  • Children from 2nd marriage
    with Guillaume-Othon de Lagleize (⚭ August 19, 1301) († ≈1308)
    • Ava (* 1302/03)
    • Philippa (* 1305)

literature

  • Michel Goodich (Ed.): Other middle ages. Witnesses at the margins of medieval society . University Press, Philadelphia 1998, ISBN 0-8122-1654-7 .
  • Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie : Montaillou. A village before the Inquisitor 1294 to 1324 . Ullstein, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-548-26571-5 (Original title: Montaillou, village occitann de 1294 à 1324. ).
  • René Weis: The world is the devil - The story of the last Cathars 1290-1329 . Bastei-Lübbe , Bergisch Gladbach 2005, ISBN 3-404-77042-0 (original title: The yellow cross .).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Guillemain Bernard: Le cheminement d'un mythe: Maurin (Krystel), Les Esclarmonde. La femme et la féminité dans l'imaginaire du catharisme, Toulouse, private, 1995 . In: Annales du Midi . tape 109 , no. 217 , 1997, ISSN  0003-4398 , pp. 116-117 .
personal data
SURNAME Béatrice de Planisolles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Béartrice de Roquefort; Béatrice de Lagleize
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Small nobles from the Ariège
DATE OF BIRTH 1274
PLACE OF BIRTH Caussou
DATE OF DEATH after 1322
Place of death Varilhes (unsure)