In
1084 Pierre-Olivier became the lord de Termes, but the first
mention of a castle there dates from 1110. Guilhem de Termes,
rendered homage to the Viscountess of Narbonne en 1118 and
Ramon de Termes rendered homage to Roger Trencavel as Viscount
of the Razès in 1137. The incumbent seigneur at the
beginning of the Wars
against the Cathars of the Languedoc was an old man
also called Ramon de Termes, a vassal of Ramon-Roger
Tranceval. (Ramon was an extremely common name among
the people of the Languedoc in the Middle Ages. It is an
Occitan
name rendered in English and French as Raymond).
Termes was a powerful castle sited on top of a large natural
hill in the Corbières
(in the present departement of the Aude
département but then part of the County of the
Razès). It consisted of a citadel within town walls
(the castrum) and with a suburb (burg) next to it with its
own defensive walls. Like the Château
of Montségur (
Montsegùr)
it was protected by a separate forward outpost - this one
called Termenet. Its population at the time of the crusade
is not known.
There
is no evidence that Raymond of Termes was himself a Cathar,
though his brother certainly was. Benedict of Termes (Benoît
de Termes) had been a Cathar representative at the Colloquy
of Montréal in 1207, the final debate in Pamiers
with Dominic
Guzmán representing the Catholics. (The public
failure of the future Saint
Dominic and his colleagues at this debate had been a
contributary factor to the calling of athe Albigensian Crusade
by Pope Innocent
III soon afterwards). Benedict was elected Cathar Bishop
of Razès in 1226 at a council held at Pieusse.
The only other circumstantial evidence of a Cathar connection
is that Lords of Termes were constantly squabbling with
the Abbey
of Lagrasse over their respective rights. On the other
hand this sort of dispute was normal at this period even
for the most pious Catholic rulers.
Following
the fall of Béziers
and Carcassonne
in 1209 and Minerve
and Bram
in 1210, Simon
de Montfort and his Crusaders failed to take the three
châteaux at Cabaret
(Lastours). He turned his attention to Termes. The Château
of Termes was besieged for seven-months between June and
22nd November 1210. Simon's siege machinery arrived from
Carcassonne
in August, the transport party having been harried along
its 30 km journey south east from Carcassonne by Raymond
of Cabaret. His commanders included the counts of Dreux
and of Ponthieu, the archbishop of Bordeaux, and the bishops
of Chartres and of Beauvais. His forces were supplemented
by contingents from Bavaria, Saxony, Frisia, Maine, Anjou,
Normandy, Brittany, Lombardy, Gascony and Provence.
Initially
de
Montfort saw little success, but he was heartened by
the arrival of a steady stream of fresh crusaders. They
initially used their mangonels to bombard the southern walls
with large stones. They managed to breach the walls but
not to force an entry and the defenders seem to have been
able to repair the breaches after repelling the attacks.
De Montfort changed tactics and managed to take the
forward defense called le Termenet. From then on it was
a battle between the crusaders' and the defenders' catapults.
The
summer was extremely dry, and unusually there had been no
rain by November. Both sides seem to have become disheartened.
The crusaders were keen to go home before winter - they
were required to serve for only forty days ("quarantine")
to earn their remission of sins past and future and win
a guaranteed place in heaven. The crusader army therefore
depended on a regular turnover of new arrivals to replace
those who left. By November many of the key commanders were
ready to go and started packing up. Inside, the defenders
were running out of water and thirst drove them to come
to terms.
On the night before they were due to render the castle the heavens opened and heavy rains refilled the castle's water cisterns. It looked like the defenders were saved, but the demoralised defenders had failed to anticipate the downpour, and had not cleared the empty cisterns of dead animals. Disease swept the Château, and the seigneur Raymond of Termes decided to evacuate the garrison. They escaped in the night of 23rd November, possibly through a secret tunnel. Accounts vary, but one way or another Raymond of Termes was captured. According to one version of the story he was trying to go back into the besieged castle having once got out when he was caught.
