In the early years of the thirteenth century, Montségur's castle was reconstructed by a local feudal lord as a strongpoint for the Cathars under attack by the Crusade. In 1232 it became the capital of the banned Cathar Church, with a population of some five hundred people, bishops and clergy as well as ordinary believers on the run from the persecution of the Inquisition, under the protection of a garrison commanded by Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix.Provoked by a raid on Avignonet in May 1242, in which several Inquisitors were killed, the forces of the Catholic Church and the king of France laid siege to the castle in the spring of 1243. By March 1244, Pierre-Roger, despairing of relief, agreed terms with them. At the end of a fortnight's truce, the 225 Cathars who still refused to recant were burnt on a communal pyre on March 16. Four men who had made good their escape recovered the Cathar "treasure", which had been hidden in a cave for safekeeping since the preceding Christmas, and vanished. Two of them later reappeared in Lombardy, where it seems probable these funds were used to support the refugee Cathar community established there. But numerous legends have grown up, especially in German writings, identifying this "treasure" with the Holy Grail, and the Cathars themselves with the Knights of the Round Table.
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