the vagrant sheep back into the fold.[28]
Beziers and Carcassonne were captured with massacre; Toulouse was spared
upon the humiliating submission of Raimon VI., and little organised
opposition was offered to the crusading forces under Simon de Montfort.
The following years saw the revolt of Toulouse and the excommunication
of Raimon VI. (1211), the battle of Muret in which Raimon was defeated
and his supporter Pedro of Aragon, was killed (1213), the Lateran
Council (1215), the siege of Toulouse and the death of Simon de Montfort
(1218). The foundation of the Dominican order and of the Inquisition
marked the close of the struggle.

Folquet of Marseilles is a troubadour whose life belongs to these years
of turmoil. He was the son of a Genoese merchant by name Anfos, who
apparently settled in Marseilles for business reasons: Genoa was in
close commercial relations with the South of France during the twelfth
century, as is attested by treaties concluded with Marseilles in 1138
and with Raimon of Toulouse in 1174. Folquet (or Fulco in Latin form) [79]
seems to have carried on his father's business and to have amused his
leisure hours by poetical composition. The Monk of Montandon refers to
him as a merchant in his _sirventes_ upon other troubadours. He is
placed in Paradise by Dante and is the only troubadour who there
appears, no doubt because of his services to the Church. His earliest
poems, written after 1180, were composed in honour of Azalais, the lady
whose favour was sought by Peire Vidal, and to whom Folquet refers by
the _senhal_ of Aimant (magnet). His poems are ingenious dissertations
upon love and we catch little trace of real feeling in them. The stories
of the jealousy of Azalais' sister which drove Folquet to leave
Marseilles are probably apocryphal. Folquet also addressed poems to the
wife of the Count of Montpelier, the daughter of the Emperor of
Constantinople. He wrote a fine _planh_ on the death of Barral of
Marseilles in 1192 and it was about this time that he resolved to enter
the church. His last poem belongs to the year 1195. No doubt the wealth
which he may have brought to the Church as a successful merchant
contributed to his advancement, but Folquet was also an indomitably
energetic character.

Unlike so many of his fellow poets, who retired to monasteries and there
lived out their lives in seclusion, Folquet displayed special talents or [80]
special enthusiasm for the order which he joine