Herodes de Lavor

She was the daughter of Blanche de Paracol of the famous patron saint of Cathars in the province of Toulouse county and Aymer Roger de Roquefort (Aimery Roger de ROQUEFORT), the owner of the castle of Lorac (Montréal) and Montréal.

She had three sisters: Esclarmonde, Mabilia and Navarre, as well as her brother Aymeri de Montreal . Mabilia and her mother Blanche accepted the dedication to the "Perfect" - the Qatari spiritual office.

The son of her sister Esclarmonda was known faydit Bernard Otto de Niort.

She married Guilhem Peyre, Senor Lavor , ^[1] who soon after the wedding went to the Third Crusade . After Herod received the news of her husband's death in the holy land, she did not re-marry, but accepted the Qatari initiation into the "Perfect", which obliged monastic life. Engaged in charity, helped all the poor and destitute.

1211 was marked by a number of important political events in the Monfort struggle for control of the land of the Tranquelles . First, Pedro of Aragon recognized Simon as a Viscount Bezier and Carcassonne and his vassal. Secondly, in January there was a repeated excommunication of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse by the papal legate , in April the pope confirmed it. This meant that Raymond was no longer considered a crusader, and his possessions were not protected by the pope. After the surrender of the Cabaret castle, the crusaders moved to the city of Lavor, which occupied an important position and also had a reputation as a nest of heretics. Lavor was owned by a lady, Gerald de Lavor, who was supported by her brother, Aymeri de Montreal , expelled from their possessions by Montfort. The city was well defended, it stood over the Ago River, the rocky slope protected it on one side, on the other were thick walls - so thick that the defenders could ride them, as Pierre de Vaux-de-Sernay reports.

At first, the Crusaders had enough strength only to organize a siege on the one hand, but after the reinforcements arrived, they built a wooden bridge over the Ago and a fence around Lavor. At the end of April, Earl of Foix Raymond-Roger intercepted a column of German crusaders who were coming to the aid of Monfort, defeated her at the village of Mongi. As reported, 5,000 were killed, but this number seems incredible. In May, Montfort destroyed the village of Mongie, killing all the peasants, from young to old, and hung out the corpses on the doors of their houses in retaliation for this massacre. ^[2]

Despite the lack of reinforcements, the siege machines of Monfort did their work, as they did under Minerva and Terme. Pierre de Vaux de Cernaye describes it this way: First, they built a car called a cat. When she was ready, she was dragged into the moat around Lavor, then with great effort they dragged the tree and the branches, which tied and filled them with the moat. When the wall was destroyed, the crusaders broke into the city, on May 3, and took it. Montfort decided to make an indicative lesson out of the city for several reasons, including the fact that Aymeri de Montreal swore to him in 1210 because of the length of the siege and the massacre of the German crusaders. The following may serve as an example of the unforgivingness of Montfort and his methods of suppressing resistance. On May 3, 1211, the Crusaders captured Lavor, who, together with his brother Aymery de Montreal (Aimery de Montréal or Aimeric-de-Montréal), defended his owner Herod.

Pierre des Vaux de Cernay (§227, p 117) tells in detail about the massacre of the vanquished: Soon Aymery (Aimeric), the former owner of Montréal, was withdrawn from Lavora with eighty other knights. The noble earl [meaning de Montfort - de Montfort] ordered to hang them on gallows-like gallows. However, Aymeri was so heavy that the gallows collapsed badly fixed in the ground, exactly like the gallows under some other convicts. Then the count, fearing to stretch the penalty for a long time, ordered that the surviving convicts survived to the sword, which our crusaders carried out with great enthusiasm, hacking them on the spot. Count ordered. so that Lady Lavaur, Lady Aymery’s sister and the worst heretic, were thrown into a well and filled with stones. Our crusaders with "joy in the heart" ("with great joy" - cum ingenti gaudio) burned the rest of the unrepentant heretics. ^[3]

In Lavore, there were 400 perfect men and women; at least it can be assumed, given that, having entered the city, the Crusaders burned 400 heretics.

The French rumor, according to the given song, attributes the vile treachery to the crusaders, saying that they first promised complete forgiveness to the surrendered defenders, and then broke their oath (in fact, it was not so). Later this story was retold in the works of Bernard Carayon, Bertran de la Fage, Daniel Riffa, Jean-Paul Cazes. The theme of the death of the brave Dame Géralda often became the plot of French artists. This is especially characteristic of her hometown Lavora, for the freedom of which she gave her life and the heroine of which she is.

In 1997, a mysterious sarcophagus was found on Dalbazh Street in Toulouse (rue de la Dalbade, à Toulouse) during the reconstruction of a historic building that once belonged to the Order of the Hospitallers (chevaliers l'Hôpital de St-Jean de Jérusalem). On its cover was carved a female figure, on the side, a heraldic image of towers, very similar to the coat of arms on the lords of seigneurs (seigneurs de Laurac), destroyed after 1229, and similar on the Tower of Antioch (la Tour d'Antioche), an ancient castle in the commune of Payra -sur-l'Hers, whose owners were vassals of the Lorac senors ^[4] . Some associate this mysterious burial with the name of the legendary heretic. It is well known that the Hospitallers did not refuse Christian burial to noble people who fell into heresy. So it is possible that some time after the barbaric massacre, the body of the executed was secretly removed from the well and reburied in the sarcophagus. Perhaps later research will reveal the secret of this "Mrs. Lorac" ("la dame de Laurac"), as archeologists called her. The coat of arms on the stone and in fact resembles the modern coat of arms of the city of Lavor. At the alleged place of execution a monument is erected, symbolizing Hope for Freedom. The sign on it says that it is dedicated to the Lavore family, who sacrificed their lives for the independence of Occitania. Geralda de Lavor (Guiraude de Lavaur) The brave life and death of Geralda are devoted to performances. In 2011, on the anniversary of her death, the Archaeological Society of La Société Archéologique de Lavaur organized a conference in memory of the heroic defenders of her city