I recently scooped up a number of the old supplements. I have always liked the 2nd edition Provencal setting.
Good Materials
-Covenants (2nd edition--pdf available for $6)
-Mistridge (very helpful for the Val du Bosque area and Cathar)
-The entire Tetratology cycle (most of the products in this line assume that your players are in the Mistridge covenant. However, the Val du Bosque region is easily transported around to any other place in the Tribunal with some mountains.)
-Pact of Pasaquine
Here are some rough links I have about the region. I tend to google stuff over my lunch break and then email the links to home to look at in more detail. This is the stuff I have in my junk document for those things...
Sorry, it's long.
1196 A.D.
Medieval Links
http://www.medieval-spell.com/Medieval-Travel-France.html
Provencal
Bigorre and Gascony
http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~2861~290048:Carte-du-Bearn-de-la-Bigorre-de-l-A
This is a great resource for noble families and names, as well as figuring out who controls what!
http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/GASCONY.htm
http://www.french-at-a-touch.com/French_Regions/Midi_Pyrenees/midi-pyrenees_town_information.htm
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/shepherd_1911/shepherd-c-069.jpg
Here is a French Google Map of the Provencal Tribunal and Val Du Bosque (with some GM-created covenants)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=209456387984615024874.000470e83e97972c4708c&t=h&z=4
Some folks...
Roger II Trencavel (died March 1194) was the Viscount of Carcassonne,[1] Béziers,[2] Razès, and Albi from 1167 or 1171 until his death. Until 1177 he used the title proconsul, usually as proconsul de Bitteris (of Béziers), but he abandoned the usage when he became a vassal of the Crown of Aragon.[3] His government of his lands was characterised by increasing complexity, such as the development of the offices of seneschal and sub-vicar,[4] but his later years are characterised by financial troubles and a "general malaise" perhaps brought about by his poor relations with the Church hierarchy in light of his favourable attitude towards Catharism.[5]
Roger was the elder of two sons of Raymond I Trencavel and Saure. As a child in 1153 he was placed in the "custody and service" of Ermengard of Narbonne.[6] Eventually he inherited all four of Raymond's viscounties on his death in 1167.[7] However, Raymond V of Toulouse objected to the young Roger and instead enfeoffed Roger-Bernard I of Foix with the viscounties in December 1167 at Narbonne.[7] Roger rebelled. He retook Béziers in 1169 with the assistance of troops from Aragon and Catalonia.[7][8] After taking the city, Roger brought the Aragonese inside to murder the citizens who had handed the city over to his rival.[8] However, in November 1171, Raymond drew Roger away from Alfonso II of Aragon by enfeoffing him with the viscounties and depriving the count of Foix.[7] Roger married the young Adalais, daughter of Raymond of Toulouse, in 1171.[9] It opened the only (brief) period of alliance between Roger and Raymond.[10] Adalais' dowry was the town of Minerve, a fief of the King of France.[10] In 1176, Roger held a public inquiry to prove his lordship of the village of Mèze.[11] About the same time (c. 1175), Alfonso of Aragon held a public inquiry to prove that Carcassonne was his possession and that Roger II merely held it from him at his pleasure.[12] In the late 1180s, Roger began the compilation of a cartulary to collect the charter evidence for his rule.[13] The cartulary contained 248 folios and was written in proto-Gothic script.
Roger was a close ally of Ermengard of Narbonne from 1171 onwards, when the viscount and viscountess swore oaths of mutual alliance.[14] In 1177, he joined an alliance with Ermengard and William VIII of Montpellier to prevent Raymond from seizing Narbonne.[10] In 1179, he was forced to foreswear his former alliance with Raymond of Toulouse and return to the fold of Alfonso of Aragon.[15][16] He recognised that he held his fiefs from Alfonso. Roger agreed to hold Minerve from the king of Aragon instead of the king of France, significant of a realignment in the politics of the lords of Languedoc with respect to central authority.[16] Some have suggested that Roger was driven to the side of Alfonso by the results of the Third Lateran Council and by Raymond of Toulouse' request for assistance in dealing with heresy in his domains.[17] Roger appears therefore as lenient towards heretics.
