Béatrice de Planissoles

Béatrice de Planissoles (circa 1274 – after 1322), was a Cathar minor noble in the Comté de Foix in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century. She was born circa 1274, probably in the mountain village of Caussou.

A great deal of information about her life was recorded in the Fournier Register, and she has a central role in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's Montaillou

Béatrice was the daughter of Philippe de Planissoles a noble who was later convicted of supporting the Cathar heresy. Béatrice herself had definite sympathies to Catharism, but also remained attached to the Catholic Church.

At around the age of twenty Béatrice was married to Bérenger de Roquefort who was the châtelain of the small, and largely Cathar, community of Montaillou. Despite living in the fortress above the town Béatrice's life was closely linked with that of the local peasants and there was much intermixing. Béatrice was not in love with her husband, an entirely normal state of affairs, as noble women usually married for economic reasons. Raymond Roussel, who was the steward of the châtelain's estate, attempted to begin an affair with her. When Roussel tried to sleep with her, however, she had him fired.

In 1302 Bérenger de Roquefort died and left Béatrice a widow. At this point the villager Pathau Clergue raped her. She declined an affair with Pathau when he pressed her to begin one. Soon, however, a relationship began with Pathau's cousin Pierre Clergue, the priest and the most powerful man in the village. This relationship lasted two years before Béatrice decided to leave the mountain village and remarry, wedding another minor noble named Otho de Lagleize.

He too died after only a few years of marriage. In her older years Béatrice took up with a young priest Barthélemy Amilhac. This passionate woman was past menopause but fell in love with the priest. She approached him, propositioned him, and the mad love affair began. The priest returned her passion, and they ran away together, were united in a form of marriage, and remained away for a year. After a number of years this relationship ended as Barthélemy worried he would be placed in danger by Béatrice's Cathar past. He was correct in his concerns and they were both arrested by the inquisition and held for a year.

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