. During the Albigensian Crusade, in late November 1212, Simon de Montfort, having become viscount of Carcassonne, held an assembly of prelates and barons at Pamiers for the purpose of establishing his rule and the basis of authority in his new domains. The results, forty-six articles and a brief rider, are known as the Statutes of Pamiers. The statutes aim primarily to accomplish three goals: to strengthen the church against heresy;
To reconstitute strict feudal obligations between Simon and his vassals; to apply to all persons the testamentary practices of the custom of Paris (usus Francie circa Parisius), which favored the eldest heir and eliminated the southern custom of joint succession or equal division, especially of noble fiefs upon whose service Simon relied. The Statutes of Pamiers, particularly their most radical provisions transplanting into the Midi elements of northern customary law, did not survive the Montforts. Except for the obligations of certain noble families, they were abandoned by Louis IX and Alphonse of Poitiers.
Alan Friedlander
[See also: ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE; MONTFORT]
Bisson, Thomas N. Assemblies and Representation in Languedoc in the Thirteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964.
Timbal, Pierre. Un conflit d’annexion au moyen age: I’application de la coutume de Paris aupays d’Albigeois. Toulouse: Privat, 1950.
Vaux-de-Cernay, Pierre des. Historia Albigensis, trans. Pascal Guebin and Henri Maisonneuve. Paris: Vrin, 1951, pp. 141-44.
Vic, Claude de, and Joseph Vaissete. Histoire generale de Lan-guedoc. 16 vols. Toulouse: Privat, 1872-1904, Vol. 8, cols. 623-35. [Text of statutes.]
World History
