"Kill them all? God will know his own." No evidence that was ever said.

The Albigensian Crusade by Jonathan Sumption

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It's funny how some things never change. Playing fantasy role-playing games as a teenager got me into studying history. Now, reading a supplement for the Ars Magica system has led me to learn about a part of history I had only the vaguest knowledge of before.

The Cathars were one of the last great Gnostic movements in the Western Church. Rejecting the material world as the corrupt work of the Devil, Cathars were virulently anti-clergy and attracted numerous followers in Provance. Which, at the time, was a patchwork of independent counties and free cities that were far more tolerant of heresy than the French nobles of the north.

Sumpton does a great of juggling the complex web of nobles, churchmen, lay leaders, and all the rest involved in a conflict that quickly went from a religious crusade to a personal crusade by Simon du Montfort to defeat Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse and build a personal empire. Montfort is continually frustrated by the harsh rules of feudal warfare, such as troops only owing 40 days service. Time and again, Montfort would win great victories only to see rebellions break out when his armies went home.

This was a war of great savagery Starting with the massacre at Béziers in 1209, neither side gave much quarter. Promises were broken, Clerics were lynched and the crusaders simply made up accusations against Provençal nobles as an excuse to seize castles.

The book is dense but very readable. There are maps where maps are needed, although I would have liked the large area map at the back to have been at the front for easy reference. The most important thing, I learned a great deal from reading this amazing history.



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