No complete translation of the Chronicle of William of Puylaurens has hitherto appeared in English, and the main purpose of this volume is hence to provide an accurate and readable English version. It is also intended in part to complement our earlier translation of Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay’s Historia Albigensis, published by Boydell & Brewer in 1998, and reprinted in paperback in 2000 and 2002 with some minor corrections to the notes and appendices.

Publication of this translation of William of Puylaurens means that, taken together with Janet Shirley’s translation of the Chanson de la Croisade Albigeoise, the three main narrative sources for the Albigensian Crusade are now available in full in English versions. However, to regard the Chronicle merely as a source for reference is to do it less than justice. Indeed after living with it for some years we have come to appreciate its value as the work of a highly intelligent man, composed with great care and thought, and very interesting in its own right.

It will be clear both from our annotations and from the points we make in the Introduction that in preparing the translation we have been greatly indebted to Jean Duvernoy’s 1976 edition of the Chronicle (reprinted with minor corrections in 1996). This has provided us with the Latin text, a parallel translation into French, and full notes, on many of which we have drawn in compiling our own. We are also indebted to many other works, as will be clear from our Introduction and footnotes.

We are very grateful to Malcolm Barber, of the University of Reading, for answering various queries, and for his general interest in this work and his support in getting it published. Malcolm Lambert answered queries, and Patrick Zutshi, of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, kindly looked at a draft of Appendix B. Hayley Greer prepared the family trees. The Bodleian Library in Oxford provided us with access to many of the items we have consulted.

Last, but by rights first, we must also thank the rest of the family for putting up with yet another four years of work on 13th century Languedoc, much of it undertaken when there were many other pressures on us; and Anne Sibly in particular for reading through the whole of the book in proof.

For the errors and misconceptions which remain, we are wholly to blame.