Around 1175, Roger imprisoned Gerard, the bishop of Albi, probably over the disputed lordship of Albi.[18][19] Roger succeeded in establishing a vicar (Pierre Raimond d'Hautpoul) in Albi between 1175 and 1177, but he was forced to come to humiliating terms with the bishop William of Dourgne in 1193.[20] In 1178 Henry of Marcy, who was leading a papal legation in the region, marched on Albi, whence Roger fled to Ambialet, and the on Castres, where they declared him a heretic and excommunicated him after releasing the bishop Gerard.[18][21] In 1179, he was excommunicated again by Pons d'Arsac for his "conspicuous lack of enthusiasm for the extirpation of heresy" under the twenty-seventh canon of the Third Lateran Council and the decretal Ad abolendam of Pope Lucius III.[22] He was also accused of hiring routiers.[23] In 1181, Henry of Marcy returned to the south of France and besieged Roger and his wife in Lavaur, which was promptly surrendered.[24] In 1185, Alfonso was making war on Raymond over the possession of Provence. From Aix he travelled to Najac, where, probably in April, he made a treaty with Richard the Lionheart and with Roger against Raymond of Toulouse.[25] Roger in gratitude followed Alfonso into Spain and to the siege of Valencia, where, in June, he adopted the king's son Alfonso II of Provence as his heir, even though his wife was expecting.[25][26] Perhaps the adoption was cautionary in case the child of Adalais was a girl. Alfonso of Provence did not succeed Roger, rather that child, which was a boy named Raymond Roger, did. In 1188, Alfonso of Aragon came north of the Pyrenees again to defend Roger at Carcassonne, but he also granted away that viscounty as well as the Razès to Raimond-Roger of Foix in a move to dispossess the Trencavels entirely.[27] In 1189, Roger fell seriously ill and made his will.[27] After his recovery in 1191, however, he gathered his vassals and made them swear fealty to his son, which they did
Azalais of Toulouse
Azalais of Toulouse (or Alais, or Adelaide of Béziers) was the daughter of count Raymond V of Toulouse and Constance of France. Her maternal grandparents were Louis VI of France and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne. She was born at the castle of Burlats (canton of Roquecourbe, Tarn) and is therefore called contessa de Burlatz (Countess of Burlats) in the vida of Arnaut de Mareuil. She was married to Roger II Trencavel, count of Béziers and Carcassonne, in 1171; she was the mother of Raimond Roger Trencavel, who died in captivity after the siege of Carcassonne in 1209. Azalais herself died in 1199. Azalais of Toulouse is named in the poems of several troubadours, including Pons de la Gardia, Giraut de Salignac. It is said that the poems of Arnaut de Mareuil form a sequence telling of his love for her. Alfonso II of Aragon was his rival, and according to the razó to one of Arnaut's poems, the king jealously persuaded her to break off her friendship with Arnaut. Alfonso's own dealings with Azalais were fiercely criticized in a sirventès by Guillem de Berguedà: "she gave you her love, and you took two cities and a hundred castles from her".
The Baronnies, in French Les Baronnies is a historic name for the area East and North of Mont Ventoux in Southern France.
Today most of the Baronnies is part of the département Drôme (a part of the région Rhône-Alpes). Smaller areas in the East and South belong to the départements of Vaucluse, Hautes-Alpes and Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (part of the région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur). The area of roughly 2,000 km² (772 sq miles) is sparsely populated; the 1999 census counted only 22,000 inhabitants. Since the 17th century les Baronnies, especially its eastern parts, suffered from land flight due to harsh economic conditions. Starting in the 1980s land flight has stopped and the population is now increasing especially in and around the towns of Nyons, Buis-les-Baronnies, Mirabel-aux-Baronnies, Faucon and Puymeras. There are plans to create the Parc Naturel Régional des Baronnies. The area is paradise for hiking, mountaineering, rock climbing, cycling, mountain biking, horse-riding, hang gliding and paragliding.
