The Albigensian Crusade was extremely bloody and violent conflict, even for its day. It began a series of wantonly violently religiously motivated wars that ravaged Europe during the medieval era.

The novel, HERETIC KNIGHT, is set during this tumultuous era, and explores the themes of liberty of consciences centuries before such sentiments became one of the bedrock foundations of modern American society. The wars which had devastated Europe, the American founders did not want on their soil.

In a sense, the story of John de Ontivero, the protagonist and fictional Lord Baron of Breckington, England, is a reflection of today’s common man and woman; facing cultural and societal intolerance bred by ignorance and superstition. This is no anti-religious work; in fact, it is the opposite, for it is a work that emphasizes the freedom to pursue religion as a matter of the individual conscience, and not the business of any man or government. – LS