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The Bavarian count Palatine Otto of Wittelsbach invades Italy, meets with Pope Innocent III at Viterbo, refuses papal demands that he yield to the Church all territories in dispute before 1197, but agrees not to claim supremacy over Sicily. He is crowned emperor at Rome October 4 to begin a reign of more than 8 years as the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV.
Fighting between German and Roman soldiers breaks out following the coronation of Otto IV. The pope asks the emperor to leave Roman territory, Otto refuses to depart until he receives satisfaction for losses suffered by his troops, and he then violates his treaty with the pope by taking property that Innocent III has annexed to the Church and distributing disputed territories among his supporters, whom he rewards with large estates.
England's John Lackland invades Scotland.
War continues between the French nobility of the north, who seek lands to the south, and the Provençal nobility, whose members have protected the ascetic "bons hommes" and their antisacerdotal teachings.
The emir of Ardabil crosses the Arak mountains, slaughters 12,000 Georgians, and takes thousands more into slavery, enraging Queen Tamara (see 1205; 1210).
A new London Bridge is completed in stone across the Thames after 33 years of work, replacing a series of wooden bridges built since Roman times. The new bridge is made up of 19 arches, and the starlings (bases) of the arches so constrict the flow of water that on a strong ebb tide the bridge acts as a dam, creating a steep drop (some people will lose their lives trying to "shoot the bridge"). It has a drawbridge at its southern end, and its center span can be raised to permit passage of ships, but side spans will soon be crowded with houses and shops, and when they catch fire about 5 years hence the ensuing panic will cause some 3,000 people to die in the flames or by drowning in the river.
Raymond VI, comte de Toulouse, rides into the encampment of monk Arnold Amaury July 2 and asks to join the holy cause against the Cathars (see 1208). Head of the Cistercian order and the pope's highest representative, Arnold suspects that the count is motivated less by piety than by a desire to keep his territory from being invaded. He accedes nevertheless, and Raymond gathers an armed force to invade the lands of his 24-year-old nephew Raymond Roger Trencavel, viscount of Albi, Carcassonne, and Béziers, whose wife is Agnes of Montpellier and who has been sympathetic to the Cathars (his grandfather was murdered in the main church of Béziers in 1167 for interfering with the liberties of the city's burghers, and his father massacred the burghers 2 years later in a bloody reprisal). Hearing of the army being raised by his uncle and fearing an invasion of his Languedoc lands, young Trencavel rides to Montpellier in mid-July to ask Arnold Amaury if he, too, may join the anti-Catharite cause. Arnold knows his family's history and rejects his plea. Trencavel rides back to Béziers and Carcassonne to warn their citizens. The population of Béziers is between 15,000 and 20,000; its burghers are confident that the city is well supplied and can withstand a siege. The bishop of Béziers arrives from Montpellier on a mule with a list of 222 Cathars and demands that they be turned over, but the burghers refuse. The crusaders break through the city's walls July 22, ask Arnold Amaury how to distinguish Cathars from other citizens, and are told (by some accounts), "Kill them all, God will know his own" ("Caedi te eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sun eius"). They burn Béziers's Roman-Gothic Church of La Madeleine (St. Mary Magdalene), and massacre virtually the entire population. Hundreds of castles in the surrounding area soon surrender to the crusaders.
The 49-year-old Norman crusader Simon de Montfort lays siege to Carcassonne at the beginning of August, having marched from Lyons to join the cause. Married since 1190 to Alice de Montmorency, Montfort participated in the siege of Zara during the Fourth Crusade and later fought in Syria; his crusaders have been promised a full remission of their sins, a moratorium on their debts, and compensation with Church funds. They have crosses sewn to their tunics, and their numbers include many second and third sons of landed families whose object is to obtain their own fiefs, but some are inspired by religious zeal to follow Montfort and suppress the Cathars. They are soon joined by Pedro II of Aragon, who supports his brother-in-law Raymond VI, comte de Toulouse, rides up to the castle of his vassal Raymond Roger Trencavel, and tries without success to negotiate a settlement. Arnold Amauray finally agrees to let Trencavel leave Carcassonne with 11 companions and whatever they can carry. Trencavel scorns the offer. Pedro returns to Aragon, the crusaders cut off Carcassonne's water supply and use small catapults (mangonels) to launch rocks that kill or maim anyone they reach. Water in the city's cisterns is befouled, infants and older people begin dying, Trencavel is lured out and captured, and Carcassonne finally surrenders. Its citizens are permitted to leave but are stripped of all their valuables, including buttons. Montfort captures the city's Cathar "heretics," is made viscount of Béziers and Carcassonne August 15, and takes command of the "Albigensian Crusade" that will continue as such for 20 years. Trencavel is brought back to his castle in chains, confined to its dungeon, and found dead in his cell in November (see 1210).
The Franciscan order of monks has its origin at Assisi, where Italian friar Giovanni Francesco Bernardone, 27, obtains approval from Pope Innocent III for rules that he has drawn up to administer the new order. The friar has consecrated himself to poverty and religion. He has gathered some like-minded companions at Assisi, and his order will be confirmed in 1223 by Pope Honorius III (see 1212; 1228).
Pope Innocent III excommunicates England's John Lackland in November for opposing the election of Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, an election consecrated by the pope more than 2 years ago.
England's Cambridge University (University of Cambridge) has its beginnings as some Oxford scholars and masters arrive at a ford on the River Cam, or Granta, having fled from troubles between academics and townspeople at Oxford (see 1167). An Oxford student has by some accounts killed a woman, a mob has hanged two or three other students in revenge, the rift between the king and the archbishop of Canterbury has made it impossible for the Church to insist on its right to try clerics in holy orders, and Oxford has suspended operations, some of its scholars and masters going to nearby Reading, some to Cambridge and Paris. The Cambridge masters will establish a school of sorts in 1217 and by 1226 will be holding regular courses with a chancellor as their head (see 1231; Peterhouse College, 1284).
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