Martin
Alvira Cabrer
12
de Septiembre de 1213. El Jueves de Muret
Universitat
de Barcelona, 2002
600
pp. (study) +19 pp.(chronology) + 13 pp. (graphics) + 78 pp. (sources
and bibliography)
This Review has generated
a response by Dr. Cabrer.
–– Please click to read ––
Starting points
- Although
this book deals with a battle - Muret - that was the
climax of the first Albigensian crusade, this is not a book on
that crusade.
- The
author states that his aim was to write a book according to the model and
method established by Georges Duby�s 27 Julliet 1214. Le dimanche de Bouvines (Paris,
Gallimard, 1973; 220 pp). That is to say the study of �decisive battles�[1] not
only from a tactic-strategic point of view, but also,
above all, from the fields of the sociology, ideology and mentalities. The
battles as something which go beyond its material impact and that have
a sacred, liturgical and
symbolical meaning. Duby used his book to represent a
whole view of the medieval world within the battle took place as well as
to show how that battle was
perceived by their contemporaries.
- In
fact, this book is the second part of the author�s PhD thesis (2000), titled: "Guerra
e ideolog�a en la Espa�a Medieval: cultura y actitudes hist�ricas ante
el giro de principios del s. XIII. Batallas de las Navas de Tolosa (1212)
y
Muret (1213) [War and ideology in Medieval Spain: culture
and historical behaviour in the early 13th century turning point.
Battles of ...]. The first part of that PhD thesis �battle of Las Navas-
is to be published.
- The
book is focused both on the battle itself and on its
two main characters: the Aragonese King Pedro III and the crusader leader
Simon of Monfort.
Contents and structure
The
author has decided to maintain the structure of his PhD thesis in this book.
So, the book is divided in three big parts.
- �Proleg�menos� (pp.
49-142) is an introduction to the geographical, political, historical and
historiographical context of Occitan and the involvement of the Aragonese
crown in the area (1140-1212). The author talks about the concept of a real �Aragones-Occitan
world�, where the Crown of Arag�n and the people of Languedoc shared common
interest and cultural environment. An �Aragonese-Occitan world� opposed
to a Frankish-papal alliance.
- �EL
camino de la batalla� (pp. 143-225) deals with the year 1212-1213 just before
the battle. Here we have a study of the two main characters and why the battle
was regarded as something useful, sacred and needed by both sides: the aragonese-occitan
people and the crusaders army. The conception of battle as ordeal and God�s
judgment.
- The titles of the different chapters within the third part (battle and
aftermath, 227-592) tell us its content. In a first group we
find: �Set�, �propitiatory
ritual�, �harangue�, �army and combat orders�, �battle and death�, �victory
and defeat in battle�. In a second group �battle and historical memory�,
we find a study on the sociological impact of the battle
on its contemporaries and specially how the outcome of the battle marked
the way of its two main
characters, the defeated Pedro and successful Simon,
were regarded
in that time and in the future. In a third group we can
find a sum up of the political
aftermath of the battle for that Occitan-Aragonese world:
its destruction.
Good and bad things
- No
doubt, this is the best book written in Spanish
about the battle of Muret and the Albigensian context, both from a military,
ideological,
sociological and political point of view. The last
part of the book (pp. 200-520) is the
one that all people interested in the battle,
its two main characters, and the aragonese involvement and should not miss.
- The
bibliography used is really impressive.
The author is likely to have read almost all the bibliography written in
any romance languages
on this subject
as well as a great amount of the most
important books in English.
On the other hand there are books on the cited
bibliography that seem to have nothing
to do with the subject of the book. Probably
this is has something to do with the fact that the author has maintained
his Ph.D.
list.
- One
of the points of Duby�s book is that he had managed to condensed in a
short book on the battle of Bouvines a whole vision of the medieval world.
Obviously,
the 700 Alvira pages are not like the same. However,
we should focus on his last part (p. 200-520) to find a really good study
on the battle.
- Although
the book deals with the Albigensian crusade, of course,
this is not a study on the crusade. So, we can not expect a study on the
crusading
machinery
and diplomacy, but some points are missed (i.e. nothing
is said about the 1214 bull �Quia major�)
- The
author defends the idea that Muret represented
the end of a traditional conception of royalty (p. 368). I think this is
not the case.
We have examples of warrior-Kings
till the beginning of the 16th century, and some of them
continued performing an active military
role in battles also regarded as decisive and which also had a symbolical
and sacred meaning.
- The
book has 15 maps and plans. However most of them
are useless. The author originals were in colour while the printed
examples
are
in grey, and therefore
are almost impossible to read.
Jos� Manuel Rodr�guez Garc�a
[1] The
author defends the idea that the battles of Bouvines, Las Navas and Muret
represent a turning point in the European Medieval history.
