History
In 1069, the three daughters of Peter II of Carcassonne sold the Counties of Carcassonne, Razès, the Béziers and Agde to Raymond Berengar I of Barcelona for 4,000 mancusos . By marriage to Ermengard, daughter of Peter II, Raymond Bernard, son of Bernard Ato III, became viscount of Carcassonne. He had already acquired Nîmes. By 1070, he was viscount of Béziers. His son Bernard Ato IV was viscount of Albi, Béziers, Carcassonne, Nîmes, and Razès. He thus held all the lands of the counts of Carcassonne, but never assumed the comital title. Bernard Ato was formally proclaimed viscount after the death of his mother in 1101.
Division
The sons of Ato IV divided their inheritance. The eldest, Roger I, took Albi, Carcassonne, and Razès, but had no children. The second, Raymond I took Béziers and Agde. The youngest, Bernard Ato V, inherited Nîmes and married Guilhelma, daughter of William VI of Montpellier. In 1132, Roger and Raymond agreed that in the event of Roger's death without heirs, Carcassonne would pass to Raymond. In 1150, Roger died and his three viscounties all passed to Raymond. After a series of disputes, the viscounty of Agde was divided between Raymond and Bernard Ato, with the latter holding the title. The elder branch of Béziers-Albi-Carcassonne-Razès and the younger of Nîmes-Agde were to remain sister separate for the remainder of the family's existence. The practical capital of the elder branch was Béziers.
During this period considerable urban unrest emerged as the growing cities tried to assert their independence. Raymond I was killed during one such revolt in Béziers. There was also revolts in Carcassonne in 1107 and 1120–1124, during which four years the Trencavel were expelled from the city.
The Trencavel's lands in the centre of Languedoc gave them considerable power in the 11th and 12th centuries. The counts of Barcelona and Toulouse both had large territories to the east and west, and valued a potential alliance with a family that stood in the middle. For the most part, the Trencavels allied with Barcelona against Toulouse. But as a result of the Albigensian Crusade, the last Trencavels lost their lands and titles.
Decline
Roger II, son of Raymond I, inherited his father's four viscounties. His sister son, Raymond Roger, also held them, but was captured after the fall of Carcassonne to the Crusaders. He died in prison at the end of 1209. Meanwhile, Bernard Ato VI, son of Bernard Ato V, ceded his rights as viscount of Nîmes and Agde to the Crusading leader Simon de Montfort in 1214. Raymond Roger's son, Raymond II, formally ceded his titles in 1210, though he reclaimed Carcassonne in 1224, only to lose it to Louis VIII of France in 1226. He continued to call himself viscount until 1247, when he once again formally ceded his rights, this time to Louis IX, and symbolically broke his vicecomital seals, after several failed attempts to recover his patrimony. He and his sons are the last known Trencavels, ruling only the castle of Limoux.
Raymond II's granddaughter was living at Cesseras in 1332, but the family disappears thereafter.
The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political aspect, resulting in not only a significant reduction in the number of practising Cathars, but also a realignment of the County of Toulouse in Languedoc, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown, and diminishing both Languedoc's distinct regional culture and the influence of the counts of Barcelona.
This is a list of Viscounts of Béziers, who ruled the viscounty of Béziers.
Raymond VII was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death.
Raymond Roger Trencavel was a member of the noble Trencavel family. He was viscount of Béziers and Albi, and viscount of Carcassonne and the Razès.
The Treaty of Corbeil was an agreement signed on 11 May 1258, in Corbeil between Louis IX of France and James I of Aragon.
Ermengarde, was a viscountess of Narbonne from 1134 to 1192. She was the daughter of Aimery II of Narbonne and his first wife, also named Ermengarde.
Roger Bernard II, called the Great, was the seventh count of Foix from 1223 until his death. He was the son and successor of the count Raymond-Roger and his wife Philippa of Montcada.
The County of Carcassonne was a medieval fiefdom controlling the city of Carcassonne, France and its environs. It was often united with the County of Razès.
Bernard Ato V was the Viscount of Nîmes of the Trencavel family from 1129 to his death.
Bernard Ato IV was the Viscount of Nîmes of the Trencavel family from 1074 to his death. Bernard Ato was the son of Raymond Bernard of Nîmes and Ermengarde of Carcassonne.
Bernard II, known as the Calf, was the count of Toulouse, Rouergue, Limoges, Nîmes, Carcassonne, Razès, and Albi. He was the son of Raymond I and Bertha. The dates of his reign are disputed: either 865–877 or 864–872.
Pons d'Arsac was the Archbishop of Narbonne from 1162 until 1181. He was archbishop at an important time in the history of Narbonne and Languedoc in general; a time when the Roman Catholic Church denounced the local religious way of life as heretical.
Roger II Trencavel was the Viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers, Razès, and Albi from 1167 or 1171 until his death. Until 1177 he used the title proconsul, usually as proconsul de Bitteris, but he abandoned the usage when he became a vassal of the Crown of Aragon. His government of his lands was characterised by increasing complexity, such as the development of the offices of seneschal and sub-vicar, but his later years are characterised by financial troubles and a "general malaise" perhaps brought about by his poor relations with the Church hierarchy in light of his favourable attitude towards Catharism.
Raymond II Trencavel was the last ruler of the branch of the Trencavel viscounts of Béziers. His entire life was occupied by efforts to reverse the downfall the Trencavel had experienced during the Albigensian Crusade, but he ultimately failed.
Raymond I Trencavel was the Viscount of Agde and Béziers from 1130 and Viscount of Albi, Carcassonne, and Razès from 1150. He was a member of the Trencavel family, ruling the lands of the elder branch.
Roger I Trencavel,, was the eldest son of Bernard Ato IV, Viscount of Albi, Agde, Béziers, Carcassonne, Nîmes, and Razès. On his father's death in 1130 he inherited Albi, Carcassonne, and Razès, while his younger brother Raymond inherited Agde and Béziers and his youngest brother Bernard Ato V inherited Nîmes.
Bernard Ato VI was the posthumous son and successor of Bernard Ato V, Viscount of Nîmes and Agde. He reigned from 1163 until 1214, when he surrendered his fiefs to Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and leader of the Albigensian Crusade. Bernard Ato was not connected with Catharism nor were his lands, but his relationship to Raymond Roger Trencavel may have marked him off as an enemy of the Crusade by default, for he was a Trencavel, though he did not carry that name.
The Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium, sometimes called the Trencavel Cartulary (CT) or Cartulaire de Foix, is a high medieval cartulary commissioned by the Trencavel family. It preserves either 585 or 616–7 charters, the earliest of which dates to 1028 and the latest to 1214. The charters preserve a record of important feudal customs relating to the lands of the Trencavel, namely Albi, Agde, Béziers, Carcassonne, Nîmes, and Razès, all of which—save Carcassonne, which was a county—were viscounties, hence the cartulary's name. It is preserved in a twelfth-century manuscript, now kept with the Société Archéologique de Montpellier, where it is MS 10.
The Cité de Carcassonne is a medieval citadel located in the French city of Carcassonne, in the Aude department, Occitanie region. It is situated on a hill on the right bank of the River Aude, in the southeast part of the city proper. The citadel was restored at the end of the 19th century and in 1997 it was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites because of its exceptional testimony to the architecture and planning of a medieval fortress town.
The Massacre at Béziers was the slaughter of the inhabitants during the sack of Béziers, an event that took place on 22 July 1209, and was the first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.
