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Raymond II Trencavel (also spelled Raimond; 1207 – 1263/1267) was the last ruler of the branch of the Trencavel
viscounts of Béziers A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...
. His entire life was occupied by efforts to reverse the downfall the Trencavel had experienced during the
Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown ...
, but he ultimately failed. Raymond was only two years old when his father, Raymond Roger, died in prison on 10 November 1209. He would have automatically inherited the viscounties of Béziers, Carcassonne, Albi, and
Razès Razès (; oc, Rasés; ca, Rasès) is a historical area in southwestern France, in today's Aude '' département''. Several communes of the ''département'' include ''Razès'' in their name: * Bellegarde-du-Razès * Belvèze-du-Razès * Feno ...
, but Carcassonne was granted to Simon de Montfort immediately after Raymond Roger's death and Albi was granted to him in June 1210.Graham-Leigh, 44. On 25 November 1209, Agnes, Raymond's mother and guardian, relinquished her dowry in the Pézenas and Tourbes, which would have gone to Raymond, to Simon in exchange for a pension of 3,000 '' solidi'' annually and compensation of 25,000 ''solidi'' for her dowry, to be made in four annual payments. When Raymond was only three, his mother negotiated the surrender of all his remaining lands and titles at the siege of Minerve on 11 June 1210. The surrender was made in the presence of
Arnaud Amalric Arnaud Amalric ( la, Arnoldus Amalricus; died 1225) was a Cistercian abbot who played a prominent role in the Albigensian Crusade. It is reported that prior to the massacre of Béziers, Amalric, when asked how to distinguish Cathars from Catholi ...
,
Fulk of Toulouse Folquet de Marselha, alternatively Folquet de Marseille, Foulques de Toulouse, Fulk of Toulouse (c. 1150 – 25 December 1231) came from a Genoese merchant family who lived in Marseille. He is known as a trobadour, and then as a fiercely anti- ...
, and Berengar of Barcelona and confirmed by the Council of Narbonne in January 1211. Until the formal act of the council, the overlord of the Trencavel viscounties,
Peter II of Aragon Peter II the Catholic (; ) (July 1178 – 12 September 1213) was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213. Background Peter was born in Huesca, the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile. In 1205 he acknowled ...
, had refused to recognise Simon's takeover. Raymond's youth after his surrender of his hereditary offices and lands was spent in the care of
Raymond Roger of Foix Raimond Roger (french: Raymond-Roger; Occitan: ''Ramon Roger'') (died 27 March 1223) was the sixth count of Foix from the House of Foix. He was the son and successor of Roger Bernard I and his wife Cécilia Trencavel. When Raimond-Roger and Arn ...
and his successor, Roger Bernard II of Foix. In 1224, when after a general rebellion Amaury VI of Montfort ceded his rights over Raymond's former lands to the Crown, Carcassonne was reconquered by Roger Bernard and Raymond VII of Toulouse, who bestowed it (and Béziers according to one charter) on Raymond Trencavel, now of age.Graham-Leigh, 45. During the next two years as viscount, Raymond removed
Guy des Vaux-de-Cernay Guy (died 21 March 1223) was the sixth Cistercian abbot of Vaux-de-Cernay from 1181 until 1210 and then the bishop of Carcassonne from 1212 until his death. The crusades dominated his life. He was a preacher, organizer and spiritual leader of the F ...
from the diocese of Carcassonne and replaced him with Berengar Raymond, and he restored the abbot Alet, Boso, who had been deposed by a papal legation in 1222. Raymond's attitude towards the Church in the Carcassès is indicative of the Crusaders' disdain for the local clergy and the way in which the local nobility persecuted by the Crusade came to the support of the persecuted clergy.Graham-Leigh, 82–83. Raymond could not hold the town against King Louis VIII in 1226, however, and he was again dispossessed. His loss was less formal the second time and he continued to employ his title and act in his capacity as viscount into 1227. At that time he had achieved his majority and was even granting property to his former guardian, the count of Foix. Raymond continued to rule Limoux as a vassal of the count of Foix until the Treaty of Paris of 12 April 1229, when all formerly Trencavel lands were surrendered to the French crown. After that he went into exile, probably to either the court of Foix,
Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...
, or Catalonia.Graham-Leigh, 167. In 1240 he made an attack on Carcassonne in an attempt to retake it. But though he had the help of
Olivier de Termes Olivier de Termes (1200 – 12 August 1274) was a knight from the southern French region of Termes, Aude. He was raised as a Cathar but eventually converted to Catholicism in a move that would help restore peace to his homeland following the ravages ...
and besieged the city from 17 September until 11 October, a royal army forced him to relent and flee to Montréal, where he was himself besieged. He escaped and went into exile again until 1247, when he finally surrendered to Louis IX and symbolically broke his vicecomital seals. Raymond was allowed to continue to rule Limoux, where he was in power as late as 1263. He left a wife and two sons, Roger and Raymond Roger, who succeeded him, but their history and that of all subsequent Trencavels is obscure in the extreme. Raymond was dead by 1267, when his son is first recorded as "of Béziers", the family name. Throughout his life and career after his surrender in 1210, Raymond always called himself simply "Trencavel" in his own charters, a practice not thitherto common in his family. The name Trencavel had been reserved for members named Raymond and it appears that Raymond II preferred it to his given name, or desired to assert his familial connexions through its preeminence.Graham-Leigh, 147.


Sources

*Graham-Leigh, Elaine. ''The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade''. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005. .
Trencavel de Béziers
at Medieval Lands Project


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond 02 Trencavel 1207 births 1265 deaths Trencavel Viscounts of Albi Viscounts of Béziers Viscounts of Carcassonne Viscounts of Razès People of the Albigensian Crusade Occitan nobility