The Occitan War: a Military and Political History of the Albigensian Crusade, 1209-1218 (review)

This book which, as its title proclaims, is a military and political rather than a religious or social history of the Albigensian crusade, is extremely timely. So much has been written in recent years on the Cathars, on the medieval Church's response to heresy, and on religious motivations behind crusading, that it is refreshing to have an up-to-date piece of scholarship focussing on military and political history. Laurence Marvin's book discusses the different campaigns which took place between the inception of hostilities in 1209 and the death of Simon de Montfort, the chief leader of the crusade, in 1218, giving a blow-by-blow account of each year and an in-depth analysis of the different campaigns and of battle strategy. His Introduction provides an excellent overview of military tactics and logistics in the Central Middle Ages with plenty of coverage of medieval sieges, skirmishes and the use of mercenaries, and a succinct discussion of the importance of raiding tactics as opposed to open warfare. Marvin is well-versed in both the primary sources which detail the campaigns and on recent secondary literature about the Albigensian crusade. In particular he shows us how vital is the chronicle of the contemporary Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay for our knowledge of events. He manages to refrain from becoming emotionally involved in his material, and to give a non-partisan account, describing the atrocities that were committed on both sides. Indeed, although Marvin admits that 'On any scale of brutality, wars tend to be nastier when an ideology or religion is involved', he challenges the assumption that the Albigensian crusade was 'the nastiest in Europe during the High Middle Ages', concluding that 'on a medieval scale of brutality the Occitan War does not stand out as particularly barbarous compared to warfare elsewhere in western Europe of the time'. He makes the point that although 'the storm and sack of Béziers is an infamous incident', it is not particularly well chronicled in the primary sources and he argues that the systematic slaughter of the people of Marmande by the joint Capetian-Montfortian army in 1219 was conducted 'in a far more cruel and unjust way than had happened in Béziers a decade before'. The figure of Simon de Montfort looms large in Marvin's account and he rightly points out that there has been 'a surprising lack of scholarly attention to his life' and that this needs addressing. He argues that the Church struggled to maintain control over the crusade and that it 'lost direct authority when it allowed its chief crusader to equate the goal of exterminating heresy with a personal quest for power and enrichment'. Marvin judiciously assesses the part played by popes Innocent III and Honorius III in the conflict, arguing for the former's 'tendency to be persuaded by the last letter he read or visitor he saw' and that he 'could not make up his mind as to whether the crusade had done the right thing'. It is perhaps a shame that Marvin does not dwell to a greater extent on the complexities of southern French politics: Further discussion of the wheeling and dealing of the numerous papal legates who were appointed by the papacy between 1209 and 1218 and the political machinations of the southern French clergy would have been interesting. A more detailed examination of the reasons behind the part (or rather lack of part) played by the French monarchy during the early years of the Albigensian crusades, would also have been helpful. But this is a painstaking work, written with clarity and conscientiousness. Marvin disabuses us of the romance and nostalgia surrounding the history of the Occitan region which can so often distort our view of its eventual acquisition by the French monarchy. It is very much to...