Singing from the Albigensian Crusade

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Manuscript page with the capture of Marmande

The song of the Albigensian Crusade ( Occitan Canso or Cançon de la Crosada ) is the handwriting of a poem of 9578 verses and was written by two authors in Occitan between 1208 and 1218. It describes the events in Occitania after the invasion of the Crusaders in the Languedoc under Simon de Montfort .

Authors

  • Wilhelm von Tudela was the author of the first 2772 verses (130 songs). He was a priest from Tudela , Navarre , who had settled in Montauban . As a man of the Church he was positive about the Crusaders, although he condemned the bloody sieges of Béziers and Lavaur . Around 1212, when the crusaders approached Montauban, William marched to Bruniquel , which was under the rule of Baldwin of Toulouse , whose younger brother, Raymond VI. of Toulouse , fell under the spell of the Crusaders. The first part of the story ends abruptly in July 1213.
  • An anonymous is the author of the second part with over 6800 verses. This unknown author created a work of poetic quality and linguistic purity. Though Catholic, he gradually became quite anti-clerical. He is totally against the crusade and defends the honor , values and coexistence of medieval Occitan society. He tells episodes between 1213 and 1218: the battle of Muret , the Lateran Council , the siege and capture of Beaucaire , the revolt of Toulouse and the battle of Baziège . The second part is one of the most important works for understanding this period in the history of the Albigensians .

swell

  • La chanson de la croisade albigeoise , ed. Eugène Martin-Chabot (Lutetiae: Les Belles Lettres, 1931–1961. 3 vols.) (Occitan and French)
  • The Song of the Cathar Wars , translated by Janet Shirley (Ashgate Publishing, 1996) (English)
  • Alain de Roucy et la voix anonyme de la Chanson de la croisade albigeoise , Paul Linden, French Forum, Vol. 32, No. 1–2, 2007–2008 (French)