Roger-Bernard III of Foix
Encyclopedia
Roger IV of Foix
Roger IV , son and successor of Roger-Bernard II the Great, was the seventh count of Foix from 1241 to his death. His reign began with the south again at war with the north in France and, though he was reluctant to join his father's old ally, Raymond VII of Toulouse, in revolt and he did not aid...
and Brunissende of Cardona. He entered into conflicts with both Philip III of France
Philip III of France
Philip III , called the Bold , was the King of France, succeeding his father, Louis IX, and reigning from 1270 to 1285. He was a member of the House of Capet.-Biography:...
and Peter III of Aragon
Peter III of Aragon
Peter the Great was the King of Aragon of Valencia , and Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. He conquered Sicily and became its king in 1282. He was one of the greatest of medieval Aragonese monarchs.-Youth and succession:Peter was the eldest son of James I of Aragon and his second wife...
, who held him in captivity for a time. He was nevertheless a distinguished poet and troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
.
Conflict with Philip III
His conflict with Philip III was rooted in the longstanding desire of the French monarchy to establish its authority in LanguedocLanguedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
, where, since the 10th century, it had been practically a nonentity. In 1272, Roger-Bernard allied with Gerard V of Armagnac to attack the lord of Sompuy, who, however, applied for protection to the king. This brought the king and the count into direct opposition. Ignoring the royal command, the two counts went to war. Philip, claiming rights as the heir of his uncle Alfonso of Poitou, invaded Languedoc at the head of a large army. Roger-Bernard fled to his castle at Foix
Foix
Foix is a commune, the capital of the Ariège department in southwestern France. It is the least populous administrative centre of a department in all of France, although it is only very slightly smaller than Privas...
and the seneschal of Toulouse, Thomas de Paris, seized his lands.
Roger-Bernard, meanwhile, placed himself under the competing protection of James I of Aragon
James I of Aragon
James I the Conqueror was the King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276...
, who endeavoured to negotiate a peace. Roger-Bernard, however, demanded harsh and unacceptable conditions. On 3 June, King Philip began the siege of Foix and on 5 June, the citadel fell by the work of the sappers in tearing down its defensive walls. Roger-Bernard surrendered and was carted off to prison in 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,...
.
The dispute between James and Philip, however, did not immediately abate. The former refused to relinquish what he held on behalf of the imprisoned count. On 8 February 1273, the conflict was resolved and the king of Aragon gave up his claims. Before the end of that year, the count of Foix was released and did homage to the king of France, receiving back a portion of his confiscated lands. Roger-Bernard's relationship with Philip III was thereafter solid, with Philip even considering him his "most loyal and faithful vassal" in December 1277.
War of the Navarrese Succession
On the death of Henry I of NavarreHenry I of Navarre
Henry I the Fat was the Count of Champagne and Brie and King of Navarre from 1270...
in 1274, a dispute arose over the succession to that small kingdom. Henry's heir was his daughter Joanna
Joan I of Navarre
Joan I , the daughter of king Henry I of Navarre and Blanche of Artois, reigned as queen regnant of Navarre and also served as queen consort of France.-Life:...
, wife of Philip the Fair
Philip IV of France
Philip the Fair was, as Philip IV, King of France from 1285 until his death. He was the husband of Joan I of Navarre, by virtue of which he was, as Philip I, King of Navarre and Count of Champagne from 1284 to 1305.-Youth:A member of the House of Capet, Philip was born at the Palace of...
, then heir-apparent of Philip III. The Aragonese, however, opposed her succession, which would have put the French in control of Navarre. In order to secure Joanna and Philip's rightful inheritance, Roger-Bernard led a French army into Navarre in September 1276. He took the capital city of Pamplona
Pamplona
Pamplona is the historial capital city of Navarre, in Spain, and of the former kingdom of Navarre.The city is famous worldwide for the San Fermín festival, from July 6 to 14, in which the running of the bulls is one of the main attractions...
by force and razed it. In gladful compensation for this, Philip III restored all the count's remaining territories south of the Pas de La Barre.
Formation of Andorra
Perhaps the most lasting of Roger-Bernard's policies was his diplomatic agreement with the bishop of Urgell concerning the possession of AndorraAndorra
Andorra , officially the Principality of Andorra , also called the Principality of the Valleys of Andorra, , is a small landlocked country in southwestern Europe, located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France. It is the sixth smallest nation in Europe having an area of...
, a small montane territory with a long history of quarrels over its lordship between bishop and count. On 8 September 1278, after long negotiations, the count and the bishop concluded a paréage
Paréage of Andorra 1278
The first Paréage of Andorra was a feudal charter signed in Lleida on 8 September 1278. It codified a lay and ecclesiastical agreement between the Count of Foix, Roger-Bernard III, and the Bishop of Urgell, Pere d'Urtx, establishing their joint-sovereignty over the territory of Andorra...
, a form of condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
, over the disputed country. Though slightly modified a little later (the same year), the paréage remains the governing system of Andorra to this day, though the office of Count of Foix has devolved to the Presidency of France since that time.
