Aftermath of the Battle of Muret and the Pacification of Languedoc

Timeline

1. 1215–1224Toulouse and Carcassonne · OccitanieAfter King Peter II of Aragon was killed at Muret, the crusaders at one point controlled northern Toulouse, but southern forces counterattacked after 1215. Raymond VII and Raymond II, Count of Foix, recovered Carcassonne and other places between 1217 and 1219, and Cathar preachers resumed their activity in the Occitan countryside. Amaury de Montfort's siege of Toulouse failed in 1219, and the era of northern feudal lords leading the crusade gradually came to an end.
2. 1225Bourges · Centre-Loire ValleyIn 1225 Amaury ceded the de Montfort family's feudal rights in Languedoc to the French crown, and the crusade passed from a war of feudal lords to a royal conquest. In November of that same year the Council of Bourges declared Raymond VII excommunicated and deprived of his lands for sheltering heretics, and Pope Honorius III called for a new crusade. French royal authority thereby obtained a religious and political justification for intervening in Languedoc.
3. 1226Avignon to Provence · Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurIn June 1226 Louis VIII led his army south, and most fortified towns surrendered without a fight. Avignon capitulated in September after a three-month siege, and Provence switched its allegiance to the French king. Louis VIII died of illness at Montpellier (November 1226); the regent Blanche continued the crusade, systematically burning vineyards and farmland to weaken southern resistance. This phase of military conquest paved the way for Raymond VII's forced signing of the 1229 Treaty of Paris.