Alice de Montmorency

Background

Alice was a daughter of Bouchard V de Montmorency and Laurette, daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut and Alice of Namur.

Career

Montmorency assisted her husband and hence the crusade in several key ways. Because only forty days' service was required in the south to gain the papal indulgence that was the main motivation for crusade volunteers, the crusade faced constant personnel shortages as individuals and groups served the required time and then returned home. Montmorency served as a recruiter in the north of France and acted as supply master for the crusade, ferrying troops and supplies from the north to various sieges and other locations in Languedoc. She regularly attended baronial councils, dispensing advice to her husband, and more than one source notes that she personally pleaded with French nobles on several occasions to remain in the south with their contingents longer than forty days.

Montmorency was present on several important campaigns during the endemic siege warfare of the crusade, among them Termes in 1210 and the second siege of Toulouse, 1217-1218. She was close by when her husband won the battles of St. Martin-la-Lande in 1211 and Muret in 1213. Like her contemporary Giralda de Laurac, there is no record that Montmorency participated directly in combat.

Achievements

• Montmorency represented an exemplar of female conduct of the early thirteenth century and went beyond it by providing consistent, direct military assistance. She was the most important of Simon de Montfort's lieutenants on the crusade, his best and most constant helper. Montfort would have lost in the south long before had Alice de Montmorency not aided him so effectively.

Connections

In 1190 Alice married Simon de Montfort. He was a leader of the Albigensian Crusade. Alice and Simon had 5 children.

Father:

Bouchard V de Montmorency

Mother:

Laurette de Montfort

husband:

Simon de Montfort

Son:

Amaury de Montfort

Son:

Guy de Montfort

Daughter:

Petronilla de Montfort

Daughter:

Amicia de Montfort

Son:

Simon de Montfort

References

• Amazons to Fighter Pilots: A Biographical Dictionary of Military Women
  2003
• The Albigensian Crusade
  2000