1488: A Forgotten Crusade

There has been very little interest, at least until recently, in the late medieval crusades; and within that context, no attention has been paid in comparison to the crusade against the Waldenses of the western Alps. Proclaimed in April 1487 by Pope Innocent viii, directed against the “Poor of Lyons or Waldenses” (“Pauperes de Lugduno seu Valdenses”) of Savoy and the Dauphiné, and carried out in March and April 1488, this Alpine crusade has never found its place in the abundant international historiography on crusading.1 Probably this absence is due to the fact that the letter proclaiming the crusade did not land in an ecclesiastical collection, but was preserved in Cambridge University Library.2 More attention is paid to it within the researches on the Waldenses of the Dauphiné.3 This twofold marginality – both in geographical location and historiographical profile – does not lessen the interest of this religious, political and military episode, which manifests multiple peculiar characteristics. First of all, the crusade took place in an Alpine setting, that is, in the mountains; the military intervention lasted quite a brief time (a couple of months, March – April 1488) whereas the judicial procedures took much longer, both beforehand (September-November 1487 on the side of the Alps in present-day Italy, March-April 1488 in the valleys on the French side) and also afterwards (from 1501 to 1509). Very large numbers of people were interrogated during both parts of this judicial phase. These interrogations offer the possibility of hearing especially the testimonies of those who were the victims, rather than the military aspect or its political support: the latter, while implicit, does not emerge with clarity. For such reasons I shall make use of many judicial testimonies taken down during these interrogations, which show the concrete experience of those people who were caught up in an untypical crusade.