Battle of Muret
| date | September 12, 1213 |
|---|---|
| place | near Muret , France |
| output | Victory of the Crusaders |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Army of the Languedoc |
Army of the Crusaders |
| Commander | |
|
|
|
| Troop strength | |
| 2,200 knights and mounted sergeants; (+ less than 10,000 militiamen as besiegers of Muret) |
900 knights and mounted sergeants; (+ 700 infantry as garrison from Muret) |
| losses | |
|
unknown |
low |
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The Battle of Muret was a decisive battle in medieval France between the crusader army of the Albigensian crusade and a coalition of the princes of Languedoc ( Occitania ). The battle took place on September 12, 1213 near Muret in today's Haute-Garonne department and ended with the victory of the Crusaders.
prehistory
Since the year 1209, the Languedoc region in the south of what is now France was the scene of the Albigensian crusade, which was harshly led on behalf of the Pope and aimed at combating the Cathar sect and its supporters, which were considered heretical . The majority of the knights of the crusade came from northern France and were led by Baron Simon IV , Lord of Montfort . The opponents of the crusade were the long-established counts of the region, who all belonged to the Catholic Church, but saw themselves threatened by Simon's claims to power that came with the crusade. Another factor of power touched by the crusade was the Kingdom of Aragón , which was nominal feudal lord over a large part of Languedoc. After the crusaders drove out the vice- counts of the Trencavel family after taking the city of Carcassonne in August 1209 , Simon de Montfort was appointed the new vice-count of Carcassonne by a papal legate . This ignored the current rights of King Peter II of Aragon , who was the feudal lord of the Trencavel and was thus forced into the camp of the opponents of the Crusade. At first he could hardly defend himself because he was involved at the same time in the struggle of the Christian kings of Spain against the Moors ( Reconquista ). Simon was able to use this to his advantage and was recognized by Aragón in 1211. But King Peter tried to prevent Simons from expanding further by taking sides with the Counts of Toulouse and Foix.
On July 16, 1212, the Spanish kings won a decisive victory over the Moors in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa and King Peter rose to become a hero of Christianity ( el Catolico ). Relieved from one front, he now turned to the papal crusade. In the spring of 1213 he met Simon de Montfort in Lavaur for a personal conversation . In the negotiation there was again no rapprochement, mainly because Simon refused to guarantee the inviolability of the property of the Counts of Languedoc, with whom the king sympathized. A decisive battle between the parties was now inevitable. In the summer of 1213 King Peter crossed the Pyrenees with an army and united with the counts' troops in Toulouse . They paid homage to him as their patron and liege lord, even Count Raimund VI. of Toulouse , although his dynasty had been in a power struggle with Aragón for supremacy in Languedoc for several generations.
Siege of Muret
The united army now moved against the city of Muret , which belonged to Count Bernard IV of Comminges and had been occupied by the Crusaders since 1212. On September 8th the army, coming from the north, reached the city, which was held by 30 knights and several hundred crossbowmen. A detachment under Count Raimund Roger von Foix penetrated the city through the northern gate, whereupon the defeated defenders withdrew to the city's citadel, which was protected by two sides of the Garonne River and its tributary (Louge). They managed to send a messenger to Simon de Montfort, who was staying in Fanjeaux . He had his mounted troops gathered and hurried with them to Muret, where he arrived on September 11th.
Simon immediately entered the city with his army and involved the Foix troops in street fighting. But since no decision was in sight, Simon withdrew from the city, apparently on the run, on the left bank of the Garonne to the south. However, he then swung his army to the west and crossed the Louge, where he put the force of the Toulouse city militia to flight. The two enemy armies were now on a level in front of the city, and the Count of Foix also left the city to prepare with his allies for the decisive battle that was to take place the following day.
Line up for battle
Simons de Montfort's army was outnumbered, as most of the crusaders returned to their homeland in northern France after a minimum of 40 days of combat and reinforcements arrived only irregularly. His army comprised only about 900 knights and mounted sergeants, but was well trained and equipped. Simon set up his riders in three rows of about 300 men each, the first under Guillaume des Barres , the second under Bouchard de Marly and the third as a reserve led by himself. The Muret garrison did not take part in the battle. The Languedoc coalition, which apparently also formed a pure cavalry army, did the same. In the forefront was the Count of Foix with approx. 600 knights and mounted sergeants, in the second the King of Aragón with approx. 700 horsemen, in the third the Count of Toulouse with approx. 900 riders. The infantry of the Languedoc, consisting mainly of militias, stayed partly in the field camp, partly during the siege of Muret and did not take part in the battle.
