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reward which the hand of God himself had destined for them. Simon de Montfort, passing the Garonne at their head, entered, without any obstacle, into the town of Muret, and prepared for battle on the following day, the 12th of September.

The cavalry, at that time, formed the only force of armies. A warrior, entirely covered with iron as well as his horse, overturning the infantry, piercing them with his heavy lance, or cutting them down with his sabre, had nothing to fear from the miserable footmen, exposed in every part to his blows, scarcely armed with a wretched sword, and who had neither been exercised to discipline or danger. Nevertheless, it was the custom to summon these also to the armies, either that they might labour at the sieges, or that they might dispatch the vanquished, after a defeat. Simon de Montfort had assembled the militia of the cities which were subject to him; Raymond, on his part, had caused the levies of the Toulousians to march, and these were much the most nuAs it was afterwards attempted to find out something miraculous, both in the disproportion of number, and in the extent of the carnage, the historians of the church affirmed, that the militia, under the orders of the king of Aragon, amounted to sixty thousand men; they allow, however, that they were not engaged.

merous.

Simon de Montfort, quitting, on the morning of the 12th of September, the gates of Muret, in or

der to seek his enemies, did not march strait towards them, but kept along the side of the Garonne, from the eastern gate, so as to make it appear to the king of Aragon and his allies, who were also under arms, that his design was to escape. But, all at once, turning sharply upon the army of Don Pedro, he repulsed the count of Foix, who commanded the advanced guard, and encountered the body led by the king of Aragon himself. Two French knights, Alain de Roucy, and Florent de Ville, had agreed, unitedly to attack the king, to attach themselves wholly to his person, and to suffer no assailant to divert them from the pursuit, until they had killed him. Pedro of Aragon had changed armour with one of his bravest knights. But, when the two Frenchmen had, at the same time, broken their lances against him who wore the royal armour, Alain, seeing him bend under the stroke, cried out immediately, This is not the king, for he is a better knight. No truly, that is not he, but here he is, instantly replied Don Pedro, who was near at hand. This bold declaration cost him his life. A band of knights, who were waiting the orders of Alain and Florent, surrounded him immediately, and neither left him, nor suffered him to escape, till they had thrown him lifeless from his horse. As the French had anticipated, the death of the king of Aragon occasioned the rout of his army. Simon, who had remained at the head of the rear-guard of the cru

saders, did not come up with his enemies till the news of this event had already circulated amongst them, and he profited by it to press, more vigourously, the three counts, and Gaston de Béarn, whom he compelled to flight. Arrived at the place where Don Pedro had fallen, and where his body was already stripped by the infantry of the crusaders, it is said, he could not forbear shedding a few tears; but this apparent compassion was only the signal for new displays of fury. He fell upon the infantry of the Toulousians, who had taken no part in the battle, and who, abandoned by their knights, could make no resistance against a powerful cavalry; and, having first cut off their retreat, he destroyed nearly the whole, either by putting them to the sword, or drowning them in the waters of the Garonne.*

4 Petri Val. Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. lxxi, et seq. p. 637. Litteræ Prælatorum qui in exercitu Simonis erant, ibid, cap. Ixxiii, p. 641. Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, cap. xxi, xxii, p. 678. Præclara Francor. Facinora, p. 767. Bernardi Guidonis, p. 483. Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 53. Chronic. o Comment, del rey en Jacme, cap. viii. Hist. gén de Languedoc, p. 249, et seq. liv. XXII, ch. Ivi. Raynaldi Annal. Eccl. 1213, § 56, seq. p. 227. Joan. Mariana Hist. Hisp. lib. XII, cap. ii, p. 558.

CHAP. III.

Submission of the Albigenses-Revolt and New War to the Death of Simon de Montfort, 1214—1218.

1214. THE activity of Simon de Montfort always seconded his unmeasurable ambition. He never estimated riches and power any otherwise than as they might promote the acquisition of still greater riches and power. He had never known any other relaxation from his victories than the preparation for new conquests. He had never understood any other way of rendering himself acceptable to God, than by shedding the blood of infidels, nor felt any other religious emotion than the delight of being the spectator of their torments. Nevertheless he gained no extraordinary advantages from the battle of Muret. The crusaders, after that great victory, thought their task accomplished, and their duty towards God fulfilled, so that they, with one consent, hastened to their homes. The court of Rome hesitated, for fear of rendering its creature too powerful. Philip Augustus indirectly placed obstacles to the zeal of the crusaders, by publishing an ordinance to limit their privileges. He no longer permitted them to withdraw from the defence of their country, by

abstaining from marching at their lord's summons, though he still left them the choice between service and payment. He no longer permitted them to decline the jurisdiction of the temporal tribunals, either when they were accused of crimes, or when they pleaded for their fief or their manor." Besides, the Catalans and the Aragonese were indignant at seeing the son of the king, whom they had lost, under the tutelage of him who had shed his father's blood. They had declared war against Simon de Montfort, and were preparing to attack him on the side of the Pyrenees, whilst their ambassador to Innocent III, was endeavouring to obtain the interference of the court of Rome, in defence of their independence. And they laboured so effectually, that Innocent III, by his letter of the 23rd of January, 1214, commanded Simon to restore the young Don Jayme to his subjects; which order was executed, at Narbonne, in the month of April following.

A new legate, the cardinal Peter of Benevento, had this year come to the province. He had fixed his residence at Narbonne, and all the lords, who had been so ill treated in the last war, had flocked to him to obtain, by his intercession, their reconciliation with the church. Much more accommodating, at least in appearance, than his

5 Laurière, Ordonnances des Rois de France, tom. i, p. 32.

6 Innocentii III Epistolæ, lib. xvi, no. 171. Histoire gén. de Languedoc, liv. XXII, ch. lxvii, p. 259.

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