The ''Song of the Albigensian Crusade'' is an

Old Occitan Old Occitan ( oc, occitan ancian, label=Occitan language, Modern Occitan, ca, occità antic), also called Old Provençal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the eighth through the fourteen ...

epic poem narrating events of the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown ...

from March 1208 to June 1219. Modelled on the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

'' chanson de geste'', it was composed in two distinct parts:

William of Tudela William of Tudela (in Occitan, Guilhem de Tudela; in French, Guillaume de Tudèle; fl. 1199-1214) was the author of the first part of the '' Canso de la Crozada'' or ''Song of the Albigensian Crusade'', an epic poem in Old Occitan giving a contempo ...

wrote the first towards 1213, and an anonymous continuator finished the account. However, recent studies have proposed the

troubadour A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairit ...

Gui de Cavalhon Gui de Cavalhon, Cavaillo, or Gavaillo (floruit, fl. 1200–1229) was a Provence, Provençal nobleman: a diplomat, warrior, and man of letters. He was probably also the Guionet who composed ''tensos'' and ''partimens'' with Cadenet (troubadour), Ca ...

as the author of the second part. It is one of three major contemporary narratives of the Albigensian Crusade, the ''

Historia Albigensis Peter of Vaux de Cernay (died c.1218) was a Cistercian monk of Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, in what is now Yvelines, northern France, and a chronicler of the Albigensian Crusade. His ''Historia Albigensis'' is one of the primary sources for the events of ...

'' of

Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay Peter of Vaux de Cernay (died c.1218) was a Cistercian monk of Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, in what is now Yvelines, northern France, and a chronicler of the Albigensian Crusade. His ''Historia Albigensis'' is one of the primary sources for the events of ...

and the '' Chronica'' of

William of Puylaurens Guillaume de Puylaurens (in Occitan, Guilhèm de Puèglaurenç; in Latin, Guillelmus de Podio Laurenti; in English, William of Puylaurens) is a 13th-century Latin chronicler, author of a history of Catharism and of the Albigensian Crusade. He was b ...

being the others. There is a single surviving manuscript of the whole ''Song'' (fr. 25425 in the Bibliothèque nationale), written in or around

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

about 1275.

First part

The first was written by

(he names himself as "maestre W." in ''laisses'' 1 and 9). The author also names the date of the beginning of the composition, as 1210 (''laisse'' 9). It comprises the first 2749 lines, in 130 ''laisses'' (rhymed stanzas of varying length), and takes the story to the beginning of 1213. It is strongly partisan, in favour of the Crusaders and against their opponents, the Cathars and southerners in general. The text has the earliest use of the term ''

crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were i ...

'' (as ''crozada'').

Second part

The second part comprises the remaining 6811 lines of the poem, in ''laisses'' 131 to 214. The author's identity is not certain, although the name of

has been recently proposed. This second part covers events from 1213 onwards and takes the opposite point of view, critical of the Crusaders and strongly in favour of the southerners (though not of Catharism). To historians the ''Song'' is important for this whole period because it is the only major narrative source that takes the southern viewpoint; it is especially important from April 1216 to June 1219, because the prose narrative by Pierre des Vaux-de-Cernay becomes more sketchy and incomplete from 1216 onwards. The author was apparently an educated man, displaying some knowledge of theology and law, and belonged to the diocese of Toulouse (since he calls bishop

Folquet de Marselha Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse (c. 1150 – 25 December 1231) came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti- ...

"our bishop"). Michel Zink suggests that he was with Raymond VII of Toulouse in Rome and Provence during the years 1215 and 1216. The poet mentions the death of Guy of Montfort, which actually took place in 1228;Laisse 142, lines 7–8 it is questionable whether the whole of part 2 was written after that date, or whether the reference to Guy's death was a later insertion. Saverio Guida has proposed that

may be the author. Gui, besides being a

, was also a noble, and one of the most faithful allies of

Raymond VI of Toulouse Raymond VI ( oc, Ramon; October 27, 1156 – August 2, 1222) was Count of Toulouse and Marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also Count of Melgueil (as Raymond IV) from 1173 to 1190. Early life Raymond was born at Saint-Gilles, Gard, ...

Editions and translations

The text was first edited by Claude Charles Fauriel in 1837. The first critical edition was published with a French translation, as ''Chanson de la croisade contre les albigeois'', by Paul Meyer in two volumes (1875–1879). Eugène Martin-Chabot published another multi-volume edition and French translation under the title ''Chanson de la croisade albigeoise'' (1931–1961). Gougaud (1992) published a new single-volume French translation. An English translation was published by Shirley (1996).

References

* Fauriel, Claude, '' Histoire de la croisade contre les hérétiques albigeois'', Imprimerie Royale, Paris (1837). *

Meyer, Paul Paul Meyer may refer to: * Paul Meyer (clarinetist) (born 1965), French clarinetist * Paul Meyer (philologist) (1840–1917), French philologist * Paul Meyer (rower) (born 1922), Swiss rower * Paul Meyer (sport shooter) (born 1961), Zimbabwean spo ...

, ed. and tr.,, ''Chanson de la croisade contre les albigeois''. Paris
vol. 1
(1875)
vol. 2
(1879). *Martin-Chabot, Eugène, ed. and tr., ''La chanson de la croisade albigeoise''. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, (1931–1961). *Gougaud, Henri, tr., ''Chanson de la croisade albigeoise''. Paris: Livre de Poche (1992). *Shirley, Janet, tr., ''The Song of the Cathar Wars: A History of the Albigensian Crusade'', Ashgate Publishing (1996). *

Anne Brenon Annie Brenon, known as Anne Brenon (born 14 November 1945) is a French writer and historian, specialising in Catharism. She is the founder of ''Heresis'', a review on Catharism and other medieval heresies and from 1982 to 1998 was director of th ...

, Janet Shirley, Christian Sales, Jean-Louis Gasc, ''Grandes pages de la Canso. 1208-1219'' (2012).

External links

BNF fr. 25425
{{Authority control Crusade literature Chansons de geste 1213 books 1220s books Old Occitan literature

Contents

First part

Second part

Editions and translations

References

External links