Albigensian Crusade that people don't know about

Albigensian Crusade

When it comes to Crusades you likely think mostly about crusades in the Middle East. Often forgotten are the European crusades- chiefly among them the Albigensian Crusade.

Around Southern France, in the 1200s there was a sect of Christianity called the Cathars. Cathars adhered to anti-materialism and preached poverty and piety. Sadly for them, their teachings went against the views of the church and this made them enemies.

From 1209 to 1215 there was a massive crusade aimed at destroying the Cathars. Cathar territory was quickly taken and extreme acts of violence were carried out against civilians.

In one famous case, the Papal Legate told the crusaders to kill every man, woman, and child in a city even if they were Catholic because “god will sort them out”.

In this crusade up to 1,000,000 Christians were slaughtered in a brutal campaign of insane violence. It has been called genocide and truly is. The goal was not land or some religious icon- the goal was to eradicate and exterminate an entire group of people.

From 1209–1215 there was the first stage of the genocide was a city-to-city slaughter. Then in 1216 when the “Crusade” ended the Cathars revolted and re-took the region. This resulted in the Pope calling for a new Crusade in 1217 and further conflict until 1225.

This resulted in moth Cathars being massacred however the remained were driven underground. An inquisition was thus established in the region to violently root out the remaining Cathars.

Women were raped by the tens of thousands, children were executed on-site, and cities were destroyed. The entire population of Southern France was targeted for extermination.