THE EMERGENCE OF ARAGON-CATALONIAProvence-even under its cadet dynasty of Catalan-Aragonese
counts-maintained close, though at times contentious, rela-
tions with its big brother further west; its technical overlord
was not the king of France but the Holy Roman Emperor,
wearing his crown as the barely effective ruler of the kingdom
of Burgundy or Arles. On the other hand, attempts by the
kings of Aragon to create a bridge linking their Catalan ter-
ritories through southern France to Provence encountered
stiff opposition among the warring factions in Languedoc:
counts ofToulouse, viscounts ofCarcassonne, counts ofFoix,
not to mention external forces such as the English king, in
his capacity as overlord of Gascony to the north. It is notice-
able that at this stage the least influential of all the kings with
claims in this region was the king of France, whose authority
in Languedoc was little more real than it was in Catalonia.
What mattered was that a king was close by, as the rulers of
Catalonia and of Gascony were: that is, the kings of Aragon
and of England. Southern French lords moved in and out of
the Catalan-Aragonese political net, while the strains of in-
ternal strife were felt in the uncontrolled spread of popular
heresy, notably the dualist Cathar faith, and in the ravages of
mercenary bands.'" Despite a long history of Catalan involve-
ment in Languedoc, Alfonso met little permanent success in
the lands between Provence and Catalonia, and yet the issue
of Aragonese rights in Languedoc was for long remembered.PETER II IN SOUTHERN FRANCE
It was in Languedoc that King Peter II (1196-1213) in fact
faced his greatest difficulties. His wife Maria was heiress of
Montpellier, one of the two richest and largest towns (with
Toulouse) in the region, a major centre of international
trade and industry; and this acquisition strengthened con-
siderably Catalan-Aragonese influence in the region, as did
the marriage of his sister to the Count of Toulouse.^16 Yet it
was the fractious disunity of the southern French barons that
- Hillgarth, Problem, pp. 13-14. Brief accounts of Aragonese interests
in southern France appear in all good histories of the Albigensian
crusade, e.g. J. Sumption, The Albigensian Crusade (London, 1978),
pp. 22-3, 97-8. - J. Baumel, Histoire d'une seigneurie du Midi de la France, vols 1-2
(Montpellier, 1969-71).