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A lack of cohesion on the part of Southern military elites has often been blamed for their defeat during the Albigensian Crusade, and this did play a major role in the collapse of the Southern military system. On the other hand Southern forces often fought successfully, and they continued to do so after the Albigensian Crusade brought the Midi under north-ern control. Meanwhile Southern France was divided between provinces ruled by the French crown and those which remained under the English as a theoret-ical vassal of the French. Here the defence of Gascony against the invading armies of Philip the Fair in 1294-8 largely fell to local Gascon knights, mercenaries and sergeants with only a few English troops taking part. Bayonne remained a centre of pro-English feeling, and the Gascon nobility certainly did not deserve the reputation for unreliability later given them.

Despite the importance of paid soudadiers in Southern France, the distinction between mercenaries and vassals remained blurred. Less prestigious

‘Herod’s guards \ south    appear to be slightly

French relief carving, early    curved. (In situ facade of

ijth cen tury. The mailed    ChurchofSt. Trophime,

warriors wear separate    Arles; author ’s

mail coifs while the    photograph)

cjuillons of the swords mercenaries included barely civilised mountain men from both sides of the Pyrenees. Gascons, Navarrese and Basąues remained in demand as infantry from the i2th to i4th centuries, and their most character-istic weapons were a pair of heavy javelins or dards which they used ‘in the manner of the wild Irish’. Others fought as archers, but it was the dardiers who most successfully harried and ambushed columns of invading northern French troops during the Albigensian Crusade. Aragonese from the eastern end of the Spanish Pyrenees also fought as mercenaries from the late i2th cen tury. Some were knights or light cavalry but the most feared were almogavers (Arabie al mughawir, ‘raiders’) armed with spears or crossbows.

Less seems to be known about military engineers in Southern France, despite the advanced naturę of siege warfare in the Midi. One Gascon magister ingeniorum, however, was so respected that he was knighted in 1254 and went on to serve the Count of Savoy.

Militias

Militias also played a major role in Southern warfare. Urban forces reeruited from the borzeis burghers may even have been morę important than they were in the

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