Event Details

The Centre for War and Diplomacy brings together researchers, legal experts and students to participate in a mock trial of Simon V de Montfort for war crimes in the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229).

CWD Mock Trial: 'Warfare on Trial: The Albigensian Crusade'

The Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) against the Cathar heretics of southern France is one of the most controversial conflicts of the Middle Ages. According to one view, it ushered the concept of genocide into the west: contemporary accounts narrate the mass burnings of townsfolk who refused to reject Catharism.

Simon V de Montfort (1175-1218), the crusade’s original leader, was at the heart of this process. While he was and remains a divisive figure, recent studies argue that he was a devoted crusader and that the violence he employed was seen as a legitimate means of bringing about social change during the thirteenth century.

Should the crusade’s leader be condemned as a war criminal?

'Warfare on Trial' takes the form of a mock courtroom, in which experts in History and Law debate the case for and against Simon as war criminal. In so doing, the event will explore attitudes towards violence, the persecution of ‘others’ in society, and the rightfulness of warfare.

Simon will be charged with exceeding the limits of just war and using extraordinary levels of violence in the Albigensian Crusade. Barristers for the prosecution and defence will present their cases and cross-examine witnesses for each side before giving a final statement. Our expert participants will then accept questions from the audience and discuss the legal implications raised. The trial will close with the decision of the jury, consisting of students from the departments of History and Law.

The event takes place 17.00-19.00 on Friday 18 November 2022, in the Mock Court Room of the Faraday Building. It will be followed by a wine reception. All are welcome.

Participants:

Dr Rory Cox is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of St Andrews. He has published widely on the ethics of war, history of violence and intellectual history. In 2014, his book John Wyclif on War and Peace was published by Boydell & Brewer.

Dr Gregory Lippiatt is a Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of Exeter. He is a historian of aristocratic government in the High Middles Ages and its intersection with Christian movements such as the crusades. His previous works include Simon V of Montfort and Baronial Government, 1195-1218 published in 2017 with Oxford University Press.

Harry Potter LLB is a criminal defence lawyer and barrister. He has also published on various aspects of law. His publications include Hanging and Heresy, published with Kent University Press in 1994, A Brief History of the Common Law, with Boydell & Brewer in 2015, and Alexander Paterson: Prison Reformer, with Boydell & Brewer earlier this year.

Joshua Rice is a doctoral candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London, and is supervised by Professor Andrew Jotischky and Professor Jonathan Phillips. His thesis focusses on literary debates between the Church, heretics, and the laity in southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He also wrote a piece in History Today earlier this year on Heresy in Orlèans in 1022.