Translation, introduction and notes by Janet Shirley
A prose translation of an Occitan poem by William of Tudela and his
anonymous successor describing events before and during the Albigensian
crusade of 1209-18 led by Simon de Montfort.
The crusaders were mostly northerners, and their eventual success
led to the incorporation of hitherto independent areas into the kingdom
of France. William was a good poet, his successor brilliant, both
of them a pleasure and a challenge to translate. They had two totally
opposite points of view - neither was pro-Cathar, but William supported
Holy Church and the crusading northerners, while his successor was
passionately devoted to the southerners and to freedom. 'The Song of the Cathar Wars is a crucial source for historians of crusades, medieval heterodoxy and its suppression, the creation of modern France, medieval Occitan society, and the development of vernacular epic historiography in the Middle Ages. This accomplished, unfrilly and readable translation opens it up...' Medium Aevum.
Cathars - both authors assume that we know what the Cathars believed, and
don't mention this. Remembering that all the evidence we have about
them comes from their enemies, we can say that they believed in
the existence of two gods, one bad and one good, and that the physical
world was created by the evil god, so that eating and drinking and
begetting children were all evil; and that Christ was not really
crucified. They also preached and practised holy poverty, in the
face of a rich and apparently complacent Church. See Michael Costen's The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade, Manchester University
Press, 1997. See also the translations by W.A. and M.D. Sibly of The History of the Albigensian Crusade by Peter of Les
Vaux-de-Cernay and The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens,
both Boydell and Brewer.
Simon de Montfort, a Norman baron of no great importance but plenty of push, father of the 'parliamentary' Simon de Montfort of English history. He had inherited the title of earl of Leicester through his mother, which enabled him to call himself 'count' of Montfort. He died in 1218, struck by a stone from a mangonel 'worked', says the Song triumphantly, page 172, 'by noblewomen, by little girls and men's wives'.
