Albigensian Crusade (redirected from Crusade against the Albigenses)

Albigensian Crusade

(1209–29) Crusade called by Pope Innocent III against the heretical Cathari of southern France. The war pitted the nobility of northern France against that of southern France, and it eventually involved the king of France who established his authority over the south. The Crusade ended with the Treaty of Paris (1229), which took away the independence of the southern princes and largely destroyed the culture of Provence. The Crusade caused much devastation and injustice, which Innocent came to regret, but did not bring about the extirpation of the Albigensian heresy (named for its center in the town of Albi, France). The heresy lingered on into the 13th–14th centuries and became the object of the Inquisition.