Response by Martín Alvira Cabrer to José Manuel
Rodríguez García.
Before anything else, I would like to thank Mr José Manuel Rodríguez
García for his review of my book and the complimentary comments he
has made concerning it. As regards those matters where we disagree, I would
like to make the following comments:
-
I consider Mr. Rodríguez García's insistence that my
book is not a book about the Albigensian crusade quite
unnecessary. It was never supposed to be so. The title
is quite explicit and from the beginning it
is clearly stated that the book deals with the
battle of Muret. There is no detailed analysis of the
Albigensian crusade because the work is not a
study of the Crusade. The book does provide a
general vision of the Occitan politics of the Crown of
Aragon and, of course, this includes aspects relating
to the Crusade.
-
The king in question is not Peter
III but rather Peter the Catholic, the second
king of Aragon and first count
of Barcelona of that name.
-
Mr Rodríguez García speaks of
an Aragon-Occitan world. This expression
never appears in the book. I speak of
an Hispano-Occitan world,
insisting on this expression
since the idea is that the historical and cultural ties that united
the two sides of the Pyrenees during the early
and central
Middle Ages affected not only
Catalonia and Aragon but also other Peninsular kingdoms. Anglo-Saxon
and French scholarship traditionally speaks of
Aragon
and the Aragonese (Aragonese
king, Aragonese kingdom) to identify the Crown of Aragon as a whole.
One might infer that just as there is a king
of France
who has French vassals, so the
vassals of the king of Aragon are necessarily Aragonese. Conversely,
there is also another tendency in Anglo-Saxon
and
French historiography to use
terminology taken from Catalan historiography, often of Catalanist
sympathies, in which Aragon and the Aragonese
are rarely
present, but rather Catalonia
and the Catalans (count-king, Catalan king, king of Catalonia)
are used to represent the whole crown. The problem
is that there has never been a time when
an Aragonese has been the same thing as a Catalan
or a Catalan an Aragonese! With the intention of breaking
this terminological impasse that leaves all
dissatisfied and irritated (especially the Catalans
and Aragonese) and that enormously confuses all outside
Spain, I have wished to be scrupulous, using
as a norm the formula “Catalano-Aragonese” that,
without being perfect, I believe
is that which comes nearest to representing accurately the Arago-Catalan
/ Catalano-Aragonese reality of the crown
of
Aragon. I believe, with all that,
that Mr Rodríguez García
has rather distorted the idea
which I wished to demonstrate.
-
On the bull Quia Maior, it is the
case that it is not cited
expressly in the text, though there is clear reference
to it and to the crusade to Outremer
promoted by Innocent III in Spring
1213 on p. 199.
-
Mr Rodríguez García says: “The
author defends the idea that Muret represented
the end of a traditional conception of royalty (p. 368).
I think this is not the case. We have examples of warrior-Kings
till the beginning of
the 16th century, and some of them continued performing
an active military role in battles also regarded as decisive
and which also
had a symbolical and
sacred meaning.” It is certainly the case that
I follow the fine study
of Ruiz Doménec upon the death of Peter the
Catholic, as well as
adding reflections of my own. Yet only with the intention
of illustrating that episode and without proposing a
theory upon the conception of medieval royalty.
Having said that, who could speak of the end of the warrior-king
at the
beginning of the century of Ferdinand III of Castile
and James I of Aragon?
Ruiz Doménec attempts to explain how a
king could be
killed at the beginning of the thirteenth century without scruples
and with justifications.
That is not talking about a change in the functions
of kingship (in no case, does the king
cease to be
expected to be
a warrior) but
rather trying to understand how it was that vassals were able
to
support the
murder of
a member
of a superior
hierarchy who,
according to his own and the ancient conception of monarchic
power, was considered
inviolable
(“The destruction of the magic halo
of the king at the hands of the vassals of God”). For Ruiz Doménec,
this is because the ideology of the crusade placed God far above all concerning
the sacral and magic in the king and all men were equally valid victims when
it came to death performed in the name of God. All, including kings, remained
within the range of the violence derived from the total war of the crusade
(“the king remains reduced to his simple human condition, submitted
like any other mortal to the empire of death”). Royalty abandons its
ancient sacral condition and is submitted to the power of the God of the
crusades: “The feudal vassals now praise the king of heaven”.
But Ruiz Doménec does not speak at all of a change in the warrior
condition of the king. Nothing in his article
nor in his work generally, nor, come to that, in my interpretation, alludes
to the warrior or military
function of medieval royalty.
Martín Alvira Cabrer
(I thank my friend Dr. Damian J.
Smith for the translation from the Spanish)