|
He was imprisoned at Carcassonne and died there three years later in de Montfort's custody - just as his liege lord the young Raymond-Roger Tranceval Viscount of Carcassonne had before him. Raymond's son, Oliver de Termes, continued the fight after his father's death. He fought alongside Jaime I King of Aragon, the young Raymond (later Raymond VII Count of Toulouse), and Raymond Trencavel Viscount of Carcassonne - all four men of the same generation and all victims of the Crusade. He was with the meridional army at the siege of Carcassonne in 1240 trying to re-establish the Trencavels to their city and Viscounties. After the failure of this enterprise he submitted to the French king, Louis IX, and accompanied him on crusade to the Holy Land. The indingenous people were disheartened by the fall of Termes and surrendered the nearby castles at Coustaussa and Le Bézu without a fight. De Montfort went on to besiege Puivert. After the château of Termes had been taken, it and another château nearby (le Termenès) were given to Alain de Roucy, one of Simon de Montfort's lieutenants. De Roucy experienced exactly the same problems as Raymond had with the voracious Abbots of Lagrasse. At his death his son ceded Termes to the Archbishop of Narbonne in 1224. It passed to the King of France (Louis VIII:) in 1228. Termes continued to be of strategic value to the French as it lay near to the border with Aragon (to which it had belonged before it was captured and annexed by France). Termes is one of the "Five Sons of Carcassonne", five Royal castles strategically placed to defend the border against Aragon. The others are Aguila, Peyrepertuse, Queribus and Puilaurens. |
|
In
1302, the garrison included a châtelain (a castillion),
an écuyer (a knight), a chaplain, a guetteur (look-out),
and ten sergents. In 1649 the border with Spain was movedfurther
south under the Treaty
of the Pyrenees and Termes lost its strategic importance.
In 1652 Richelieu ordered the castle to be abandoned and
demolished. The walls were destroyed by a master mason from
Limoux
using explosives, between 1653-1654. The ruins were listed
in 1942 and became a "monument historique" only
in 1989 when they became the property of the local commune
and were opened to the public.
Today,
the modern village of Termes down by the river is home to
some 50 inhabitants. A short walk from the modern village
of Termes are substantial ruins of the Château on
a hill top nearby, including the vestiges of an extensive
system of forward defenses. The ruins stand at an altitude
of 470m on top of a hill surrounded on three sides by a
ravine formed by the river Sou. You can see where le Termenet,
the forward outpost, protected the fourth, most vulnerable,
side. Few of the remains date from the Crusade only part
of the southern face of the outer curtain wall, the inner
wall and some of the buildings it protected. The rest is
the work of royal engineers in the second half of the 13th
century and the beginning of the 14th.
The
castle has an anciente (curtain wall) protecting a donjon
(keep), cistern, chapel and other buildings. Things to note:
- The first enceinte is polygonal and pierced with arrow loops. It is 8 to 10 meters high and 1.2 metres thick. In the north east corner is a tower and in the north west a postern gate (which allowed the defenders to mount surprise counter attacks). The north wall is furnished with spectacular latrines.
- The entry is in the South East corner. It is defended by an echauguette and a tower on the east wall. Note the bossed stones of the tower.
- A second, inner, enciente follows the outer one, and like it the access is via a ramp. To the east is a water cistern and a wash house. To the north is the keep and to the west the chapel.
G.P.S. : 43°
0' 7" Nord - 2° 33' 27" Est
map I.G.N n° 72, (série
verte, 1 : 100 000), secteur D2
map I.G.N n° 114, (série rouge,
1 : 250 000), secteur C4
map I.G.N n° 2447 OT, (série bleue, 1
: 25 000)
Further Information
Two
important sources of information about the siege in 1210
exist in English translation. Both are by partisans of the
French Catholic crusaders:
The The Song of the Cathar Wars (Chanson de la Croisade). Click on the following link to read an English translation ofWilliam of Tudelle's account, written in Occitan of The Siege of Termes from The Song of the Cathar Wars: The History of the Albigensian Crusade, translated by Janet Shirley (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1996).
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 their 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.
You can also buy these books. See below:
|
The Song of the Cathar Wars, English Translation Janet Shirley  
|
The
History of the Albigensian Crusade: Peter of Les-Vaux-de-Cernay's
Historia
Albigensis. English Translation (Paperback) by Petrus Sarnesis, W.A. Sibly (Translator), Michael D. Sibly (Translator)  
|
Click on the following link for recommended
Books on the Cathars 
Click on the following link for a full chronology of the
Crusades
against the Cathars of the Languedoc
Click on links on the menu at the bottom of this page for
details of other Cathar Castles
Back to: Minerve