Conflict with Aragon
In Spring 1280, the long-stewing conflict between Roger-Bernard and Peter of Aragon broke out into open rebellion. The count of Foix formed a coalition of other dissatisfied CatalanCatalan people
The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France are sometimes included in this definition...
nobles, including Arnold Roger I of Pallars Sobirà and Ermengol X of Urgell
Ermengol X of Urgell
Ermengol X was the Count of Urgel and Viscount of Àger from 1268, though his succession was disputed. He was the son of Álvaro of Urgell and his second wife, Cecilia, daughter of Roger-Bernard II of Foix....
, and revolted against Peter. Besieged in Balaguer
Balaguer
Balaguer is the capital of the comarca of Noguera, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain.It is located by the river Segre, a tributary to the Ebre....
, he was forced to surrender on 22 July and was imprisoned. While the other leaders of the revolt were released the next year, Roger-Bernard languished in an Aragonese dungeon until December 1283, at which time it was politically expedient to free him in exchange for the viscounty of Castelbon in an effort to stave off French aggression in the form of the so-called "Aragonese Crusade
Aragonese Crusade
The Aragonese Crusade or Crusade of Aragon, a part of the larger War of the Sicilian Vespers, was declared by Pope Martin IV against the King of Aragon, Peter III the Great, in 1284 and 1285...
."
Roger-Bernard, however, was not beholden to the then-excommunicate king of Aragon and readily sided with the invading French. First, on 25 May 1285, Elne
Elne
Elne is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It lies in the former province of Roussillon, of which it was the first capital, being later replaced by Perpignan...
and then, on 7 September, Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
surrendered to their French besiegers, Raimond-Roger, brother of the count of Pallars Sobirà, negotiating the surrenders with the count of Foix.
Relationship with Philip IV
In 1290, Roger-Bernard tried to stop the seneschals of Toulouse and Carcassonne from interfering in his internal affairs, such as the administration of justice and the collection of taxes. Philip the Fair, now King of France, refused to call off his functionaries and diminish his own authority in the south and was thus forced to confiscate two of the count's castles as punishment for his disobedience and lack of cooperation with the crown. Nonetheless, in 1293, the king finally intervened to order the seneschal of Carcassonne to leave the count of Foix's matters to the count of Foix. In 1295, Philip made the count Governor of GasconyGascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
and, on 29 April, ordered the seneschal to return the confiscated castles of 1290.
In 1295, Roger-Bernard alleged that the seneschal was levying taxes without his consent or permission to finance the war with England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
. As a means of paying the count back for these imposts, Philip granted him castles in July 1295 and 1298.
When Bernard Saisset
Bernard Saisset
Bernard Saisset was an Occitan bishop of Pamiers, in the County of Foix in the south of France, whose outspoken disrespect for Philip IV of France incurred charges of high treason in the overheated atmosphere of tension between the King and his ministry and Pope Boniface VIII, leading up to the...
, bishop of Pamiers, was inciting the people of 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...
to revolt, it was to Roger-Bernard that he went looking for a leader. He was refused and the count informed the king.
Inheritance of Béarn
In 1252, Roger-Bernard married Margaret of Montcada, the eldest daughter of Gaston VII of BéarnGaston VII of Béarn
Gaston VII de Montcada , called Froissard, was the twentieth Viscount of Béarn from 1229. He was the son and heir of William II Raymond and Garsenda, daughter of Alfonso II of Provence and Garsenda of Forcalquier...
and Bertha of Bigorre. In his will, Gaston declared Margaret to be his heir, which was generally accepted, though not by his second daughter Mathe and her husband Gerard VI of Armagnac. Later, Gaston declared his third daughter Guillemette the new heir, but when he died in 1290, Roger-Bernard immediately took possession of his counties (May). Roger-Bernard then divided his coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
between that of Foix and that of Béarn.
In 1293, after three years of peace, Gerard V finally contested the usurpation of Béarn and began a long war with Roger-Bernard over the rights of their wives. This war lasted until 1377.
When the aforementioned Guillemette donated all her Catalan lands to James II of Aragon
James II of Aragon
James II , called the Just was the King of Sicily from 1285 to 1296 and King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. In 1297 he was granted the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica...
in April 1300, Roger-Bernard opposed her and travelled at the head of troop through the pass of the Col de Puymaurens. He died at Tarascon-sur-Ariège
Tarascon-sur-Ariège
Tarascon-sur-Ariège is a commune in the Ariège department in southwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Tarascon-sur-Ariège are called Tarasconnais.-External links:*...
on 3 March 1302 and was buried in Boulbonne beside his ancestors.
He and Margaret had several children:
- Gaston I, his successor
- Constance, married (1296) John I de Lévis, lord of MirepoixMirepoix, AriègeMirepoix is a communes in the Ariège department in southwestern France.-History:The original town was virtually destroyed by flooding of the Hers-Vif river on 16 June 1289...
- Mathe, married (1294) Bernard IV of Astarac
- Margaret (died 1304), married (1291) Jordan V of L'Isle-Jourdain
- Brunissende, married (1298) Elias VII of Périgord