Legend has it that Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader crossed les Baronnies with his elephants during the Second Punic War (218 - 201 B.C.). Later the area retired Roman soldiers were given land here. After the Roman Empire collapsed in the 3rd century, hundreds of years of invasions by Franks, Lombards, Saracens and marauding bands followed. During this period local fiefs started to fortify villages and consolidate power. In the 11th century the area was part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the Barons of Mévouillon consolidated their power over a large part of les Baronnies, they ruled for roughly 300 years from their impressive and established their capital in Buis-les-Baronnies. As a result of a family feud in 1125, the western part of les Baronnies was ruled by a different line of Mévouillons. They called themselves Barons de Montauban, hence the name "les Baronnies" (plural). They established their capital in Nyons. Within a short period of time both had to sell their possessions to the Count of Vienne, nicknamed le Dauphin (the dolphin was his coat of arms), who ceded his territory to the King of France in 1349 to pay his debts.
Similar to the Luberon, the Baronnies was a stronghold of Protestantism in the Provence. It suffered heavily during the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). Two of the most notable military leaders came from the Baronnies: Charles Dupuy-Montbrun, the Protestant leader from Montbrun-les-Bains and Faulque Thollon de Sainte Jalle, the Catholic leader from Sainte-Jalle. After a short lived economic revival the pest struck in 1629 and then again in 1652. The population was decimated.
The period from the 18th century to modern day was marked by economic decline and land flight. Only in the 1980s were the Baronnies "discovered". Tourism started to develop and the area between Vaison-la-Romaine and Nyons started to become very popular with tourists and retirees.
CARCASSONNE
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne
An Amazing picture of Carcassone is on the Wikipedia page. In 1067 Carcassonne became the property of Raimond Bernard Trencavel, viscount of Albi and Nîmes, through his marriage with Ermengard, sister of the last count of Carcassonne. In the following centuries the Trencavel family allied in succession either with the counts of Barcelona or of Toulouse. They built the Château Comtal and the Basilica of Saint-Nazaire. In 1096 Pope Urban II blessed the foundation stones of the new cathedral, a Catholic bastion against the Cathars.
Carcassonne became famous in its role in the Albigensian Crusades, when the city was a stronghold of Occitan Cathars. In August 1209 the crusading army of Simon de Montfort forced its citizens to surrender. After capturing Raymond-Roger de Trencavel, imprisoning him and allowing him to die, Montfort made himself the new viscount. He added to the fortifications. Carcassonne became a border citadel between France and the kingdom of Aragon (Spain).
In 1240 Trencavel's son tried to reconquer his old domain but in vain. The city submitted to the rule of the kingdom of France in 1247, and King Louis IX founded the new part of the town across the river. He and his successor Philip III built the outer ramparts. Contemporary opinion still considered the fortress impregnable. During the Hundred Years' War, Edward the Black Prince failed to take the city in 1355, although his troops destroyed the Lower Town.
During this period, Carcassonne and its ruling Trencavel family were central to the development of the new Occitan Cathar religion.
The fortified city itself is essentially of concentric design with two outer walls with towers and barbicans to prevent attack by siege engines. The castle itself possesses its own draw bridge and ditch leading to a central keep. The walls consist of towers built over quite a period. One section is Roman and is notably different from the medieval walls with the tell tale red brick layers and the shallow pitch terracotta tile rooves. One of these towers housed the Catholic Inquisition in the 13th Century and is still known as "The Inquisition Tower". Today there is a museum " Musée de la Torture", which shows some of the original torture equipment employed by the Catholic Church.
LAVAUR
In 1181, Henry of Marcy returned to the south of France and besieged Roger and his wife in Lavaur, which was promptly surrendered. Lavaur was taken in 1211 by Simon de Montfort during the wars of the Albigenses, a monument marking the site where Dame Giraude de Laurac (Lady of Lavaur) was killed[1], being thrown down a well and stoned to death[2]. The town was also taken several times during the religious wars of the 16th century.
DAUPHIN
Amidst the chaos of feudal rule, the Counts of Albon began to rise above other feudal lords and acquire dominance over the region. Their story begins with Guigues I the Old (died 1070), Lord of Annonay and Champsaur. During his reign, he gained significant territories for his province: a part of the Viennois, the Grésivaudan and the Oisans. Moreover, the Emperor gave him the region of Briançon. The territories combined under his personal rule became a sovereign mountain principality within the Holy Roman Empire. The count made a significant decision when [5] he chose the small city of Grenoble as capital of his state instead of the prestigious city of Vienne, which was the long-established seat of a powerful bishop. This choice allowed him to assert authority over all his territories.
