Par Pascal Pallas
Published on 14 Jul 22 at 9:36
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Today, the 400-year-old events we are about to discuss hardly ever come out of the deepest drawers of history. However, they have severely affected the south of France and particularly what Paris once called the “Languedoc”vast territory that the current region Occitania marries almost to the line.
Exactly 400 years ago, therefore, during spring and summer 1622a nervous and ambitious military campaign vigorously shook the lands between Montauban et Montpellier. This campaign was led by the king himself, Louis XIIIking from 1610 to 1643 and whose posterity remembers above all that he was both the son of Henri IV and the father of Louis XIV.
At the heart of the Wars of Rohan
Long before not equaling the greatness of his son, he already did not walk in the footsteps of his father who had put an end to forty years of wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants by signing theEdict of Nantes in 1598.
This document ensured freedom of worship, civil and political rights to Protestants as well as a long list of places of refuge towns, the best known of which were La Rochelle et Montauban. The edict also established that Béarn, under Protestant domination, would, in exchange, return freedom of worship to Catholics. However, this provision was never applied.
Annoyed, Louis XIII tackled the problem by sending his army to Béarnaise lands. Throughout France, the coup affects the Protestants who gather behind the duke Henri de Rohan and take up arms. There followed, from 1621 to 1629, a series of conflicts called “Huguenot rebellions” or the Rohan wars with, among its highlights, the personal campaign of Louis XIII in 1622.
From Montauban to Montpellier
In all truth, this campaign even began in 1621, at the foot of the high walls of Montauban, a Protestant stronghold, during an incredible four-month siege, which became the pride of the Montalbanais who resisted the attacks of the king, his army and his 400 cannon shots (hence the expression “do the 400 shots”).
The following spring, after having remade the cherry by subduing Poitou, Louis XIII “descends” to Languedoc with the desire to subjugate the troops of the Duke of Rohan that Governor Henri de Montmorency (the very one whose head will be cut off in the courtyard of the Hôtel du Capitole in Toulouse ten years later) had great difficulty in containing. He circumvents Montauban and throws his forces on the “small” Huguenot square close to Nègrepelisse. The inhabitants were massacred, the city looted and then burned on June 10, 1622. Four days later, the king appeared before Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val where the inhabitants buy, at the price of gold, their life saves, by paying a colossal ransom of 100,000 pounds.
The massacre of Nègrepelisse
Located on the left bank of the Aveyron river, Nègrepelisse was a small fortified place already taken by the royal troops in August 1621 but taken over on December 4 by the Huguenots of Montauban, who massacred the royal garrison of 400 soldiers from the Vaillac regiment.
King Louis XIII had not forgotten this affront when he again laid siege to the fortifications of Nègrepelisse. On June 10, 1622, the defenders of the place waved the white handkerchief and demanded to withdraw safe and sound. The king refused. The city was completely burned the day after the looting and the looting became widespread. Very few buildings survived the destruction. According to an anonymous 19th century writer, only 12 fighters survived the occupation of the city. Louis XIII had them hanged, at their request, from the trees in their gardens.
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The king then walks by the forest of Grésignefile in Lauragais where he submits Caraman from the first cannon shot then Castelnaudary. Direction Montpellier, via Carcassonne, Narbonne et Beziers which he invests on July 18. At the end of August, after submitting Aigues MortesLouis XIII set up his bivouac in front of Montpellier.
After a month-long siege, the king’s 20,000 men subdue the rebellious city. Having judged that enough blood had been shed, Louis XIII offered peace to Rohan, who came to kneel before him, asked for forgiveness, and left with the commandments of the places of Uzès and Nîmes, as well as a juicy envelope of 600,000 pounds.
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