Raymond VI of Toulouse
Encyclopedia
Raymond VI was count of Toulouse
and marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also (as Raymond IV) count of Melgueil
from 1173 to 1190.
, he was a son of Raymond V
and Constance of France. His maternal grandparents were Louis VI of France
and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne
. His maternal uncles included Louis VII of France
. In 1194 he succeeded his father as count of Toulouse. He immediately re-established peace with both Alfonso II of Aragon
and with the Trencavel
.
1. His first wife, Ermessende
, Countess of Melgueil
, whom he married in 1172, died in 1176 without issue.
2. His second wife was Beatrice of Béziers
, sister of Roger II Trencavel
; they divorced in 1189 and she was said to have become a Cathar
parfaite after the divorce. Raymond and Beatrice had one daughter,
Constance of Toulouse
, who was married firstly to King Sancho VII of Navarre
, and secondly to Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, lord of Anduze
.
3. Raymond then married for a third time, to Bourgogne, daughter of King Amalric II of Jerusalem
and his first wife Eschiva of Ibelin, daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin
. He divorced her in 1194.
4. In October 1197 at Rouen
he married Joan Plantagenet, but she fled from him in 1199 and died in childbirth. Their only surviving child was Raymond VII of Toulouse
(1197–1249).
5. His next relationship (marriage, some say) to a daughter of Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus, had ended by 1202.
6. His last wife was Leonor, daughter of King Alfonso II of Aragon
and Sancha of Castile.
Pierre de Castelnau
, representative of Pope Innocent III
. Pierre's assassination on January 15, 1208 led to Raymond's excommunication
. The excommunication was lifted after Raymond humbled himself before the Pope.
After the capture and massacre of Béziers
, the siege
and capture of Carcassonne
, and the death of Raymond-Roger of Trencavel, he moved his camp, was again excommunicated by the Council of Montpellier in 1211, and tried to organize resistance against the Albigensian Crusade
. More of a diplomat than a soldier, he was unable to stop the advance of Simon de Montfort
, who conquered Toulouse
. Raymond was exiled to England
under his former brother-in-law John Plantagenet
.
In November 1215 Raymond and his son (the later Raymond VII of Toulouse
) were in Rome with Raymond-Roger of Foix on the occasion of the Fourth Lateran Council) to vindicate themselves and dispute the loss of their territories. Raymond's son-in-law, Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, was also there to lay claim to the county of Toulouse, but this claim failed. Raymond and his son went from Rome to Genoa
and thence to Marseille
in February 1216. Raymond's son set out from Marseille to regain the family territories in Provence; in May 1216 he besieged Beaucaire and captured it on August 24.
Meanwhile Raymond went to Aragon
, hoping to rally support. From there he engaged in secret negotiations with leaders in Toulouse during 1216. Simon de Montfort possibly believed that Raymond was on his way to the city in September 1216; at any rate he returned in great haste from Beaucaire and conducted a partial sack of the city, apparently intended as punishment. Finally, on September 12, 1217, Raymond re-entered Toulouse again. Simon de Montfort immediately besieged the city once more. Simon was killed during the siege (on 25 June 1218); his son Amaury VI of Montfort
took his place, and for five years the Crusade faltered. The failure of Louis VIII
's campaigns, from 1219 to 1226, finally permitted Raymond, and his son and successor, to recover most of their territories.
Raymond VI is represented as one of four figures on the ceiling of the Minnesota
Supreme Court in the United States of America. His painting is next to Moses
, Confucius
, and Socrates
, each painting representing an aspect of law. Raymond VI's painting is entitled "The Adjustment of Conflicting Interests", and the scene is of Raymond VI of Toulouse standing before the papal legate in 1208. Raymond argued successfully for city freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and protection of the communal territory from the church. The paintings were made by John La Farge in 1903.
Counts of Toulouse
The first Counts of Toulouse were the administrators of the city and its environs under the Merovingians. No succession of such royal appointees is known, though a few names survive to the present...
and marquis of Provence from 1194 to 1222. He was also (as Raymond IV) count of Melgueil
Mauguio
Mauguio is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France.-Transportation:The airport of Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport is located in the area of Fréjorgues in the town of Mauguio.-Tourism:...
from 1173 to 1190.