In the 12th century, the local ruler Count Guigues IV of Albon (c.1095–1142) bore a dolphin on his coat of arms and was nicknamed le Dauphin (French for dolphin). His descendants changed their title from Count of Albon to Dauphin of Viennois. The state took the name of Dauphiné.
However, the Dauphiné did not, at this point, have its modern borders. The region of Vienne and Valence were independent and even in Grenoble, the capital, the authority was shared with the bishop. Furthermore, the cities of Voiron and la Côte-Saint-André were parts of the County of Savoy, while the Dauphins had the Faucigny and territories in Italy. This tangle between Dauphiné and Savoy resulted in several conflicts. The last Dauphin, Humbert II of Viennois, made peace with his neighbour. He also acquired the city of Romans. He finally created the Conseil Delphinal and the University of Grenoble and enacted the Delphinal Status, a kind of constitution that protected the rights of his people.
PEOPLE
COUNTS OF ALBON (Le Dauphin)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dauphin_de_Viennois
Béatrice, Countess of Albon and Dauphine of Viennois (1161–1228) became countess and dauphine in 1162 upon the death of her father. Ruled 1162-1228. Hugh III of Burgundy (1142 – August 25, 1192, in Acre) was duke of Burgundy between 1162 and 1192. Hugh was the eldest son of duke Odo II and Marie of Champagne, daughter of Theobald and Mathilda of Carinthia.
The rule of Hugh III marked the ending of a period of relative peace in the duchy of Burgundy. Hugh was a belligerent man and soon was involved in conflicts against king Louis VII of France over their borders. When Philip Augustus succeeded Louis in 1180, Hugh seized the opportunity and forced several men to change alliance to Burgundy. Philip II was not happy with the loss of his vassals and invaded the duchy, besieging Châtillon. The town fell and with it, its garrison, commanded by Eudes, Hugh's heir. A peace was negotiated and Hugh had to pay a high ransom for his son and give up ambitions over French territory.
Hugh then turned his energies to the Holy Land, embarking in the Third Crusade in the retinue of Philip II. He was the most trusted ally of Richard, the Lionheart and fought with him against Saladin. When Philip returned to France, he left Hugh in charge of the French troops. Hugh played a major role in the victory of the battle of Arsuf (September 7, 1191) and the conquest of Acre, where he died in the following year.
In 1187, Hugh transferred the capital of Burgundy to Dijon, and endeavoured to turn the city into a major commercial centre.
Andrew Guigues VI (1184 – 14 March 1237), known as André de Bourgogne, Dauphin of Viennois, was the Count of Albon, Briançon, Grenoble, and Oisans from 1228 until his death. He was the son of Hugh III of Burgundy and Béatrice of Albon. He took his regnal name after and inherited the titles and lands of his maternal grandfather, Guigues V.
During his reign he was a generous patron of monasteries and he expanded his territory by diplomacy rather than war.
In 1202 he married Beatrice (1182 – before 1248), Countess of Gap and Embrun, daughter of Rainon I of Sabran. Their daughter Beatrice (born 1205) married Amaury de Montfort. In 1215 they separated and on 15 November 1219 Guigues married Beatrice, daughter of William VI of Montferrat. She was the domna (lady) of the troubadour Gauseran de Saint Leidier. She bore Guigues two sons: Guigues VII (1225–1269) and John (1227–1239).
TRENCAVEL FAMILY
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" (trenca avelana). The name was traditionally restricted in actual use only to those family members named Raymond, but the last Trencavel viscount, Raymond II, preferred the surname over his given name and adopted it for his charters.[1]
The first well-known member of the family was Ato I, viscount of Albi in the early 10th century. He was followed by five generations of viscounts of Albi in direct father-to-son descent. During this same period the family came to dominate the episcopacy of Languedoc. Each of the viscounts from Ato II on had a younger brother named Frotarius (or Frothaire) who was a bishop, be it of Albi, Cahors, or Nîmes.
