RAIMOND ROGER TRENCAVEL

(Easter 1185 - 10 November 1209)

Viscount of Albi and Beziers (vassal of the count of Toulouse), Viscount of Carcassonne and the Razes (vassal of the Count of Barcelone who was also King of Aragon).   He was one of the heroes and one of the first victims of the Albigensian Crusade.

Raimond Roger was the son of Roger II Trencavel and of Adelaide of Toulouse.  He was the nephew of Raimond VI, count of Toulouse.  He married Agnes of Montpellier.  A son was born of their union: Raimond II Trencavel.

Raimond Roger lived in the Count's castle of Carcassonne that was built by his ancestors in the 10th century. Though he was not a cathar, Raimond Roger, like others lords in Languedoc,  had adopted a tolerant and liberal attitude towards them. In fact, he relied on the Jew community to administer Beziers, his second most important land.

Due to the murder of the legate Peter of Castelnau in 1208, Pope Innocent III ordered the crusade against the Albigensians.  He excommunicated the lords of Languedoc (among them Raimond Roger and his uncle Raimond VI of Toulouse) who were judged too permissive towards the heretics. Their lands were "given in prey".

At mid-August, the crusaders gambled together in Lyons and started riding down to the South.  In June, Raimond VI of Toulouse, seeing the danger so close at hand, asked for forgiveness and promised to struggle against heresy. His excommunication was lifted and his possessions now placed under the protection of the crusaders.

And so the army of crusaders rushed in Montpellier down to the lands of Raimond Roger. The young viscount tried to follow in the footsteps of his uncle but the Pope legates refused to meet him. Beziers was invaded and sacked down on July 22nd, 1209.  Raimond Roger prepared to fight in the City of Carcassonne.

On August 1st, the crusaders besieged the city. As a vassal of the king of Aragon Peter II, Raimond Roger expected the king to come to his help.  But Peter II was a direct vassal of the Pope. He preferred diplomacy and merely acted as a mediator. The negociations failed and the king rode away.  In the besieged city, water ran out.  Raimond Roger chose to surrender on August 15th, 1209.

Raimond Roger tried to negociate.  It is not known what really happened.  Was he arrested during the negociations or did he choose to be kept as a hostage to the inhabitants of the city?  As a matter of fact, he was thrown into his own dungeon.  The folk of Carcassonne were forced to leave the city with nothing to help them survive.

Three months later, Raimond Roger died in jail, probably of dysentery, which was most convenient to Simon of Montfort who had already taken his possessions.