Raymond Roger Trencavel

Raymond -Roger Trencavel (French: Raimond -Roger, Occitan: Raimon Rogier, * 1185, † November 10, 1209 ) was a member of the Trencavel family and Viscount of Carcassonne.

Life

Raymond -Roger Trencavel was the son of the Viscount Roger II Trencavel and Adélaïde de Toulouse, a sister of Count Raymond VI. of Toulouse. At the age of five he was an orphan, his guardian Bertrand was appointed by Saissac, who was an opponent of the Roman Church and supporters of the Cathars.

In 1199 Trencavel was explained by fourteen years of age and was able to take over the management of his lands. He was Viscount of Carcassonne and Razès ( fief of the Crown of Aragon ) and Albi, and Béziers Ambialet ( fief of the House Toulouse). He was one of the most powerful nobles in the southwest of France, his residence was the Château Comtal in Carcassonne. In 1201, he married on the mediation of King Peter II of Aragon the nobles Agnès de Montpellier, a daughter of the Lord William VIII of Montpellier, with whom he had the son Raimund II Trencavel. Through the marriage of his sister Marie de Montpellier with the Aragonese king and two years later Trencavel approached this in both political and dynastic.

Albigensian Crusade

Trencavel tolerated as almost all the princes of the Languedoc, the Christian sect of the Cathars and other religions in his realm. The Roman Catholic Church had classified this sect as heretical and tried to push back their influence. Trencavel as well as his uncle, Count Raymond VI. of Toulouse, denied the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau their support to combat the Cathars, for which they were excommunicated. The murder of the legate in 1208, Pope Innocent III. as an opportunity for proclaiming a crusade against the Albigenses ( another term for Cathar ).

1209 gathered around 10,000 crusaders in Lyon and moved in March to the south. Despite the common threat, Trencavel refused an alliance with his uncle to take, probably due to the generation -long rivalry between Trencavel and Toulouse. Therefore, the count of Toulouse submitted himself in time in June 1209 Church and joined the crusade to these thus kept away from their own lands. Trencavel was not ready to take this step, which is why his country was the main objective of crusaders. Since King Peter II of Aragon was tied at the same time by the struggle against the Moors, Trencavel had no significant allies. The Crusaders first subjected to Montpellier and then in the direction of Béziers. After an attempt Trencavel failed to reach an agreement with the Crusaders, he left the city to retreat to the better fortified Carcassonne. In July 1209 Béziers was conquered by the Crusaders, who massacred the population of the city.

The well-fortified, but because refugees overpopulated Carcassonne was against it last longer, but suffered from lack of water. Trencavel attempted through negotiations with the Teutonic Knights for the city a fate similar to that of Beziers to prevent, but failed despite a mediation of the King of Aragon. When he went again to conversations in the camp of the Crusaders, he was captured despite a promised safe conduct from them. Thereupon the defenders of Carcassonne revealed on August 15, 1209 and left the Crusaders move. The inhabitants were forced to leave the city. Trencavel was imprisoned in one of the towers of the city walls, where he probably died a short time later at the Ruhr. Trencavel widow Agnes had in favor of the newly-appointed crusader leader, Simon de Montfort, renounce all possessions and go with her son in the Aragonese exile.

A native of the troubadour Guillem Augier Novella Dauphiné ( mid 13th century) complained in a siebenstrophigen Sirventes the death of Trencavel. He complained it to the Crusaders as false descendants of Pilate and compared indirectly Trencavel death with the martyrdom of Jesus Christ.

Reception

The German mystics Otto Rahn († 1939) saw in Raymond -Roger Trencavel the historical model of the Grail knight " Parzival " by Wolfram von Eschenbach, as indeed the whole epic work motifs have taken from the history of the Albigensian Crusade. So was the (probably legendary ) poet Kyot de Provence, to whose work Eschenbach called, identical to the northern French Trouvère Guiot de Provins, is said to have sung at the court of Carcassonne the viscounts as " Perceval " and his mother as " Herzeloyde ". As a further indication applies Eschenbach's Parzival as a definition of the name " cutting straight through " (from Old French percer val ), which translates into the Altprovenzalische Trencar vel is.

Rahn's theories were a source of inspiration input in the popular literature, such as in the Grail pentalogy (1991-2005) by Peter Berling.