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A little essay I posted on Amazon.
The flag of the historical region known
as Occitania, which roughly corresponds to southern France, where various
dialects of the Occitan language used to be widely spoken. Apparently, Occitan
is close to Catalan. The banner features the Occitan cross, often wrongly
called the Cathar cross. It was originally used by either the counts of
Toulouse or the ditto of Forcalquier, and then spread across the region. The
"heretical" Cathars probably never used it, according to one theory
because they didn't believe Jesus was crucified! I assume the cross became
associated with Catharism due to its use by Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, who
opposed the anti-Cathar Albigensian Crusade for political reasons. Raymond was
otherwise a Catholic. I've been looking for this flag for some time, and here
it is...
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