Early life
Born at Saint-Gilles, GardSaint-Gilles, Gard
Saint-Gilles or Saint-Gilles-du-Gard is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It is the second most populous commune in the Nîmes metropolitan area.-Geography:...
, he was a son of Raymond V
Raymond V of Toulouse
Raymond V was count of Toulouse from 1148 until his death in 1194.He was the son of Alphonse-Jordan. When Alphonse died in the Holy Land in 1148, the county of Toulouse passed to his son Raymond, at the time 14 years old....
and Constance of France. His maternal grandparents were Louis VI of France
Louis VI of France
Louis VI , called the Fat , was King of France from 1108 until his death . Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis".-Reign:...
and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne
Adélaide de Maurienne
Adelaide of Savoy was the second spouse but first Queen consort of Louis VI of France.-Biography:...
. His maternal uncles included Louis VII of France
Louis VII of France
Louis VII was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet. His reign was dominated by feudal struggles , and saw the beginning of the long rivalry between France and England...
. In 1194 he succeeded his father as count of Toulouse. He immediately re-established peace with both Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II or Alfons I ; Huesca, 1-25 March 1157 – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was...
and with the Trencavel
Trencavel
The Trencavel were an important noble family in Languedoc during the 10th through 13th centuries. The name "Trencavel," originally a nickname and later a family name, may derive from the Occitan words for "nutcracker"...
.
Marriages
He was married five or six times:1. His first wife, Ermessende
Ermessende of Pelet
Ermessende of Pelet was the last heiress of the County of Melgueil, in southern France, and the last countess before it was joined with the County of Toulouse....
, Countess of Melgueil
Mauguio
Mauguio is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France.-Transportation:The airport of Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport is located in the area of Fréjorgues in the town of Mauguio.-Tourism:...
, whom he married in 1172, died in 1176 without issue.
2. His second wife was Beatrice of Béziers
Beatrice of Béziers
Beatrice of Béziers was the second wife of Raymond VI of Toulouse. Together they had one daughter, Constance of Toulouse. Beatrice was repudiated in 1189 and she retired to a Cathar convent. It was said she became a Cathar parfaite....
, sister of Roger II Trencavel
Roger II Trencavel
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...
; they divorced in 1189 and she was said to have become a Cathar
Cathar
Catharism was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries...
parfaite after the divorce. Raymond and Beatrice had one daughter,
Constance of Toulouse
Constance of Toulouse
Constance of Toulouse was the daughter of Raymond VI of Toulouse and his second wife Beatrice of Béziers.She first married Sancho VII of Navarre in 1195, but they were divorced in 1200...
, who was married firstly to King Sancho VII of Navarre
Sancho VII of Navarre
Sancho VII Sánchez , called the Strong or the Prudent, was the King of Navarre from 1194 to his death...
, and secondly to Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, lord of Anduze
Anduze
Anduze is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.-Population:-References:*...
.
3. Raymond then married for a third time, to Bourgogne, daughter of King Amalric II of Jerusalem
Amalric II of Jerusalem
Amalric II of Jerusalem or Amalric I of Cyprus, born Amalric of Lusignan , King of Jerusalem 1197–1205, was an older brother of Guy of Lusignan....
and his first wife Eschiva of Ibelin, daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin
Baldwin of Ibelin
Baldwin of Ibelin, also known as Baldwin III of Ramla , was an important noble of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century. He was the second son of Barisan of Ibelin, and was the younger brother of Hugh of Ibelin and older brother of Balian of Ibelin...
. He divorced her in 1194.
4. In October 1197 at Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
he married Joan Plantagenet, but she fled from him in 1199 and died in childbirth. Their only surviving child was Raymond VII of Toulouse
Raymond VII of Toulouse
Raymond VII of Saint-Gilles was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death. He was the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Joan of England...
(1197–1249).
5. His next relationship (marriage, some say) to a daughter of Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus, had ended by 1202.
6. His last wife was Leonor, daughter of King Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II or Alfons I ; Huesca, 1-25 March 1157 – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was...
and Sancha of Castile.
