Seizing and killing

Gaston VII Moncada (1225-1290) was the twentieth Viscomte of Béarn, the largest and most independent of the fiefs of Gascony, situated on the southern border with Navarre. Via his mother, Garsende - described as a woman of ‘singularly immense size’ by Matthew Paris - he was first cousin to Henry III’s queen, Eleanor of Provence.

Bonifacio Calvo

Throughout his career Gaston was a serious inconvenience to the Plantagenet regime in Gascony. He first caused trouble in 1243, when he refused to do homage to Henry except at the Béarnaise city of St-Sever. Eleanor smoothed over the situation and persuaded Gaston to do homage at Bordeaux, accompanied by his allegedly enormous mother.

Six years later Gaston had the bit between his teeth again. As seneschal of Gascony, Simon de Montfort was struggling to contain outbreaks of armed rebellion in the duchy. Much of this was due to Gaston, who coveted the lordship of Bigorre on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. He claimed it by right of his late wife, one of the daughters of an elderly and much-married countess named Perronelle. The countess’s third husband had been Guy de Montfort, elder brother of Simon, and wanted Bigorre to fall to one of Guy’s grandsons.

The arms of Bigorre

Gaston wouldn’t relinquish his claim without a fight, so Perronelle turned to Simon for help. He took control of Bigorre and used it as his headquarters in the war against Gaston, who was soon captured and packed off to England for judgement. This was a mistake, since Gaston exploited his kinship with Queen Eleanor to secure his release. He was pardoned, and by the queen’s intercession his lands were restored to him. Soon afterwards he returned to Gascony and went straight back into rebellion.

The Cirque de Gavarnie in southern Bigorre

Simon severely criticised Henry’s decision to release Gaston, but the Viscomte of Béarn could not be simply disinherited, much less executed. His lordship of Béarn effectively acted as a buffer against invasions of Gascony from the southern kingdoms of Castile and Navarre. If Gaston was ill-treated, he and his nobles would simply take their loyalty somewhere else. The ambitions of Castile were expressed by a Genoese poet, Bonifacio Calvo, who attended the court of Alfonso X of Castile. In his “sirventes” - Old Occitan lyric poetry - Bonifacio tells his audience that:

“Our king wishes soon to travel into Gascony with such a force of men that neither wall nor fortification may withstand it…because now he begins without delay to demand his rights so courageously that the Gascons and Navarrois will do his bidding and he will deliver them to punishment through seizing and killing.”