In 1069 the three daughters of Peter II of Carcassonne sold their rights to the Counties of Carcassonne and Razès and the Béziers and Agde to Raymond Berengar I of Barcelona for 4,000 mancusos. By marriage to Ermengard, daughter of Peter II, Raymond Bernard, son of Bernard Ato III, became viscount of Carcassonne, having already acquired Nîmes. By 1070 he was viscount of Béziers. His son Bernard Ato IV was viscount of Albi, Béziers, Carcassonne, Nîmes, and Razès. He thus held all the lands of the counts of Carcassonne, but never assumed the comital title. Bernard Ato was formally proclaimed viscount after the death of his mother in 1101.
The sons of Bernard Ato IV divided their inheritance. The eldest, Roger I, took Albi, Carcassonne, and Razès, but had no children.[2] The second, Raymond I took Béziers and Agde.[2] The youngest, Bernard Ato V, inherited Nîmes and married Guilhelma, daughter of William VI of Montpellier. In 1132 Roger and Raymond agreed that on the event of Roger's death without heirs, Carcassonne would pass to Raymond.[2] In 1150 Roger died and his three viscounties all passed to Raymond. After a series of disputes, the viscounty of Agde was divided between Raymond and Bernard Ato, with the latter holding the title.[2] The elder branch of Béziers-Albi-Carcassonne-Razès and the younger of Nîmes-Agde were to remain separate for the remainder of the family's existence. The practical capital of the elder branch was Béziers.
During this period there was considerable urban unrest as the growing cities tried to assert their independence. Raymond I was killed during one such revolt in Béziers. There was also revolts in Carcassonne in 1107 and 1120–1124, during which four years the Trencavel were expelled from the city.
Their complex of lands in the centre of Languedoc gave the Trencavel considerable power in the 11th and 12th centuries. The counts of Barcelona and Toulouse both had large territories to the east and west, and valued a potential alliance with a family that stood in the middle. For the most part the Trencavels allied with Barcelona against Toulouse. But as a result of the Albigensian Crusade, the last Trencavels lost their lands and titles.
Roger II, son of Raymond I, inherited his father's four viscounties. His son, Raymond Roger also held them, and was captured after the fall of Carcassonne to the Crusaders. He died in prison at the end of 1209, a watershed for Languedoc. Meanwhile, Bernard Ato VI, son of Bernard Ato V, ceded his rights as viscount of Nîmes and Agde to the Crusading leader Simon de Montfort in 1214. Raymond Roger's son, Raymond II, formally ceded his titles in 1210, though he reclaimed Carcassonne in 1224, only to lose it to Louis VIII of France in 1226. He continued to call himself viscount until 1247, when he once again formally ceded his rights, this time to Louis IX, and symbolically broke his vicecomital seals, after several failed attempts to recover his patrimony. He and his sons are the last known Trencavels, and they ruled only the castle of Limoux.
ROGER IL TRENCAVEL
Roger II Trencavel (died March 1194) was the Viscount of Carcassonne,[1] Béziers,[2] Razès, and Albi from 1167 or 1171 until his death. Until 1177 he used the title proconsul, usually as proconsul de Bitteris (of Béziers), but he abandoned the usage when he became a vassal of the Crown of Aragon.[3] His government of his lands was characterised by increasing complexity, such as the development of the offices of seneschal and sub-vicar,[4] but his later years are characterised by financial troubles and a "general malaise" perhaps brought about by his poor relations with the Church hierarchy in light of his favourable attitude towards Catharism.[5]
Roger was the elder of two sons of Raymond I Trencavel and Saure. As a child in 1153 he was placed in the "custody and service" of Ermengard of Narbonne.[6] Eventually he inherited all four of Raymond's viscounties on his death in 1167.[7] However, Raymond V of Toulouse objected to the young Roger and instead enfeoffed Roger-Bernard I of Foix with the viscounties in December 1167 at Narbonne.[7] Roger rebelled. He retook Béziers in 1169 with the assistance of troops from Aragon and Catalonia.[7][8] After taking the city, Roger brought the Aragonese inside to murder the citizens who had handed the city over to his rival.[8] However, in November 1171, Raymond drew Roger away from Alfonso II of Aragon by enfeoffing him with the viscounties and depriving the count of Foix.[7]
Roger married the young Adalais, daughter of Raymond of Toulouse, in 1171.[9] It opened the only (brief) period of alliance between Roger and Raymond.[10] Adalais' dowry was the town of Minerve, a fief of the King of France.[10] In 1176, Roger held a public inquiry to prove his lordship of the village of Mèze.[11] About the same time (c. 1175), Alfonso of Aragon held a public inquiry to prove that Carcassonne was his possession and that Roger II merely held it from him at his pleasure.[12] In the late 1180s, Roger began the compilation of a cartulary to collect the charter evidence for his rule.[13] The cartulary contained 248 folios and was written in proto-Gothic script.
