Sean McGlynn

The Albigensian crusade 1209-1229) by the Catholic Church against the Cathar heretics of southern France is infamous for its brutality. Marked by massacres and acts of appalling cruelty, these deeds are commonly ascribed to the role of religious fanaticism. This book is the first to offer a dedicated military history of the whole Crusade; in so doing it refutes this old view. By telling the story of the Crusade through its dramatic sieges, battles and campaigns and offering expert analysis of the warfare involved, the author reveals the Crusade in a new light – as a bloody territorial conquest in which acts of terror were perpetrated to secure military aims rather than religious ones. The result is an exciting and at times disturbing book that tells the dramatic military events of the Crusade and its leading characters – Simon de Montfort, Louis the Lion, Innocent III, Peter of Aragon, Count Raymond of Toulouse - through the voices of those contemporary writers who fought it and experienced it.

Cathars and Carnage in the Albigensian Crusade

Kill Them All

A horrifying account of cruelty and atrocity in the middle ages.

The Savage Reality of Medieval Warfare

By Sword and Fire

Details an invasion that could have changed Britain as we know it, prompted by events at Runnymede where the barons brought an errant king to heel and in doing so provided an opportunity for conquest Taking advantage of the turmoil created in England by King John's inept rule and the barons' demands, Prince Louis of France invaded England and allied with the English rebels. The prize was the crown of England. Within months Louis had seized control of one-third of the country, including London. This is the only book to cover the bloody events of the invasion, one of the most dramatic but most overlooked episodes of British history. The text vividly describes the campaigns, sieges, battles, and atrocities of the invasion and its colorful leaders--Louis the Lion, King John, William Marshal, and the mercenaries Fawkes de Béauté and Eustace the Monk--to offer the first detailed military analysis of this epic struggle for England.

The Magna Carta War and the Invasion of England 1215-1217

Blood Cries Afar

A vivid and original account of warfare in the Middle Ages and the cruelty and atrocity that accompanied it. Sean McGlynn investigates the reality of medieval warfare. For all the talk of chivalry, medieval warfare routinely involved acts which we would consider war crimes. Lands laid waste, civilians slaughtered, prisoners massacred: this was standard fare justified by tradition and practical military necessity. It was unbelievably barbaric, but seldom uncontrolled. Such acts of atrocity were calculated, hideous cruelties inflicted in order to achieve a specific end. Sean McGlynn examines the battles of Acre and Agincourt, sieges like Béziers, Lincoln, Jerusalem and Limoges as well as the infamous chevauchées of the Hundred Years War that devastated great swathes of France. He reveals how these grisly affairs form the origin of accepted 'rules of war', codes of conduct that are today being enforced in the International Court of Justice in the Hague.

Sean McGlynn

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