died in 1443, when the county was willed to the French crown. After two interim rulers, it finally came under the rule of the French crown in 1498, although it retained its identity as a county. It was established as a pays d'état, meaning that it was effectively run by the Estates of Comminges (a type of local parliament), until 1622. Over the centuries, the size of the county varied, stretching to Toulouse at times. The small, discontinuous province of Nébouzan was contained within the Comminges and its viscounts were vassals of the counts of Comminges. Although the Comminges was just outside the Cathar area, during the Albigensian Crusade Count Bernard IV de Comminges sided with the Cathars but, at the Battle of Muret in 1213, he was defeated by the forces of Simon de Montfort the elder who occupied the Comminges. In 1215, the fourth Lateran Council awarded the County of Toulouse to de Montfort, but returned the Comminges to Bernard IV. During the Hundred Years' War, the army of Edward the Black Prince passed through the Comminges twice in 1355, burning towns in the north of the county. During the French wars of religion (1562–1598) the Comminges remained Catholic. Although a few towns were attacked by Huguenot forces, most of the county remained safe. However it was required to provide troops and taxes to support the wars. With the reorganisation of the regions into departments in 1790, Comminges wanted to join its eastern neighbour, the county of Couserans, to form a department but this broke down over arguments about where the prefecture would be located. Eventually Couserans joined with the county of Foix, leaving the Comminges to be joined with the larger county of Toulouse to form the Haute-Garonne département. At the same time the diocese of Comminges was abolished and replaced with a larger diocese aligned with the new department. The region still identifies itself as the Comminges and Saint-Gaudens, its largest town, calls itself "capital of the Comminges". In film and television In 2017, the Netflix TV series The Frozen Dead (aka Glacé) was filmed in the region. See also Saint Bertrand of Comminges Duchy of Vasconia References Sources and external links Rome in the Pyrenees - Lugdunum and the Convenae from the first century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. Simon Esmonde Cleary 2007 () Petite Histoire du Comminges Rene Souriac 2019 () La revue