The Song of the Cathar Wars is the first translation into English of the Old Provençal Canso recounting the events of the years 1204-1218 in Southern France. In an effort to extirpate the Cathar heresy, Pope Innocent III launched what is now known as the Albigensian Crusade, but it was fiercely resisted by the lords and people of the Languedoc, if in the end in vain. This ’song’ was written in two parts, the first by William of Tudela, a supporter of the crusade; the second by an anonymous continuer, wholeheartedly in sympathy with the southerners, although not with the heretics themselves. It stands as a historical source of great importance, not least because it depicts the side that lost. The poem is also a skilful, dramatic and often impassioned composition, evoking the brilliant world of landed knights and the glories and bloody realities of battle. Janet Shirley is an award-winning translator of works on the French Middle Ages. Other publications by her include the Song of Roland and, in this Crusade Texts in Translation series, Crusader Syria in the 13th Century and, with Peter Edbury, Guillaume de Machaut: The Conquest of Alexandria.

Interprets thirteenth-century crusades in terms of the development of Europe, especially France

First English translation of important contemporary source for the history of the Cathar heresy and the Albigensian crusade.

Historian Pegg has produced a swift-moving, gripping narrative of a horrific crusade, drawing in part on thousands of testimonies collected by inquisitors in the years 1235 to 1245. These accounts of ordinary men and women bring the story vividly to life.

In twelfth century Languedoc a subversive heresy of Eastern origin flourished to an extraordinary degree. The Albingenses believed that the world was created by an evil spirit, and that all worldly things - including the Church - were by nature sinful. Jonathan Sumption's acclaimed history examines the roots of the heresy, the uniquely rich culture of the region which nurtured it, and the crusade launched against it by the Church which resulted in one of the most savage of all medieval wars. '[Sumption] never fails to keep his narrative lively with the particular and the pertinent. He is excellent on the tactics and spirit of medieval warfare.' Frederic Raphael, Sunday Times

Fredric L. Cheyette's illustrated book is a biography of an extraordinary warrior woman and of a unique, vulnerable, doomed society. Throughout her long reign, viscountess Ermengard roamed Occitania receiving oaths of fidelity, negotiating treaties, settling disputes among the lords of her lands, and camping with her armies before the walls of besieged cities.

The Cathars are one of the most famous heretical movements of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. They infiltrated the highest ranks of society and posed a major threat not only to the Catholic Church but also to secular authorities as well. The movement was finally smashed by the crusade and the inquisitional proceedings that followed. This new study is the first comprehensive history of the Cathars. It addresses major topics in medieval history including heresy, orthodoxy and the Crusades as well as providing a history of the social and political history of Languedoc and the rise of the Capetian dynasty. A fascinating study of the development of radical religious belief and its violent suppression.

In 1209 Simon of Montfort led a war against the Cathars of Languedoc after Pope Innocent III preached a crusade condemning them as heretics. The suppression of heresy became a pretext for a vicious war that remains largely unstudied as a military conflict. Laurence Marvin here examines the Albigensian Crusade as military and political history rather than religious history and traces these dimensions of the conflict through to Montfort's death in 1218. He shows how Montfort experienced military success in spite of a hostile populace, impossible military targets, armies that dissolved every forty days, and a pope who often failed to support the crusade morally or financially. He also discusses the supposed brutality of the war, why the inhabitants were for so long unsuccessful at defending themselves against it, and its impact on Occitania. This original account will appeal to scholars of medieval France, the Crusades and medieval military history.

A deep-dive into the history, culture, and legacy of the medieval Christian dualist movement, Catharism—as seen in popular novels by Dan Brown and Kate Mosse Centuries after the brutal slaughter of the Cathars by papally endorsed Northern French forces, and their suppression by the Inquisition, the medieval Cathars continue to exert a powerful influence on both popular culture and spiritual seekers. Yet few people know anything of the beliefs of the Cathars beyond vague notions that they believed in reincarnation, were vegetarians, were somehow Gnostic, and had some relation to Mary Magdalene. The Lost Teachings of the Cathars explores the history of this Christian dualist movement between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, offering a sympathetic yet critical examination of its beliefs and practices. In addition to investigating the Cathars’ origin, their relationship to Gnosticism, and their possible survival of the Inquisition, author Andrew Philip Smith also addresses theories and figures from the Cathars’ recent past. Eccentric esotericists initiated a neo-Cathar revival in the Languedoc which inspired the philosopher Simone Weil. The German Otto Rahn—the real-life Indiana Jones—believed that the Cathars were protectors of the Holy Grail and received support from Heinrich Himmler. Meanwhile, English psychiatrist Arthur Guirdham became convinced that he and a circle of patients had all been Cathars in previous lives. Tourists flock to the Languedoc to visit Cathar country. Bestsellers such as Kate Mosse’ timeslip novel Labyrinth continue to fascinate readers. But what did the Cathars really believe and practice?