Cathar Castles: Fortresses of the Albigensian Crusade 1209–1300

Osprey Fortress #55

by Marcus Cowper, Peter Dennis (Illustrator)

In the early 12th century AD a large area of present-day France was not under the direct control of the French king. In fact, the French king's direct authority stretched little further than Paris and the area immediately around it, the Ile de France. Many of the other regions were semi-independent duchies and counties, controlled by, amongst others, the King of England and the Holy Roman Emperor. One such area free from direct French control was the Languedoc, the area stretching from the Massif Central south to the Pyrenees, and as far as the river Rhone to the east. This area was under the loose overlordship of the counts of Toulouse, and by the beginning of the 12th century the whole region had become the centre of an early form of Protestantism called Catharism that flourished to an extraordinary degree and threatened the rule of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Innocent III, alarmed at this heresy and the unwillingness of the southern nobility to do much to uproot it, launched a crusade in 1209 against European Christians. The crusading army, represented the established Church consisting predominatly of northern French knights. They saw this as an opportunity both to 'take the cross' and to obtain new lands and wealth for themselves more conveniently than crusading to the Holy land. This, the Albigensian Crusade, became a brutal struggle between the north and the south of France as much as between orthodox Roman Catholic and heretic Cathar.

The inhabitants of the Languedoc had always relied for their safety upon a series of strongly fortified walled cities, such as Albi, Carcassonne, B_ziers, Toulouse and a large number of fortified hill-top villages and castles which dotted the countryside. These so-called 'Cathar Castles' now became the last refuge against the invading crusaders and the conflict developed into a series of protracted and bloody sieges that lasted for over 30 years. The author describes these two very different types of fortification, the walled city and the hill-top castle. He explains why they were positioned where they were, how they were built, and the defensive principles behind their construction, and also reviews how well they withstood the test of the Albigensian Crusade.

Related Titles
The Crusades (Essential Histories)
Medieval Siege Warfare (Elite)
French Medieval Armies 1000-1300 (Men-at-Arms)

Genres: History, Military History, Nonfiction, Medieval, France

64 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2006

Reviews

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really nice history book with a ton of nice pics. It would also be a very good reference guide for a RPG that had Castle adventures in it. Recommended

[Amanda Langdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

My initial impression stands. This is the most pro-Catholic text about the Albigensian Crusade I’ve encountered. While a Facebook historian argued that certain words could be interpreted more generally and universally for a medieval/historical text, I stand by my opinion that this book leans (strongly) in favor of the Northern French. The sentiment came through clearly that there is never an acceptable heresy: it’s only appropriate that the heretics were either converted or eliminated.

And yet I appreciate how this text encouraged higher levels of meta-cognition, in regards to my reading. It made me evaluate the language (word choice) in ways I don’t typically apply to “fun reading” but reserve for news and social media stories. For example, referring to the Northern Army’s movements as an “intervention” in the South, a term most often associated these days with loving but fed-up families having to take drastic action to save drug addicts or alcoholics... just as the Catholics sought “to save the souls” of the Cathars? Such a benevolent word sits at odds with many other accounts referring to the Crusade as “genocidal.”

In terms of content and layout, I found it somewhat confusing: the large majority of images don’t match the text on that page (or even the previous/subsequent page). However, flipping around to match photos/drawings with information isn’t terribly difficult in a 65 page booklet, so that’s a minor inconvenience.

[Rob McFarren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a good book. Broken up in a way that highlights first the different sites with historical events that occurred and then a short history of the crusade era through the sites at the time, it provides a great primer for the Albigensian Crusade and Catharism through the lens of the fortified cities and castles of the region. Also provides a good list of references at the end for more in-depth reading. My only complaint was that a few of the maps had text could have been bigger, and thus in reading in lower light like the evening it was a bit hard to read and refer to them.

[Rodrigo Hernández · Rating 1 out of 5]

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