Elaine Graham-Leigh is the author of The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade and Revolution in Carcassonne: The story of a fourteenth-century rebellion.
The extraordinary longevity of the Catholic Church could make it seem like a body that floats above the everyday world of political and economic life. In reality, the Church has always been firmly linked to structures of power and property.
The French monarchy waged an infamous war of extermination against Christian heretics during the 13th century. The Albigensian crusade was a landmark in the development of an oppressive European social order with crucial legacies for the world today.