The de Montfort Histories - The Dove and the Devil (18 page)

No one could have imagined the cataclysm that would follow this
act.
 

When the news was brought to Raymond, he was horrified. He knew the
killing to be a political mistake and at once made an effort to distance
himself from the murder. Although he was at pains to protect the Cathars in his
region, he was himself a Catholic and knew that the killing of a Papal Legate
would have dire consequences. Of course it did, faster than even Raymond
expected. Angered by the incident and knowing it would justify a declaration of
war against the heresy-tainted country of the south of France, a justification
he had long sought, Innocent called a Crusade the very next day to resolve the
issue once and for all.

There was no shortage of volunteers. At once, knights, peasants and
freeman, inspired and horrified by the Legate’s blood-stained white habit which
was being paraded around the churches in France, flocked from all quarters in
the north, eager to serve under their lords or their bishops. Many noblemen in
the north of France looked speculatively at the rich provinces of the south.
The Pope had declared that the lands and possessions of the heretics and of
those who supported them were open for the taking. There was promise of great
financial gain to be made, and all the rules of a foreign Crusade—the
indulgences, the keeping of one’s property free of debt, the placing of one’s
domain under the protection of the laws of the Church, which meant that all the
property therein was untouchable—drew sinners and debtors alike to the
support of this grand new army.

Many lords came, for the taint of heresy had already spread to the
northerly provinces of France. Not surprisingly, they were afraid of a
conflagration within their own domains. Better to fight the cause on someone
else’s land! Some, however, were inspired by a genuine desire to serve what
they truly believed was God’s cause. The fact that God’s cause happened to
march in step with their own cause and could include large financial rewards
was a happy coincidence!

News of the call to this new Crusade excited Simon beyond measure. It
still rankled him most keenly that he had had to forego the Crusade against
Zara and Constantinople. Here was a golden new opportunity to serve God in the
way he knew best—fighting! He could hardly wait to tell Alicia about it!

Chapter Thirteen

Occitania, South of France

1209 AD

The Albigension Crusade

With a frown, Simon looked up from the parchment that bore a heavy red
seal to see who had disturbed him. His faced cleared as he saw that it was his
wife who had entered the room. Again he thought how beautiful she was and how
fortunate he had been in his choice of a partner all those years ago. Her grace
and beauty had never dimmed in his eyes, and she still carried herself as
though she were twenty.

She had had five children, three of them strong and healthy sons. A
fourth son, who had been baptised Robert, had died in early infancy. Her oldest
child had followed in his father’s footsteps with regard to his love of a good
fight. God be praised, Amaury was pleased to go wherever his father went, and
it would not be long before he would attain his knighthood. Their second son
Guy was somewhat of a dreamer, or so said the reports back from the estate of
Simon’s friend, the Count of Comminges. True, he had learned his lessons well
and was no stranger to the rudiments of fighting, but as Bernard the Count had
said, his heart was not in the sword in his hand. He had learned the language
of the people of the south and, at fourteen, could sing in a pleasant tenor
voice—a skill useful in any great hall in the land but of not much
account on the battlefield. The third and youngest son, named Simon after his
father, was a baby but a few months old. Their only daughter, a pretty five
year old, was the apple of her father’s eye!

“What have you there?”

Alicia’s question caused Simon to pass her the document, but in so doing
he could not hide the look of weariness that crossed his face. “It’s a summons
from the Council. Now that Carcassonne and Beziers have fallen to us and the
Count has died—somewhat fortuitously, from our point of view—it
seems there is a vacancy for someone to take over his lands and possessions and
lead the Holy Crusade. They have petitioned me to do so.” He looked at her
somewhat ruefully. “It seems that I am no sooner back than I must be off again.
I am to report to Arnold-Almeric with all speed to discuss this.”

“Why does the Papal Legate require you? You have only just returned from
Carcassonne. There must be several others able to lead the army!” As usual,
Alicia was protective of her husband, for she was well aware that the fighting
had been hard in the taking of these two large cities. However, she knew her
husband well enough to understand that there would be little to stop him
accepting this offer. Leading a Crusade was the sort of command he had only
dreamed about!

Simon’s eyes shone as he responded. “I think they will make me Viscount
of Beziers and deed all of Raymond-Roger’s domains to me. Don’t you see? This
will make us rich! This is an ideal opportunity to enlarge our holdings for our
boys. The possessions of Raymond-Roger are enormous when you compare them to
ours in the north. And don’t forget, we can no longer count on my lands in England
since King John took away my inheritance of Leicester after my uncle’s death.”

“But why can’t we be happy with what we have? Why can’t we just do the
forty days we owe the papal army as we and all the others have promised? Many
lords will be returning to the north shortly, their duty done. Why can’t we do
the same?”

Her eyes held the beseeching look that he had always found difficult to
resist. He knew she feared not only for her own and his lives but also for the
lives of Amaury, who would fling himself into battle regardless of the
consequences, and for Guy, who was still in the domains of the Count de
Comminges whose lands were sure to be ravaged as the army moved south. Alicia
had insisted on following Simon to Lyons on the first part of the Crusade, with
the intention of extracting Guy as soon as possible from the area in which the
heresy was most predominant and where she knew most of the fighting would take
place. She could tell by the set look of his face that her pleadings would come
to naught.

“Are you forgetting the reason we are here, my dear? It is not to gain
lands or treasure, although they are welcome rewards. We are here to do Holy
Mother Church’s will and cleanse the country of these people who it is known
treat with the devil and carry out such abominations that I could not mention
them in your presence. They are a cancer that must be routed out before they
destroy our church completely!”

