Amalric (Or Arnauld)

Amalric (Or Arnauld)

Amalric (Or Arnauld)

an influential chief in the crusade against the Albigenses (q.v.), was born about the middle of the 12th century. He was first abbot of Poblet, in Catalonia, then of Grandselve, and lastly of Citeaux. He was in the enjoyment of this last dignity when, in 1204, Innocent III associated him with the legates Raoul and Pierre de Castelnau in the mission to extirpate throughout France the heresy of the Albigenses. He preached a crusade against them; many of his contemporaries, several of whom were princes and lords, took part in it, and he was nominated generalissimo of the crusaders. In 1209, after taking several castles and many times routing the enemy's forces, he besieged and took Beziers; sixty thousand inhabitants were massacred, and the town plundered. He then besieged Carcassonne and banished its inhabitants. He was presented to the archbishopric of Narbonne in 1212; thence he went into Spain with the troops, and contributed to the defeat of a Moorish king. On his return to France, he was embroiled in a quarrel with Simon de Montfort about the title of duke of Narbonne, which he had assumed. He died Sept. 29, 1225.