Self Published- Second Novel

I have just self published my second novel. Like my first it lay in a shoe box for a decade or two until I found the self publishing course. 

HUNTED-In Search of the Cathar Treasure grew out of two things.

1. I had just read about the fifth Crusade in thirteenth century France- the persecution of a group of people called Albigensians   who were deemed heretics by the Catholic Church at that time.

The heretics seemed to me to be a likeable sort of people who eschewed many of the conventional values of the day. They lived a simple  life, They travelled in pairs, worked often as weavers and were taken in by the locals in the Languedoc region in France. 

The Albigensians, known later in history as the Cathars, were deemed to be heretics by the Church in Rome. The heresy hinged upon their principle of Good and Evil. Albigensians believed that the world was the creation of the forces of darkness and that little attention should be paid to worldly authority. This impacted on the power of church and state.

 They found followers, credentes, in the prosperous area of the Languedoc which was at the time a lively hub of merchant trade and politically not under the control of the King of France.

Parallel to the growth of Albigensian doctrines was the rise of the troubadour poetry. It was here that the performance of troubadours thrived.

This novel is set in the Languedoc at this critical period of its history. The main characters are fictitious but references are made to historical figures.

 2. I was taking a creative writing workshop at the time and a character popped into my head or more pointedly to the tip of my pen. His name was Nicolas, he was a troubadour and he was witnessing the burning at the stake of a group of Cathars.

After that the story morphed somewhat and I traced Nicolas's origins back to a scene in Beziers 1209. Here he presented as a child escaping from a burning city that was being sacked by Church and state.

At the sacking of Bezier in 1209, 20, 000 Catholics and Albigensians were slaughtered following the infamous catchphrase attributed to Arnauld Amaury, “Kill them all. God will know his own.”

So began the Albigensian Crusade, 1209-1229 launched by Pope Innocent 111, and led by Simon de Montfort, a skilful warrior under the approving eye of Arnauld Amaury, head of the Cistercian order.

It is a shocking story. 

Later in time it was believed that the Cathars had in their possession the Holy Grail. 

The novel is available on Amazon platforms.

HUNTED- a novel by Cathy Leonard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism

https://www.frenchviews.com.au/my-journal/montsgur-and-the-cathars