The crusaders had the advantage of having, in Simon de Montfort, an undisputed leader at their head, whose commands were subordinated to all other troop leaders. This was not the case with the Occitanians, the king of Aragon was their nominal commander-in-chief, but he had to consult with the counts about the tactical approach against the enemy. The Count of Toulouse had spoken out in favor of a defensive plan, and he also wanted to wait for the arrival of reinforcements from Nuno Sanchez of Roussillon . In view of his superiority, however, the king rejected this as unknightly and demanded an offensive procedure. The Count of Foix stood by him, although it may have played a role that the houses of Foix and Toulouse had long been in rivalry with one another.
The battle
So the battle began with an attack by the Count of Foix, whom Simon de Montfort threw against the line of Guillaume des Barres and which he thus bound. This cleared a way for the crusaders to join the line of the King of Aragón, whom Simon now sent the Bouchard de Marly line in a frontal attack. At the same time, Simon himself took full risk by setting his own row, the reserve, in motion and breaking into the right flank of the king. The crusaders attacked the king from two sides and pushed him away from his allies in the direction of his encampment. The Count of Toulouse, who could have come to the king's aid with his contingent, remained behind with his knights and instead waited for the further course of the fight. This played into the hands of Montfort, who now forced the king into close combat. The knight Florent de Ville harassed the royal standard bearer and brought him down. According to tradition, the king himself did not fight in his own armor, but in that of one of his subordinate knights. The knight Alain de Roucy presented the king, and although the latter made himself known by shouts, Roucy killed him with his sword.
The death of the king brought the decision, his Aragonese knights fled immediately and the Count of Toulouse also withdrew with his knights to his capital, without having participated in the battle, to put them in defense readiness. The crusaders then turned against the rest of the militia officers who were still besieging the city and put them to flight.
consequences
Simon de Montfort and his crusaders were able to achieve a preliminary victory in the Albigensian crusade. Immediately after the battle, he succeeded in taking Toulouse, which he surrendered without a fight; the count had fled to England . The captured Aragonese knights, including the underage infant and now King James I , he had released again immediately, because he wanted a peaceful understanding with Aragon in the future. Simon was at the height of his power, especially after the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) confirmed all the conquests he had made.
The Counts of Langudeoc did not give up the fight and continued it from 1216. The Count of Toulouse managed to recapture his capital in 1218. During the subsequent siege by the crusaders, Simon de Montfort was killed. With this the Occitans achieved a turning point and expelled the last crusaders from the Langudeoc by 1224. Nevertheless, the region was afterwards so economically and militarily weakened that they could no longer oppose the subsequent crusade of King Louis VIII of France in 1226.
The kingdom of Aragon experienced the most lasting consequences of the Battle of Muret. The policy of establishing a Mediterranean empire from Catalonia via Languedoc to Provence , which had been pursued for more than a hundred years, came to an abrupt end. Instead, the French royal power pushed into the power vacuum created by the withdrawal of Aragon. In the Treaty of Meaux-Paris in 1229, the Counts of Languedoc recognized the French crown as the new feudal lord; Aragon recognized this new rule in the Treaty of Corbeil in 1258. Aragón now shifted his expansionist efforts to the Mediterranean , conquered the Balearic Islands by 1235 , the island of Sicily after the Sicilian Vespers in 1282 and rose to become the leading sea power of the western Mediterranean.
swell
- Guilhem de Tudèla : Canso de la crozada
- Pierre des Vaux de Cernay : Historia Albigensis (1212-1218)
- The Chronica des Guillaume de Puylaurens
literature
- Martín Alvira Cabrer, El Jueves de Muret. 12 de Septiembre de 1213 , Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 2002. ISBN 84-477-0796-2
- Martín Alvira Cabrer, Muret 1213. La batalla decisiva de la Cruzada versus los Cátaros , Ariel, Barcelona 2008. ISBN 978-84-344-5255-8
- Martín Alvira Cabrer, Pedro el Católico, Rey de Aragón y Conde de Barcelona (1196-1213). Documentos, Testimonios y Memoria Histórica , 6 volumes, Institución Fernando el Católico (CSIC), Saragossa 2010 (online). ISBN 978-84-9911-066-0
Web links
- Les Batailles de France (French)
- Muret 1213 - www.earlyblazon.com (Engl./frz.)