I always thought that a bastide was a fortified town that sat on top of a hill like the cherry on top of a Victoria Sponge. I was wrong.

I got inspired, you see, from my children's 'Aquila' magazine a few years ago. I saw there that it all started when the Cathars had suffered under the heavy handed sword of Simon de Montfort who had been sent by the King of France to sort out these infidels at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The story of the Cathars is a separate issue which I will write about another day. The king of France, Louis VIII, saw how much the area had been devastated by the rampage of 'crusade'. It was an area of insecurity harbouring gangs of pillagers who continued to devastate the country. Therefore it was decided to create new towns and to let the land become a source of income for all. These new towns were called 'Bastides'. The first was built at Cordes in 1222. 'Bastides' developed into a revolutionary idea that proved incredibly successful - some four to five hundred bastides being built within a period of two hundred years.

The King felt that by allowing the individual a certain amount of freedom he would gain commitment and support from those people. It was decided that the individual would be given rights that would allow him to prosper without any of the usual contemporary difficulties. He would be allowed to buy his own house and make his own will. He would be allowed to marry his daughter to whom he wanted. He would not have to fight to prove he was right. A court would make judgement. He would be able to trade freely according to certain written rules.

A charter was written up putting the legal status of the individual at the top including the assertion of individual freedom and the right to benefit from one's property without fear of the arbitrary. It was truly an extraordinary leap forward in political thinking and the beginning of the rise of the merchant class, the bourgeoisie.

The early 'bastides' were built in strategic positions on the top of hills so as to be aware of opposition. So yes, maybe here a little like the cherry on the cake but these new towns were built specifically non-fortified. This was to avoid any kind of trouble in the form of rebellion. They were built in stone in geometric orthogonal format so as to be easier to lay out and to administer. They were built around a central market square. This was revolutionary in that before this time the church had been central focus. The church had dominated all aspects of life: spiritual, intellectual and material. Here it was pushed aside to let the central space be taken by merchants. Trade was evident everywhere. Taxes would be paid to the bailiff or seneschal (representative of the king) and no longer was the mafioso foot of the baron ready to stamp out any luxuries of profit. No sale took place without the use of scales. Any cheating was taken to the courts and dealt with by the judges. To avoid the introduction of legal inequalities, the nobles and clerics were not allowed to live in the new towns.

After the Albigensian crusade (1209 - 1229), Alphonse de Poitiers, the brother of Louis IX, was strategically married to the Count of Toulouse's daughter and succeeded the Count of Toulouse upon the latter's death in 1249. At this point Alphonse de Poitiers continued to build these bastides unfortified. He believed it would work in controlling his territory peacefully and, by affirming Capetian presence hopefully weaken the local lords sympathetic to the English cause (the English of course having been ever present since the marriage of Henry d'Anjou - later Henry II of England - to Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152). He gradually extended his area of influence to the borders of his territories but with Edward the Ist of England taking much interest in the Aquitaine and Philippe III taking the reins of the Comté of Toulouse after Alphonse de Poitiers death in 1271, the building of bastides soon became fortified and the positioning and building of them became like a game of chess. By the time we arrive at the Hundred Years War (1399 - 1453), both sides were pretty equally balanced for battle.