The Albigensian Crusade

This is by far the most thorough account of this brutal European crusade I’ve read, including the philosophical background of the Cathar beliefs. It covers the entire campaign in rich detail, accompanied with maps and drawings of settings of various towns, castles and battles, right down to the sudden end of Simon Montfort at Toulouse. It’s surprising that such information even exists for a campaign that went on 800 years ago, and the author writes in a succinct but descriptive style that makes it come alive. One could only wish that more history was written like this!

This book details the politics, intrigue, and violence of the "Albigensian Crusade" in (what would later become) Southern France in the 12th century. While there is an entire chapter on the Cathar religion and its beliefs, most of the book is about the counts, viscounts, legates, and bishops and the battles, sieges, negotiations, scheming, massacres, backstabbing, and all around wickedness they perpetrated against each other. The main characters - most prominently a shiftless, uninspiring Raymond of Toulouse and a grasping and ambitious Simon de Montfort - and their actions are all brought to life to make a story every bit as exciting as any movie. I found myself sympathizing with some of these long-dead people and despising others, all the while being driven to turn the page to find out what happens next. The Cathars themselves make occasional appearances - nearly always as either victims or refugees - but they are not primary characters in this saga, which very quickly became primarily about replacing the long-time rulers of the Toulousain (who were too busy enjoying the song and poetry of the troubadors to be troubled about heretics preaching against a corrupt church) with stern northern men whose loyalty to Holy Mother Church was surpassed only by their need to secure a living for themselves by acquiring other peoples' land. If you're looking for a detailed account of the workings of the inquisition, you will have to look elsewhere (it was quite rudimentary in this period, as the author points out), but this I feel is a minor shortcoming. All in all, I would highly recommend - a very readable (I got through it in less than a week), informative, and entertaining account.

I have long been interested in learning more about what I was taught in school was the "Albighensian Heresy" and was fortunate to choose Jonathan Sumption's book. One of the first things I learned from this well-written and well-researched books is that it was the "Cathar Heresy." This is a meaningful distinction, as the heresy was widespread throughout Europe and not just centered on Albi. The book is chock full of knowledge, but also breezy reading. The author is clearly deeply knowledgeable about the subject, yet doesn't overwhelm the reader with trivia.The origins and timeline of the heresy and its repression are well discussed. I would have liked more insight, though, into the motives of the various participants. There are clearly plenty of primary sources from which to draw. Why did Cathars so willingly let themselves be burned to death? How much did the property concerns of the Church and state play into the suppression of the heresy? What was happening theologically in Rome at the time?I guess I'll have to read more than one title to get my questions answered. For a basic understanding of the circumstances of the heresy and its suppression, though, this is a good start.

This is an extraordinary book. Authoritative knowledge is presented in concise, readable language that is also compelling as a narrative. It was the first book I read about this period and I confess that during the first reading, I was a bit overwhelmed; I have an amateur interest in history and there was so much to digest. Since then, I have read many other books about the Cathars and Albigensian Crusade. I thought that re-reading this book would help me put everything together, and that turned out to be correct. When I re-read Sumption's book I was impressed more than ever by his grasp of the issues and his ability to communicate them. This is excellent background for people who plan to visit "Cathar Country", and for those who want to understand the origins of later inquisitions.

I have always been interested in Medieval History, particularly European and found this book to be a very well researched document of a situation I have been curious about, but knew little. Having visited this part of France and toured many of the areas described, I was able to get a feel for the difficult country. The whole idea of the "Crusade" and the murdering of thousands of people was abhorrent to me which made it more important that I learn as much as I could about the whole situation. I felt the author was neutral in his version of the account and would recommend this book to anyone interested in this era in history.

What I really likes about this book is the way it is built up. Without burdening you with lots of dates, names and places following each other, it approaches the subject layer by layer of information and reasoning. It is not a novel, still I was kind of felt like being there in the mids of events. Going over the pages, the feeling of the aproaching doom hanging in the air made me feel anxious and helpless...it had quite an effect on me...

Very good. Well written like the 100 year war books. Maps weren't as numerous or as clear. But still an enjoyable read.

Overrated. Very descriptive and narrative. Fails to offer different possible interpretations on the facts. I enjoyed most the first few chapters where he discusses the structure/laws/econ of Languedoc or the Theology of the Cathars.

Tragic story but really well told. It surprised me to learn that what started as a crusade against heretics developed into a blatant land-grab.

Detailed on the timeline of what happened without much flavour of the period or human interest. Casual reference to eg. the heretics in the keep were all burned - without a scintilla of detail. Readers might want to know - how was it done, how long did it take , were there any mercies such as killing them before fire etc ? Baffling use of archaic language (eg “whither the Queen fled", "he was enfoeffed" etc). Pitched roughly at history undergrad level I’d say with no concession for the interested lay reader. Very careless typo in last para of last chapter - “Prefect” instead of “Perfect”. Made me want to read the more recent Pegg book which, if the podcast "The Rest is History" is to be believed, dispels some of the Cathar myths perpetuated by Sumption.

