This is a compelling introduction to the war against the heretics of Languedoc launched in 1209, combined with a description of the political. economic, religious and social conditions of south-western France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Michael Costen shows why the Cathar heresy came to flourish and how the campaign against it developed into a programme of conquest by which an alliance of church and state finally destroyed the heresy and united the region with the newly expanding.
Author Biography
Michael Costen is Senior Lecturer in Adult Education and Tutor in Historical Studies at the University of Bristol -- .
