Foix the fox (4)

On 30 January 1297 Count Roger-Bernard of Foix-Béarn served in the French army at the Battle of Bellegarde or Bonnegarde, where the English under Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, suffered a bad defeat. Bellegarde is usually overshadowed by Stirling Bridge, the other English military disaster in this year, but it was another terrible setback for Edward I. Lacy was in command of the only loyalist field army in Gascony, and his defeat meant there was nothing to stop the French rolling up the last English garrisons in the duchy. Only Edward’s landing in Flanders later in the year, after hurriedly scraping up an army in Wales and nearly causing a civil war in England, saved the handful of remaining loyalist enclaves.

The English king must have had some choice words for Roger-Bernard. In July 1294, shortly after the outbreak of war with France, he had sent his lieutenant and seneschal of Gascony, John de St John, together with John of Brittany to treat with the count. They practically begged him, as the most powerful of the Gascon nobles, to remain loyal to the English crown. Instead he chose the French side after Philip dangled all kinds of treats before his eyes: jurisdiction of Carcassone, various ‘ducal rights’, the constableship of four dioceses and five castles.

At Bellegarde the count personally led the French vanguard against the English, roaring the battle-cry ‘Montjoie!’ and routing the Gascony infantry. He had previously negotiated the surrender of St Sever, an important English stronghold in the middle of the duchy. A whiff of conspiracy hangs over this affair: as soon as the French army withdrew from the siege, the English were allowed to walk straight back in and retake possession. Roger-Bernard apparently stood aside and did nothing, possibly in exchange for a sweet backhander or two.

Some murky details came to light in 1301, when Bernard Saisset, Bishop of Pamiers, was brought to trial before Philip le Bel. During the trial Roger-Bernard turned king’s evidence and claimed that Saisset had tried to persude him to enter into a conspiracy: in return for his help, the Bishop would make him Count of Toulouse and together they would drive the French from south-west France. Coincidentally - or not - the Toulousain was an area repeatedly targeted by the English, implying some kind of secret three-way alliance. At the same time Roger-Bernard was shameless enough to submit a bill of 50,000 livres tournois in unpaid wages to King Philip.

Philip presided over the case in person, and we might imagine him listening to all this in a state of mounting rage and paranoia. Should a king dare to trust anyone in this sinful world? In the end Philip decided he needed Roger-Bernard’s castles and troops more than the bishop’s prayers. The count was acquitted, while Saisset was packed off to prison.