Toulouse were implicated in the Cathar heresy, and the city was the scene of much
fighting during the Albigensian Crusade (1208–29).
Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), Saint-
Sernin, plan. After Radding, Clark.
Toulouse, Saint-Sernin, aerial view.
Courtesy of the French Government
Tourist Office.
The unrestricted dominance of the citizens over their city and its region was reduced
finally by the successive seneschals who served Count Alphonse of Poitiers (r. 1249–71)
and governed on behalf of the king after 1271. The Toulousain suffered from the
devastation of the Hundred Years’ War, and Toulouse was implicated in the peasant
revolt of the Tuchins in 1384. In 1420, however, its support was essential for rallying the
Midi to the dauphin Charles; in 1444, Charles VII established permanently the Parlement
of Languedoc at Toulouse.
Alan Friedlander
Toulouse has two of the finest religious structures in the south of France, the
Romanesque basilica of Saint-Sernin, and the church of the Jacobins, a masterpiece of
southern Gothic style. Saint-Sernin was founded by the late 4th century as the burial site
of St. Sernin (Saturninus), the apostle of the Languedoc and first bishop of Toulouse,
who was martyred in 257 by being dragged behind a wild bull. Enriched by
Charlemagne, it became a key pilgrimage center on the route to Santiago de Compostela.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1730