The most westerly point reached by the forces of the Albigensian Crusade? Every citizen of the town; men,women and children were massacred , seven thousand in total. Closer study shows that it was attacked in 1219 during a second phase of the Crusade. This second phase was lead by Prince Louis, the future Louis VIII.
Historians of the Albigensian crusade claim to be mystified by this mindless violence. The inhabitants of Marmande may well have been Cathars but more importantly they were well within the Angevin/Ramnulfid empire of the child king, Henry III.
Louis had taken advantage of Henry’s youth to claim the throne of England. Henry’s generals, notably William the Marshall had thrown Louis out of England in 1218 and Marmande was his revenge. In simplistic terms the sin of the citizens of Marmande was that they owed allegiance to the “English.”
