Philip II: (Philip Augustus, reigned 1180-1223). Though pressured by Innocent III to take an active role in the Crusade against the Cathars, Philip repeatedly declined, though he did encourage his vassals to join the crusade.
Louis VIII: (1223-1226). Louis was a more active
crusader, and distinguished himself by massacres that disturbed
even his own war hardened troops, notably the atrocity at
Marmande,
in 1219. He died on his way back to France from the Languedoc
after a reign of only 3 years.
Blanche
de Castile (1188-1252), Regent of France (1226-1236).
Blanche was the third daughter of Alphonso VIII, King of
Castile, and of Eleanor of England, daughter of Henry
II. Under a treaty between Philip Augustus and
King
John of England, she had married Louis VIII. When Philip
died Louis, their son and the heir to Kingdom of France
(Louis IX), was twelve years old. Blanche ruled as
regent until he came of age in 1236. She proved an
effective ruler, breaking up a league of the barons (1226),
repelling King
Henry III of England (1230), and extracting favourable
terms from her close relative Ramon
(or Raymond) VII of Toulouse, with help from the papal
legate Frangipani, following further military action in
the Languedoc. It was the legate who received the submission
of Raymond VII at Paris, in front of Notre-Dame. This
submission put an end to the Second Cathar war and prepared
the annexation of the Languedoc to France by the Treaty
of Paris (April 1229).
Louis
IX: (1215-1270), St Louis, King of France (1236-1270).
The regency of Blanche of Castile (1226-1234) had been marked
by the victorious struggle of the Crown against Raymond
VII. In the first years of the king's personal government,
the Crown fought off an attack led by the Count de la Marche,
in league with Raymond's
close relative, Henry III, King of England. St.
Louis's victory over this coalition at Taillebourg, 1242,
destroyed any hope of success for the uprising planned in
Ramon VII's territories to expel the French invaders.
Some actions during this period were led by Hughes des
Arcis, the King's representative (seneschal of Carcassonne).
For example he led the siege of the Château
of Montségur (
Montsegùr)
in 1243-4.
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