Problems with the Church
In Toulouse, he maintained the communal freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and extended his protection to the communal territory. A poet and a man of culture, he hated war but did not lack energy, as shown by his dispute with the papal legatePapal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
Pierre de Castelnau
Pierre de Castelnau
Pierre de Castelnau , French ecclesiastic, was born in the diocese of Montpellier.In 1199 he was archdeacon of Maguelonne, and was appointed by Pope Innocent III as one of the legates for the suppression of the Cathar heresy in Languedoc.In 1202, when a monk in the Cistercian abbey of Fontfroide,...
, representative of Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III was Pope from 8 January 1198 until his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni....
. Pierre's assassination on January 15, 1208 led to Raymond's excommunication
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
. The excommunication was lifted after Raymond humbled himself before the Pope.
After the capture and massacre of Béziers
Béziers
Béziers is a town in Languedoc in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the Hérault department. Béziers hosts the famous Feria de Béziers, centred around bullfighting, every August. A million visitors are attracted to the five-day event...
, the siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
and capture of Carcassonne
Carcassonne
Carcassonne is a fortified French town in the Aude department, of which it is the prefecture, in the former province of Languedoc.It is divided into the fortified Cité de Carcassonne and the more expansive lower city, the ville basse. Carcassone was founded by the Visigoths in the fifth century,...
, and the death of Raymond-Roger of Trencavel, he moved his camp, was again excommunicated by the Council of Montpellier in 1211, and tried to organize resistance against the Albigensian Crusade
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Catholic Church to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc...
. More of a diplomat than a soldier, he was unable to stop the advance of Simon de Montfort
Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester
Simon IV de Montfort, Seigneur de Montfort-l'Amaury, 5th Earl of Leicester , also known as Simon de Montfort the elder, was a French nobleman who took part in the Fourth Crusade and was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade...
, who conquered Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
. Raymond was exiled to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
under his former brother-in-law John Plantagenet
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
.
In November 1215 Raymond and his son (the later Raymond VII of Toulouse
Raymond VII of Toulouse
Raymond VII of Saint-Gilles was Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence from 1222 until his death. He was the son of Raymond VI of Toulouse and Joan of England...
) were in Rome with Raymond-Roger of Foix on the occasion of the Fourth Lateran Council) to vindicate themselves and dispute the loss of their territories. Raymond's son-in-law, Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, was also there to lay claim to the county of Toulouse, but this claim failed. Raymond and his son went from Rome to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
and thence to Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
in February 1216. Raymond's son set out from Marseille to regain the family territories in Provence; in May 1216 he besieged Beaucaire and captured it on August 24.
Meanwhile Raymond went to Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
, hoping to rally support. From there he engaged in secret negotiations with leaders in Toulouse during 1216. Simon de Montfort possibly believed that Raymond was on his way to the city in September 1216; at any rate he returned in great haste from Beaucaire and conducted a partial sack of the city, apparently intended as punishment. Finally, on September 12, 1217, Raymond re-entered Toulouse again. Simon de Montfort immediately besieged the city once more. Simon was killed during the siege (on 25 June 1218); his son Amaury VI of Montfort
Amaury VI of Montfort
Amaury VI de Montfort was the son of the elder Simon de Montfort and Alice of Montmorency, and the brother of the younger Simon de Montfort.He participated in the Albigensian Crusade under his father's command...
took his place, and for five years the Crusade faltered. The failure of Louis VIII
Louis VIII of France
Louis VIII the Lion reigned as King of France from 1223 to 1226. He was a member of the House of Capet. Louis VIII was born in Paris, France, the son of Philip II Augustus and Isabelle of Hainaut. He was also Count of Artois, inheriting the county from his mother, from 1190–1226...
's campaigns, from 1219 to 1226, finally permitted Raymond, and his son and successor, to recover most of their territories.
Raymond VI is represented as one of four figures on the ceiling of the Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
Supreme Court in the United States of America. His painting is next to Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, Confucius
Confucius
Confucius , literally "Master Kong", was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher of the Spring and Autumn Period....
, and Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, each painting representing an aspect of law. Raymond VI's painting is entitled "The Adjustment of Conflicting Interests", and the scene is of Raymond VI of Toulouse standing before the papal legate in 1208. Raymond argued successfully for city freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and protection of the communal territory from the church. The paintings were made by John La Farge in 1903.
External links
- Raymond VI entry at the Catholic EncyclopediaCatholic EncyclopediaThe Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...