Simon’s voice had taken on a tone that Alicia recognised. She knew that
whatever she said would have little bearing on his decision to take on the
captaincy-general of the army—that force, which even as they spoke, was
sweeping through the countryside south of them, leaving few people alive and
setting up pyres to burn the heretics.

“Then we must send riders to bring Guy to us. We should be together. I
will be happier when I can see my boys under your wing. If they must fight with
you, it should be under your direct command.” She sighed. “You must do the
bidding of the Council and see what it is they desire of you. Go, prepare. Time
is short if you are to do this. Already many knights have returned to their own
estates, their forty-day commitment to the Crusade served.”

“I will return as soon as I can. In the meantime, I will send some men-
at- arms to bring back Guy.” He smiled and catching her in a strong embrace,
kissed her hard on the mouth. She could feel the strength of his ardour growing
through the thin silk of her gown, but she pushed him away.

“Go,” she said. “The sooner you leave, the quicker you will return.”

Arnold-Almeric, at once the Pope’s Legate and the religious leader of
the Crusade had fought the council long and hard to ensure the election of his
choice of military leader. He was not a man to give up easily in his pursuit of
any cause. The leadership had been offered to several other great barons of
France but no one had wanted the titles of Beziers, Albi and
Carcassonne—perhaps because they had not liked the political machinations
of the church leaders and thought it best not to become involved in what was
clearly an unsavoury matter to say the least!. It was a well-known fact that
whilst being kept in his own dungeons, the legitimate viscount had died
suddenly, supposedly of dysentery. But no one had believed that for a moment!
He had been a young man of twenty-three, full of vitality and the energy of
youth. He could eat prodigious amounts of food and drink copious amounts of
wine with little or no effect. Why should he have been attacked by dysentery?
One could only conclude that he had been murdered. Had the Legate been involved
in Murder? Surely not!

Simon de Montfort was exactly the sort of man the Pope was seeking to
replace the young Viscount Raymond-Roger, who had been a thorn in the side of
His Holiness since the Crusade had first been called. When the Legate had been
last in Rome, Innocent had told him that a commander must be appointed
forthwith. Their meeting had been somewhat rancorous, Arnold-Almeric having to
confess to the Pope that he was having difficulty appointing someone to lead
the army because no one wanted the job.

“What about that de Montfort fellow, the one who refused to fight the
Christians in Zara?”

The Pope still recalled how impressed he had been with Simon’s stand
against the other leaders, his inflexibility against the Venetians and how he
had held out against the Doge in the abortive Crusade of 1204. Innocent
remembered him from those days as one of only a very few principled knights who
had refused to attack the city on religious grounds. Coming from an important
family that could boast bishops and close ties with royalty, the de Montforts
had long held sway in the Ile de France. Simon de Montfort was a man of ideals,
strong and fervent in his beliefs; he had the ability to lead gangs of tough
soldiers to whom he could relate quite easily; and he was that rarest of
beings, a man faithful to his wife. He seemed exactly right for the job- in the
Pope’s eyes- and Arnold-Almeric had to agree with him.

The Legate also knew that Simon had been dispossessed of his rightful
properties in England and that a natural greed would encourage him to take up
his offer. At the age of forty- five, de Montfort would be aware that he owed
his elevation to the Viscountcy of Carcassonne and Beziers to the Pope and
would therefore be in his debt, very grateful to God and even more fervent in
his religious beliefs. As they said, Simon prayed, took communion and killed as
easily as drawing breath. He was perfect for the job at hand!

De Montfort was immensely flattered by his meeting with the Church
Council and gladly accepted his mission as God’s will. He was happy to sign a
proclamation in which he stated that because God had delivered into his hands
the territories of those wicked heretics, he accepted with humility and
devotion this charge and this government, trusting in the help of God and the
aid of the army leaders and the assistances of the Legate. His only proviso was
that he would have a free hand to dispose of the rebels as he saw fit and that
any of the knights present in the council would come to his aid when called
upon by him. There would be no quarter given either to the heretics or to
anyone who sheltered them.

The Church readily agreed to this and Simon prepared to leave the hall
where he had been given virtual carte blanche to rid the area of a people whom
he considered to be of less importance than vermin. He made his exit, calling
to his groom to bring his horse, for he was in a great hurry to return to
Alicia bearing the good news.

“Hold on, my boy.”

Simon turned at the sound of the voice, wondering who was addressing the
new leader of the Crusade in such familiar terms. His face cleared as he saw it
was Arnold-Almeric, the man responsible for Simon’s sudden elevation to the
dizzy height of leader of the only Crusade ever fought on European soil.

“You know what you have to do, my boy. You know the Holy Father will be
ever grateful to you if you succeed. You and yours will henceforth want for
nothing. You will be looked upon with the greatest favour by His Holiness. You
only have to stamp out this cancer which grows by the hour.”

Simon looked gratified as Arnold-Almeric spoke and opened his mouth to
reply.

“No, do not interrupt me. There is another matter I wish to discuss with
you, one which must remain a secret. What I am about to tell you must not go
beyond these four walls.” The Legate looked around him as if to see if the
walls had ears. “You recall the attack on the city of Zara and the fall of
Constantinople? Of course you do, my boy. It was there you took your stand
against attacking a Christian population. That was when you first came to the
notice of His Holiness. Well, I am sure you were unaware at the time, but His
Holiness had sent soldiers to Constantinople, not to fight—they were
Templar Knights he sent—but to rescue some of the very valuable relics
that the Eastern Church in Constantinople had managed to collect. This included
several fragments of the true cross and other icons that the Pope wished to
take into safekeeping. Unfortunately, they were lost to pirates as they were
being brought back to Rome. The one thing His Holiness valued the most,
however, the one thing he desired above everything else, was a simple piece of
linen.”