There are no very obvious signs of the Albigensian heretics in Albi, which is dominated by a wonderful Cathedral, built after the suppression of the heresy, as a monument to Catholic orthodoxy. Nor will you find anything, other than ruins, in the hill towns where the Cathars made their last stand. To find out about them, you have to read the books. Jonathan Sumption's history of the Albigensian Crusade is as fine a narrative, and an explanation, as you will find.In England, we used to take a simple view of the Crusades in general, based on Sir Steven Runciman's great history. They were largely a feature of the twelfth century; and there were really only three - the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, all launched against the Holy Land. Later expeditions, against Greek Orthodox Christians in Constantinople, Muslims in the Maghreb and Egypt, heretics in the South-West of France, the Prussians and Lithuanians in the Baltic, and even the Pope's political enemies in Italy, were an aberration, indeed they were not really Crusades at all, but perversions of a noble ideal; but Runciman's view of the matter now seems too narrow. The studies of Norman Housley, Jonathan Riley-Smith and others have broadened the picture, geographically, historically and ideologically. There were many Crusades apart from the first three; and they continued right throughout the Late Middle Ages, indeed into the Early Modern period. As a result of this revisionism, the Crusades have been to some extent rehabilitated, at least among medievalists, though the Pope felt moved to apologise for them in the year 2000. `Tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner'.Does Jonathan Sumption's book rehabilitate the Albigensian Crusade? It would be difficult to do that, given that the concept of just war is now so thoroughly informed by international law and ideas of human rights and proportionality; and the basic facts are fairly damning, when viewed through modern eyes. In the early years of the thirteenth century, an army, consisting largely of Northern knights, smashed and burned its way through South-West France because the local authority, Count Raymond of Toulouse was thought to be too sympathetic towards his Cathar subjects; and the invasion had the full backing of Pope Innocent III, one of the greatest Popes of the Middle Ages. It succeeded in killing many, expropriating others and eventually truncating the County of Toulouse. Yet Jonathan Sumption's compelling account does, to my mind, force one to look at the Crusade from both sides, though it does not seek to excuse anyone.Half a century ago this Crusade was seen as a brutal and cynical imperialist war. This was the view of Zoe Oldenbourg, whose novel `Destiny of Fire' was so good that it would make any reader sympathetic to its Cathar heroes and heroines. In the 1960s the Cathars also appealed to Marxists and Occitanian nationalists, each of whom saw the conquest of Languedoc as a land-grab. Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie's `Montaillou'' was also sympathetic, though it was a very different kind of book - a late product of the Parisian `Annales' school.Sumption shows that there were several other sides to the story. From the Crusaders' point of view, the Cathars were undoubtedly heretics, and heretics were the enemies of civilised society, universally reviled by everyone. They had murdered the Papal legate, yet their presence was at least tolerated and at worst encouraged throughout the County of Toulouse. Moreover, the Pope had officially declared a Holy War, which meant that the Crusaders stood to benefit both in this life and in the hereafter. In the eyes of an orthodox Catholic, the Crusade against the Cathars was every bit as legitimate as any of the more `normal' Crusades which had preceded it. It was not just a land-grab; and the Crusaders did not have it all their own way; the initial conquest was easy, but it was followed by a successful war of liberation; the principal Crusader, Simon de Montfort, was killed in battle; the Papacy changed its mind about the entire enterprise, on more than one occasion; the ultimate `winner' was not the Catholic Church, so much as the King of France, who had been lukewarm to the idea for much of the time.This book was first published in 1978, when the author was making his name as a barrister: he has recently been appointed as a judge in the highest court in the UK. He had been an academic in Oxford, though he had not yet begun to publish his magisterial history of the Hundred Years War. It is a brilliant book, worthy of this fine lawyer and historian, which tells a familiar story in a fresh and exciting way. It does not take sides, but it helps us to understand both.Stephen Cooper

I bought this book following a trip to the Languedoc region of France – specifically, the area around Toulouse, Carcassonne and Albi. There seem to be very few books (in English, at least) about the Cathar church and associated historical events, and I was keen to learn more. It would have been better, perhaps, if I’d read this book before making my trip … but we live and learn.That said, this does seem to be a thorough treatise of the whole tragic episode which, in the 13th century, suffered one of the most savage of all medieval wars, with – some estimate – up to a million people being killed. For an interested amateur reader like me, the book goes into more detail than I needed, and I found it difficult to keep track of who was doing what to whom – but that is a limitation of me, not of the book itself.An in-depth read for those interested in this aspect of French and religious history.

This is obviously a very impressive feat of learning produced by a very impressive man. It is informative and much of it is extremely interesting.My one reservation (which is, I hope, not too churlish) is that some of the narrative parts really can drag. There is a limit to how long you can keep taking in military narrative in which one Count marches up a particular valley taking 5 castles in the course of a summer, and then the next year another Count marches back up the same valley taking them back again. Of course, it's history and the author quite righly wants to tell the reader what happened. But I do wonder whether some of the blank factual narrative could have been leavened a little more with description of what exactly might have happened at one or two of the castles, or what the fighting would actually have been like, or what those involved might have thought about what they were doing.