The year 1211 was perhaps the most militarily active of the Occitan War. Though Simon of Montfort suffered a minor setback at the first siege of Toulouse, in 1211 he not only conducted some sieges on the scale of Minerve and Termes but also defended himself successfully when besieged at Castelnaudary. Two of the four field battles fought in the Occitan War occurred in 1211. The battle or ambush of Montgey was a lopsided southern victory, but Montfort was not present and thus his reputation did not suffer. Saint-Martin-la-Lande proved that even outnumbered the crusaders could win the supreme test of a medieval army, the pitched battle. The sum total of tactical victories against superior odds in 1211 showed Montfort to be a far more capable general than any of his southern contemporaries, though he made one strategic mistake that year which dogged him to the end of his life. That grave error was turning the people of Toulouse from reluctant allies into implacable enemies.

At the beginning of the year various parties tried to work out a modus vivendi between southern interests and those of the crusade. Especially concerned in this was the Count of Toulouse, whose authority had been shattered east of Lavaur and whose own brother would soon prove disloyal. In late January 1211 Pere II, Simon of Montfort, Raimon of Toulouse, and Raimon-Roger of Foix, as well as several church prelates including Arnaud-Amaury and Master Theodisius, met at Narbonne.