A best-selling history of the Third Crusade, when the Catholic Church waged war against heretics in its own ranks

In 1208 Pope Innocent III called for a Crusade against a country of fellow-Christians. The new enemy was Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, one of the greatest princes in Western Christendom, premier baron of all the territories in southern France where the langue d'oc was spoken. So began the Albigensian Crusade (named after the French town of Albi), which was to culminate in 1244 with the massacre of Cathars at the mountain fortress of Montsegur.

This Crusade was the Catholic Church's response to the rapid growth of a rival Christian religion in the very heart of Christendom - the religion of the Cathars (or 'pure ones'). These heretics drew their strength from the consciousness of belonging to a faith that had never seen eye to eye with Catholicism and was more ancient than the Church itself. From the beginning this religious war was to show all the characteristics of a national resistance movement, so that in the end it was not just the survival of the Cathar faith that was at stake but also that of the Languedoc itself as an autonomous and independent region of France.

A best-selling history of the Third Crusade, when the Catholic Church waged war against heretics in its own ranks

About the Author
Zoe Oldenbourg was born in St Petersburg in 1916 and was educated at the Lycee Moliere and the Sorbonne in Paris. The author of a number of outstanding historical novels, including The World is Not Enough and The Cornerstone, which won the Prix Femina in 1953, her historical works include Catherine of Russia and Massacre at Montsegur.


Book Information
ISBN 9781842124284
Author Zoe Oldenbourg
Format Paperback
Page Count 448
Imprint Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Weight(grams) 440g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 136mm * 36mm