Lauragais by Colin Duncan Taylor

Author:Colin Duncan Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2018-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

There are two curious aspects to the siege of Puylaurens. The first goes back to something I mentioned at the start of this book when I was admiring Madame Colombié’s cannonball: the death toll was reported as six among the defenders and 600 in the Catholic camp. When the besieging army included hotshots who could hit the chains of a drawbridge from 200 metres, how could the fight have been so one-sided, even if one allows for a degree of exaggeration?

According to Charles Pradel, who published his ‘Notes Historiques sur la Ville de Puylaurens’ in 1907, ‘The besieged also had their artillery pieces. They could fire safely from behind their ramparts. Always on the alert, they looked out for the right moment to make a sortie and fall on the enemy without too much risk to themselves. In contrast, the soldiers outside were exposed, not only to enemy fire, but also to epidemics in their camps where the hygiene was deplorable. A mercenary army such as that which besieged Puylaurens used to drag in its wake a large number of filthy servants and prostitutes who took no part in the combat’.16

Another factor was that the Protestants were fighting to preserve their homes, their livelihoods and their religion. Soon after the siege, the president of the parliament of Toulouse complained in a letter to the king, ‘The Catholics do not have this ardour and affection which our enemies have, enemies who fight much better for no pay than our men do [for pay]’.17

The second curiosity is that the siege was conducted in a time of peace. The second War of Religion ended when the Treaty of Longjumeaux was signed on 23 March 1568. The news was certainly known in Toulouse at the start of April, but it had no effect on the plans of the city’s consuls or its military governor. This was a private war between neighbours, and even the failed siege did not diminish Toulouse’s appetite for revenge. A few weeks later its consuls offered the governor of the Languedoc 120,000 livres if he would rid the countryside of Protestants by capturing Castres, Montauban and Puylaurens. By my calculation that was about 1.7 tonnes of silver, or a million dollars in today’s money.

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