Roger was a close ally of Ermengard of Narbonne from 1171 onwards, when the viscount and viscountess swore oaths of mutual alliance.[14] In 1177, he joined an alliance with Ermengard and William VIII of Montpellier to prevent Raymond from seizing Narbonne.[10] In 1179, he was forced to foreswear his former alliance with Raymond of Toulouse and return to the fold of Alfonso of Aragon.[15][16] He recognised that he held his fiefs from Alfonso. Roger agreed to hold Minerve from the king of Aragon instead of the king of France, significant of a realignment in the politics of the lords of Languedoc with respect to central authority.[16] Some have suggested that Roger was driven to the side of Alfonso by the results of the Third Lateran Council and by Raymond of Toulouse' request for assistance in dealing with heresy in his domains.[17] Roger appears therefore as lenient towards heretics.
Around 1175, Roger imprisoned Gerard, the bishop of Albi, probably over the disputed lordship of Albi.[18][19] Roger succeeded in establishing a vicar (Pierre Raimond d'Hautpoul) in Albi between 1175 and 1177, but he was forced to come to humiliating terms with the bishop William of Dourgne in 1193.[20] In 1178 Henry of Marcy, who was leading a papal legation in the region, marched on Albi, whence Roger fled to Ambialet, and the on Castres, where they declared him a heretic and excommunicated him after releasing the bishop Gerard.[18][21] In 1179, he was excommunicated again by Pons d'Arsac for his "conspicuous lack of enthusiasm for the extirpation of heresy" under the twenty-seventh canon of the Third Lateran Council and the decretal Ad abolendam of Pope Lucius III.[22] He was also accused of hiring routiers.[23] In 1181, Henry of Marcy returned to the south of France and besieged Roger and his wife in Lavaur, which was promptly surrendered.[24]
In 1185, Alfonso was making war on Raymond over the possession of Provence. From Aix he travelled to Najac, where, probably in April, he made a treaty with Richard the Lionheart and with Roger against Raymond of Toulouse.[25] Roger in gratitude followed Alfonso into Spain and to the siege of Valencia, where, in June, he adopted the king's son Alfonso II of Provence as his heir, even though his wife was expecting.[25][26] Perhaps the adoption was cautionary in case the child of Adalais was a girl. Alfonso of Provence did not succeed Roger, rather that child, which was a boy named Raymond Roger, did. In 1188, Alfonso of Aragon came north of the Pyrenees again to defend Roger at Carcassonne, but he also granted away that viscounty as well as the Razès to Raimond-Roger of Foix in a move to dispossess the Trencavels entirely.[27]
In 1189, Roger fell seriously ill and made his will.[27] After his recovery in 1191, however, he gathered his vassals and made them swear fealty to his son, which they did.[27]
Ademar Jordan (fl. 1198–1212) was a knight and troubadour from Saint-Antonin in the Rouergue. He was possibly a vassal of Raimon Jordan.
Ademar apparently participated in the war against the Albigensian Crusade, for he was captured by Simon de Montfort on 6 May 1212 and is not heard from again. On the occasion of his capture he composed a sirventes in imitation of Bertran de Born, Si tot m'ai estat lonjamenz. His only other extant song is Pons, viscoms, lezir e sojor, a cobla esparsa or cobla de circonstance.
