This
text is from The Song of the Cathar Wars: The History of
the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley (Aldershot:
Ashgate, 1996).
The Song of the Crusade (Chanson de la Croisade in French) is a poem written in Occitan at the time of the Crusade. It was written in two parts the first by William of Tudele a supporter of the Crusade, and the second by an anonymous and rather better poet who tended to side with the victims of the Crusade. This text concerning the siege of Termes comes in the first part and so has a similar pro-Crusader bias to the account by Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay.
| Count Simon de Montfort laid his siege before and all round Termes, and
then he heard this news. You can imagine how pleased he was with Sir William of
Contres and his companions for saving the siege engines, and more pleased still
at their defeat of the baron called Peter Roger - God do him no good! For I believe
the count would not be so delighted to be given all the gold of Macon as he was
when they told him of the great victory Sir William of Contres had won. Ah God,
how well the news was announced by the noble young man Sir William sent to escort
those weapons! That task too, he did well, I can truthfully say, bringing them
safely all the way to the siege before Termes. | De Montford's siege engines had to brought on horse drawn carts south from Carcassonne. They were attacked on the way by Languedoc knights led by Peter-Roger de Cabaret, but got through. The poet does not make any pretence at impartiality - he is firmly in the crusader camp. |
| Here there were many barons, many
tents of silk and fine pavilions, many silk tunics and rich brocades, mailshirts
too and many a fine banner, many an ashen haft, ensigns and pennons, many a good
knight and fine young men of noble race Germans, Bavarians, Saxons, Frisians,
men from Maine, Anjou, Normandy and Brittany, Lombards and Longobards, Gascons
and Provencals. The lord archbishop of Bordeaux was there and so was Sir Amanieu
d'Albret and men from Langon. All those who came did their forty days' duty, so
that as some arrived, others left. But Raymond, lord of Termes, counted none of
them worth a button, for no one ever saw a stronger castle than his. There they
kept Pentecost, Easter and Ascension and half the winter, as the song says. | The Crusaders came mainly from France and northern Europe, but there were others - attracted by the promise of the benefits in this world and the next. |
| No one ever saw so numerous
a garrison as there was in that castle, men from Aragon, Catalonia and Roussillon.
Many were the armed encounters and shattered saddle-bows, many the knights and
strong Brabanters killed, many the ensigns and fine banners forcibly borne off
into the keep against the crusaders' will. As for the mangonels and catapults,
the defenders did not think them worth a button. Meat they had in plenty, both
fresh meat and salt pork, water and wine to drink and an abundance of bread. If
the Lord God had not dealt them a blow, as he did later when he sent them dysentery,
they would never have been defeated. | Termes was a fief of the Viscount of Carcassonne who held it on behalf of the King of Aragon. Mangonels are catapults - referred to earlier as siege engines. The poet sees the hand of God in every defender set-back. |
| My lords, will you hear how Termes was taken and how Christ Jesus there displayed his mighty power? Nine months the army sat around that stronghold until its water supply dried up. They had wine for another two or three months, but I do not think anyone can live without water. Then, God and the faith help me, there was a heavy downpour of rain which caused a great flood, and this led to their defeat. |
The siege actually lasted four to seven months, not nine. What seems to have happened is that dead animals had fallen into the empty water cisterns. When the rain finally came it refilled the cisterns, but the water was infected from the dead animals. |
| They put quantities of this rainwater into butts and barrels and used it to knead and cook with. So violent a dysentery seized them that the sufferers could not tell where they were. They all agreed to flee rather than die like this, unconfessed. They put the ladies of the castle up into the keep, and then when it was dark night and no one could see what was happening, they went out, taking with them no possessions, nothing, I believe, except money. | They apparently escaped by means of an underground tunnel. |
| At that point Raymond of Termes told them to wait because he was going back into the castle, and while they waited some Frenchmen met him on his way in and they captured him and took him to the count de Montfort. The others, Catalans and Aragonese, fled to escape being killed. But the count de Montfort behaved very well and took nothing from the ladies, not even the value of a penny coin or a Le Puy farthing. | The fact that Simon behaved "very Well" on this occasion is indeed remarkable - a stark contrast to his usual behaviour. The crusaders must have been content with their other booty, which the poet mentions elsewhere: "the siege will cost many a mark and many a penny of Tours. Horses and palfreys will be won, and much wealth, much fine armour". |
| When it was known
throughout the land that Termes had fallen, all the strongest castles were abandoned,
and Le Bezu was taken, without any need for sieges. The men of these garrisons
who left the castles never supposed that the crusaders would get that far. God
who is full of mercy worked a great miracle there, for he gave finer winter weather
than anyone has known in summer. | The text actually refers to Albedun which was identified as referring to Le Bezu only in recent times. Causstassa appears to have submitted at the same time as the next stronghold to be attacked was Puivert. |
There exists another account of the siege of Termes from
Historia Albigensis (The History of the Albigensian
Crusade) by Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay a contemporary chronicler
in the crusader army. Click on the following link to read
an English translation by W.A. and M.D. Sibly (Boydell,
1998) of
sections 171 to 192 of chapter 7 of the Historia Albigensis
by Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay.
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