ABSTRACT
On 14 January 1208 Pierre de Castelnau, the papal legate to the French Midi charged with investigating the Cathar heresy, was murdered by, it was commonly believed, agents of count Raymond VI of Toulouse. In the eyes of Pope Innocent III not only was the Languedoc a haven for the enemies of the church, but their protectors flouted papal authority and murdered the servants of Christ's vicar. The pope had already made many attempts to persuade a royal figure to involve himself in a crusade against the heretics and their supporters, and he had consistently called for a truce between Kings Philip II of France and John of England so that their efforts could be put into such a venture.1 His attempts were in vain, John's priority being the recovery of territory in northern France which he had lost to Philip, and Philip's being the conquest of more of Aquitaine. Thus, the Albigensian Crusade was apparently devoid of royal intervention during this pontificate. However, there is evidence suggesting very strongly that John was actually involved in trying to undermine the crusade, activity which makes sense when viewed in the context of the defence of his own extensive political interest in the Languedoc and of his war with Philip, and which was also shaped by his relationship with the pope in the period 1205-1215. John's unwillingness to draw papal attention to his anti-crusade activity meant that most of his involvement was
'See especially PL 215:355-7,501-3, 1360 and 1545. See also C.R. Cheney, Pope Innocent III and England (Stuttgart, 1979), 293, and B. M. Bolton, 'Philip Augustus and John: Two Sons in Innocent Ill's Vineyard?', Studies in Church History 9, ed. D. Wood (Oxford, 1991), 113-34, esp. 113-26.
