Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

The pope had now begun to plan a Fifth Crusade, which was to be announced at a Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, with its target the Nile delta city of Damietta. And while de Montfort was certainly a distracting presence during the preparations for this mission, he was not distracting enough to convince Innocent of the need to call a halt to persecuting Christ’s enemies. So the pope allowed the persecutions to continue, and de Montfort was still alive and active in June 1216 when Innocent fell sick and died at Perugia, at around the age of fifty-five. De Montfort continued to enjoy his role as scourge of the Cathars for another two years, before he too died, killed while besieging the city of Toulouse, where he was struck by a rock hurled from a catapult operated by a group of the city’s women.