The authors analyze the Treaty of Meaux-Paris (1228) signed between France and Toulouse. It has extraordinary relevance as it establishes the terms of the application of French law over the powerful county of Toulouse and by extension over Occitan lands, as the result of the Battle of Muret (1213). They offer the first translation ever (into English) of this treaty and they analyze it as the legal rendering of the centralized expansion of the French Crown on its way towards becoming an absolutist monarchy. They also study for the first time this treaty in comparison to the Decrees of Nova Planta issued in Spain between 1707-1716 by a king of French origin which represented the fulfillment of an authoritarian process that began in France in the 13th century. The treaty and the decrees used the concept of the “just right of conquest,” which provided a (debatable) legitimacy to the interests of the winning parties. They analyze literary texts such as the Cançó de la Croada as well as historical contemporary accounts creation of a Catalan collective identity.
TopMuret, A Decisive Defeat For The Crown Of Aragon
Muret was a decisive defeat for the Crown of Aragon´s strategy on the other side of the Pyrenees and resulted in a change in political plans (Alvira Cabrer, 2008, 2015, 2019, 2020). In the Cançó de la Croada contra els albigesos1 there is a vivid narrative of these events and of what was being said at the time, of the combats and the numerous negotiations, all of them described in detail in this text (Martines & Ensenyat, 2003; Roquebert, 2001; Zerner, 1979). There were happy predictions about the result of the battle for the Crown of Aragon and its king, the corageous Peter the Catholic, who had had a memorable behavior the previous year in the also decisive battle of the Navas de Tolosa (1212) (Cressier & Salvatierra, 2014). The Catalan-Aragonese and Occitan troops were more numerous than the enemies, who, after a well directed campaign organized by King Peter and the Occitans, retreated to the castle of Muret. The meeting of the leaders of the resistance only foreshadows victory:
Figure 1. Details of one of the first folios of the Cançó de la Croada contra els albigesos. Bibliothèque national de France, fr. 25425
[l.[aisse] 137]
The good King of Aragon was well provided
And the Count of Sant Gili and all his Barons;
The citizens of Toulouse and the commoners.
[...]
[The King of Aragon says that]
“I have received sealed letters
That indicate that Simó of Monfort will arrived tomorrow well prepared
And upon entering he will shut himself inside.
[...]
We will siege the city all around
And will apprehend the French and the Crusaders
And their defeat will not be able to be restored
Nor their honor will be later reinstated
[...]
It will be better to be of one accord
And to allow them to come into the city together, and the dice will be in our favor
Until the end of the game.
And I want you to tell them thus”.
We could say that although the dice were in his favor, the great King Peter ended loosing the game. He came to know the bitter gal of defeat at the hands of the crusaders´ army led by Simó de Montfort who fought for France. The “good King of Aragon” lost his life in battle and also the influence of the Crown of Aragon on the Occitan territories –many of which were his vassals— (Alvira Cabrer, 2014); in addition, this battle almost represented the end of the Crown, for his heir, James I, who was only five years old, remained in Carcassone at the hands of his enemy as surety for pacts and truces (Alvira Cabrer, 2014). The result of the battle is described in the following verses of the Cançó de la Croada, so well described that it is almost possible to see and hear the scene, following Quintilian´s recommendation, ut cerni potius videatur quam audir”, and, we could add, full of visual power or εηάργεια (Martines, 2018a):