History

Castelnau de Montmiral was founded in 1222 by the young Count Raymond VII of Toulouse (grandson of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine) in a vain attempt to bolster his power against threats from the Pope and King of France. The rapid spread of the heretical Cathars in south west France had led to excommunication, resulting in a crusade and seizure of land by the avaricious knights from the North in the name of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Hundred Years War during the following century saw a long period of unrest, with Montmiral subjected to a continual passage of marauding soldiers, not least the Black Prince.

In the Fourteenth Century, Montmiral came into the possession of the powerful Counts of Armagnac, whose long and bitter disputes with the Counts of Burgundy facilitated the humiliating defeat by the English under Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt. The chateau of Castelnau de Montmiral was eventually granted as the last home to Charles d’Armagnac, the only surviving member of the disgraced family.

During the Wars of Religion in the Sixteenth Century, Montmiral became a stronghold against the dominant Protestants, and gave asylum to fleeing Catholics from Gaillac.

In the Seventeenth Century, Montmiral hosted King Louis XIII and his unruly retinue, en route to repress the remaining protestant resistance in this region of south west France.

A long period of peace and prosperity followed. Montmiral had already established itself as an affluent market town in the Sixteenth Century, one source of this being a flourishing cloth-dying industry. The creation of a spacious tree lined esplanade and the building of an imposing Hotel de Ville, were reflections of the town’s new found wealth and confidence. It was during this period that the general character of the town was created, and to this day a blend of medieval and Seventeenth century influences pervade.

Traces of Prehistoric and Gallo-Roman remains are to be found nearby, and the region is rich in ‘dolmen’ or standing stones found in both neighbouring Vaour and Campagnac.