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 Birth of the Bastides
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Seal of Raymond VII |
Because Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse had allowed the Cathar clergy and followers free reign on his territories, the peeved French king and the furious Pope finally reacted in 1208 by preaching a Crusade against the Cathar heretics and all who sheltered them. Behind the banner of minor Northern baron Simon de Montfort – father of the future founder of the English parliament – the crusading army wreaked utter havoc throughout the County, exterminating populations and firing and razing their dwellings, towns and villages to the ground. To rehouse the inhabitants, Raymond began a reconstruction programme by founding new towns in hitherto uninhabited locations.
Four founding fathers
 1222-1249
Raymond VII, count of Toulouse, began with Cordes, near Albi, in 1222 and pursued the undertaking until his death in 1249.
1249-1271
Alphonse de Poitiers, King Louis IX’s brother and Count of Toulouse, built some 40 Bastides, mainly to ward off the English (e.g. Castillonès and Montflanquin.)
1270-1294
Eustache de Beaumarchais, Senechal to two French kings, built 20 Bastides
1272-1307
England’s Edward I, Duke of Aquitaine, built some 25 Bastides in France, as well as a number of them along the Welsh Marshes. The best know English bastide today is a village called New Winchelsea, on the south-east coast near Rye.
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