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Elaine Graham-Leigh, The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005). 187 pp. ISBN 1-84383-129-5. £5o.oo/$90.00.
This important book poses a penetrating question. Why were the Trencavels the only members of the higher nobility to suffer complete destruction as a result of the Albigensian Crusade, without protest or positive response from their subjects and neighbours? In her meticulous and original analysis Graham-Leigh takes us through an engrossing detective narrative, to conclude that the crusaders attacked Beziers and Carcassonne in their first campaign for the specific reason that they were Trencavel towns. While Carcassonne served a tactical purpose of providing the crusaders with a base for further operations, she argues that a more compelling factor in targeting the Trencavels was papal policy: Innocent III sought 'not to...