Customer Reviews

Albigensian Crusade

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADE by Jonathan Sumption is an extremely well written and readable book. Sumption was a history fellow at Magdalene College until 1975, and his historical training shows. His writing is accurate, detailed, clear, and concise. He currently serves as a QC practicing commercial law, but thank goodness he takes time away from his day job to write history. I will certainly read some of his other works. Sumption's book on the Albigensian Crusade(s) was first published in 1978, but never fear, his material is as current today as it was 22 years ago.

I found the sections describing the series of confusing battles de Montfort fought in Languedoc from Beziers to Murat, as well as the ever changing loyalties of the southern nobiliy and the mood swings of the Catholic Church quite easy to follow. He writes in a brisk style that provided me, a non-military enthusiast, with enough information to understand what took place without dampening my tiny enthusiasm for battle. In addition to his very rich text, Sumption's book is filled articulate maps showing the various sites where Simon de Montfort waged his crusader war. If you're about to visit Languedoc, this is the book to take along.

Sumption writes like Stephen Ambrose. Both provide on-the-ground detail while they simultaneously explain what was going on back at headquarters (Rome in Sumption's book). They personalize the impersonal. You also come to understand why leadership is so critical, why troops matter, why casualties happen inspite of the best plans, and just how wonderful De Montfort's tactical manuevering really was.(Yes, I know Ike was a strategist.)

Sumption writes dynamic and interesting passages, but he eschews the sensationalism found in O'Shea's book on this topic. Although Sumption's book provides some background on the Cathar heresy, it does not contain the detail of Lambert's book THE CATHERS. Read Lambert's book and Sumption's book on the crusades and you will have a very good understanding of what took place in the 13th Century in Languedoc.

Anyone of Huguenot extraction knows that the French have traditionally been rather rough on the religiously unorthodox. This book tells the story of France's most savage crusade, its war against the dualist Cathars of Languedoc and those who sheltered and supported them. But the Albigensian Crusade, as this book points out, was more than a war against heretics; it changed the king of France from a regional lord to a great European power.

Jonathan Sumption tells this story as well as I've ever read it. His research is meticulous and he never fails to be interesting. This is an excellent contribution to the subject as well as a fascinating read. Highly recommended.

I stumbled on this book in a library in England, and since I've read all the important works on the Levant Crusades, I decided to check out the Crusades on Europe. The book is extraordinary, explaining the chain of events since the advent of the Cathars into Southern France to the creation of the Inqusition and the anexation of Tolousse into the French crown. You feel the despair in the Albigensian nobles, from almost certain defeat, to the joy of victory to the final summision by the French Crown. The military genius of Simon de Monfort, the indecisions of the Count Raymund, the greediness of the papal prelates are among the many pictures you see. Tha Author did an extraordinary job to fill the voids where no history has been written with creativity (read the notes to each chapter). If you are looking for a book that gives you the general outlook of the Albigensian Crusade, get this one.

The Albigensian Crusade was, as the reviewer before me mentioned, a confusing series of events. It mostly consisted of the northern crusaders and southern dissidents exchanging castles and towns during about twenty years of campaigning seasons, sitting tight during the winter, and playing mind games with that fount of wisdom and mercy, the medieval church. Sumption is exceptionally erudite in describing all this, and bringing in a semblance of order. His writing is sometimes clunky and awkward, but he gets the job done. A good book, and a worthwhile read for anyone interested in history and warfare.

I stumbled upon this one by accident but I found Sumption's writing style compelling and emminently readable--without detracting from the academic quality. My first introduction to the subject and Sumption has left me wanting more.

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

This is an extremely well-written work that is an easy read. The maps are excellent and enable the reader to follow the narrative. This replaces the earlier work of Sir Steven Runciman (The Medieval Manichee).

Of particular interest was the explanation of the origin of the Cathars. My one complaint about the book is that he says that medieval generals lacked "science" (Peter at Muret), yet he gives many examples to the contrary! As for the reviewer who feels that he is overly-sympathetic to the Catholics, then why does Sumption call the section on the De Montfort loss of power and retreat "The Liberation"?

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.

I just finished this excellent piece of historical writing. Reading historical accounts is something I enjoy and I must say that Sumption has completed a remarkably good book about an extremely difficult historical period. This I believe is because of the difficulty of the sources themselves: the fragmentation of these accounts in terms of geography and time; the number of players and most importantly the difficulty of piecing together the duality of the subject matter-- Cathar heresey versus Catholic orthodoxy. Added to this volatile mix is the intercine relations between church and state during this late medieval period.

The second chapter, " The dualist tradition", was exceedingly helpful to me, an interested general reader of these arcane events of the High Middle Ages. This early chapter set the tone of the rest of the book in that Sumption was able to continually demonstrate his keen reading of the sources and better, his ability to sprinkle his narrative with many little pieces of information that makes this difficult examination of these complex yet hugely important events in French history a real joy to read.

His last chapter, that I just finished minutes ago, demonstrates this importance in that the French Crown used the total elimination of Cathar belief as a means of subjugating the unique culture of the Languedoc people. France was unified and religious centralism was used as the excuse. We can only speculate about the eventual nature of European history and therefore world history had not Innocent III decided to erradicate heresy in southern France.

"The Albigensian Crusade" contains a plethora of minute details that flesh out the intricat skeleton of this complex period. On pages 126 and 127 Suption details the Church's demands in order for Raymond VI to be accepted back into the faith and escape punishment as a heretic: no more than two meat dishes at his table at one time; he was to dress in only in simple, plain clothes; his castles were to be demolished.

On page 131 he recounts the harrowing capture of the Cathar town of Lavaur complete with stoning, burnings and the hardship of Medieval warfare.

I cannot speak highly enough about this book; Sumption has steered an extremely precise but easily negociable path through the difficult terrain of this immensely important and difficult period in French history.

One can learn facts about the history of the Cathar movement and the crusade, but Sumption's strange steady praise of Simon de Monfort as a man of integrity and admonition of the people of Tolouse who celebrated his death, makes me wonder if the whole story is not being told i.e is the human imapct recounted with accuracy. If someone slaughters so many people with so little restraint becuase of a dedication to principles, should he really be called "a model Christian of austere personal morals?" See TS Eliot on Otello-- Terribly, one is also responsible for one's unconscious as well.