The Cathar fortress of Montségur in the French Pyrenees fell to royal and papal forces in March 1244 after a ten-month siege, ending the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heresy. Over 200 Cathar perfecti who refused to recant were burned alive at the foot of the castle, making it a site of medieval martyrdom. The Cathars' destruction had profound effects on Occitan culture, effectively suppressing the troubadour tradition that had flourished under their protection.

The fall of Montségur dealt a catastrophic blow to the troubadour poetry tradition, as the Cathar lords of Languedoc had been its principal patrons. The suppression of Occitan culture in the aftermath of the crusade drove troubadour poets northward and into Italy, where their forms influenced Dante and Petrarch. Modern poets including Ezra Pound, who championed the troubadours in his Cantos, saw Montségur's fall as a defining moment of cultural destruction.