Heidi and Pierre hosted 53 friends from around the world, and we enjoyed meeting so many kind and interesting people. Their home and outdoor seating areas were decorated beautifully. Heidi’s a designer, and it shows in everything she does.

The 30-minute fireworks extravaganza was absolutely incredible.

The golden glow at the bottom of the photos is La Cité.

Perhaps no greater injustice has ever been done to a noble and industrious people than Pope Innocent III’s war against the Cathars of Southern France in 1209 AD. Raymond-Roger and his city of Carcassonne form an important episode in this incredible story that sets the stage, and paves the way, for the barbaric Inquisition that would follow.

Today Carcassonne is the best-preserved example of medieval fortifications in Europe.

Carcassonne is located in the historic and cultural Languedoc region of southwestern France, southeast of Toulouse, near the eastward bend of the Aude River. The region of Languedoc, which was the target of the Papal crusade, included the Mediterranean lowlands of France extending from the Pyrenees in the southwest and continuing eastward to the banks of the Rhone River and northward to the Isere.

The Crusade Against The Cathari

In the 12th century, the Cathari, a Manichaean sect, were largely supported by the nobles and people of this region. The Cathari were also known as Albigenses because there were many adherents in the city of Albi and the surrounding area in the 12th and 13th centuries. (Thus the Crusades are also known as the Albigensian Crusades.)

Pope Innocent III and the Roman Catholic Church considered the Cathars heretics. The main offense and ‘heresy’ of these people personally for the Pope was that they did not recognize the authority of the Pope or of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Pope, fearing the growing numbers and strength of the Cathari, instigated a crusade to exterminate the ‘heresy’ of the region. The result was the invasion of Languedoc in 1209 by a northern French Army of Crusaders numbering around 10,000 ‘soldiers of the Cross’. (The total number of soldiers involved, over the thirty years of the this Crusade, have been estimated between 300,000 to 500,000 men.) The Pope promised to give the lands of the Cathar heretics to these Crusaders, who were French noblemen willing to take up arms. The 30 years of crusades that followed devastated the vitality and prosperity of the region.

This vast army of Papal Crusaders set as their object the conquest of the whole of the territory of Languedoc and to rid that territory of heresy and make it a stronghold for the Roman Catholic Church. Some of the first cities attacked where those under the authority of Raymond-Roger, including Beziers and Carcassonne. Raymond-Roger attempted to negotiate with the Crusaders, but was refused a meeting. He then raced back to Carcassonne, his stronghold, and on the way warned Beziers to prepare for war.

The Siege of Carcassonne

The papal army descended upon Carcassonne where Raymond-Roger had prepared to defend his subjects against the coming attack. Raymond-Roger was young, being only 24 years of age, but he was a capable and fair ruler providing for the defense and prosperity of his people. He was himself a Catholic, but he respected the Jews and the Cathari of his subjects and allowed them to hold important offices of authority in his territory. He felt the Cathari were among the best and most loyal of his subjects. They were a good and honest people, fair to all.

During the siege Raymond-Roger valiantly directed the fight against the invading Crusaders often exposing himself to danger. Under a truce agreement Raymond-Roger was allowed to meet with the Crusaders to negotiate peace. After the negotiations the Crusaders seized Raymond-Roger and wouldn’t let him return to Carcassonne. The legate in charge said that “no faith was to be kept with one who had been so faithless to his God”. The capture of Raymond-Roger disillusioned the defenders of the city, so Carcassonne fell to the Crusaders who hanged and burned some 400 of its inhabitants, as an example, and let the remaining inhabitants of the city depart into the surrounding countryside. The men were left with only their shirts, and the women had only their chemises. They could take nothing else with them. Trying to survive in this condition must have been extremely difficult. I imagine many of the exiles died. Raymond-Roger was thrown by the Crusaders into his own dungeon at Carcassonne where he soon after died either of disease, or as many thought, he was poisoned. It is said that Raymond-Roger was a loyal Catholic. What a way to treat one of your own.

The Siege of Beziers

The siege of Beziers was one of the most brutal of the Crusade resulting in the sacking of the city and the massacre of some 20,000 to 60,000, some say even 100,000 men, women and children. (Estimates of the number of people slain vary and are difficult to determine.) Neither age, sex or religious affiliation held any restraint against the carnage that followed. Every person of the city was murdered whether they were Catholic, Catharian, others who rejected the authority of the Roman Church, a Jew, or an unbeliever.

Dread of the invading Crusaders spread throughout the whole territory of Languedoc. Village after village was abandoned rather than face the terrible papal army in battle. In time stronghold after stronghold in the region fell as well, including Toulouse, until finally, after 30 years of brutal war, most of Languedoc belonged to the Catholic French crown.