Ademar may also have participated in one of the Crusades (possibly the Fourth or the Reconquista).[1]
Guilhem Ademar (also spelled Guillem, Adamar, or Azemar; fl. 1190/1195–1217) was a troubadour from the Gévaudan. Noble by birth, but very poor, he travelled between the courts of Albi, Toulouse, Narbonne, and Spain. He achieved fame enough in his lifetime to be satirised by the Monge de Montaudon. He entered holy orders towards the end of his life. Sixteen poems—fourteen cansos, a sirventes, and a partimen with Eble d'Ussel—form his surviving corpus. His cansos are his most famous pieces. Usually humorous, several mock the poetry of Ademar's more illustrious contemporary Arnaut Daniel. One canso survives with a tune.
According to his vida, Guilhem was the son of a poor knight from Meyrueis (Maruois), the lord of which castle created him a knight. He was an eloquent man who "knew well how to invent (trobaire) poetry."[1] When he was no longer able to support himself as a knight he took to minstrelsy and "was greatly honoured by all the high society."[1] Towards the end of his life he joined the Order of Grandmont (Granmon).
Guilhem Ademar's career can be dated from a reference in a poetic satire of contemporary troubadours by the Monge de Montaudon around 1195. The Monge playfully insults Guilhem as a "bad joglar" who always wears old clothes and whose lady has thirty lovers. The earliest reference to a W. Ademars, a petty noble of the Gévaudan, occurs in 1192, though this figure, who (variously as Ademars or Azemars) appears in documents until 1217, cannot be definitively identified with the troubadour.[2]
One of Guilhem's more famous pieces is Non pot esser sofert ni atendut, a sensuous canso of courtly love wherein he is wishing that his lady's husband would go far away. It has presented a riddle for its dating through references to two Spanish kings: a rey Ferrans ("king Ferdinand") and reis N'Amfos, cui dopton li masmut / e.l mieiller coms de la crestiantat ("king Don Alfonso, whom the Almohads fear / and the greatest count in Christendom"). Ferrans may be either Ferdinand II of León (died 1188) or Ferdinand III of Castile (began reigning in 1217), both of whom present difficulties because their reigns lie outside the usual dating of Guilhem's career. The Alfonso could be Alfonso II of Aragon (contemporary with Ferdinand II), who was also the Count of Barcelona. It could also be Alfonso IX of León, Ferdinand II's successor, whose kingdom lay about as far away as Guilhem coul possibly hope to send his lover's husband; or Alfonso VIII of Castile, whose exploits against the Almohads culminated in the definitive victory at Las Navas in 1212. Since Guilhem wrote a poem sometime between 1215 and 1217 in which he referred to Raymond VI of Toulouse as En Raimon, mon seigner ("Lord Raymond, my lord"), it has also be posited that the mieiller coms referred to in the previous work is Raymond, who was with Alfonso at Las Navas in 1212. Guilhem may thus have had in mind the events of Las Navas and been writing at a time after Ferdinand III's succession. Guilhem may have even been at Las Navas with Raymond.
Guilhem's poetry is in general light, easy-going, and characterised by irony. Like Peire Raimon, his contemporary at the court of Raymond VI of Toulouse, he seems to have been influenced by (and perhaps had an influence on) Arnaut Daniel. Guilhem's lone surviving piece of music, however, is not similar in style to Arnaut's. Rather, it is neumatic in texture and motivic in phrasing.[3]
In his primary love songs, Guilhem praises two ladies, one from Albi (Na Bona Nasques, a pet name) and another from Narbonne (Beatriz, perhaps her real name). Despite this, Guilhem has been accused of misogyny for his poem El temps d'estui, qan par la flors el bruoill. His love song Ben for'oimais sazos e locs is written as a message to his lover to be delivered by her porter, who is strictly warned to follow through. In his only sirventes, Ieu ai ja vista manhta rey, Guilhem moralises in a slightly Marcabrunian fashion on how loyal and generous suitors are rejected in favour "fools and misers".
Raimon de Miraval(h) (c. 1135/1160 – c. 1220) was a troubadour (fl. 1180–1220) and, according to his vida, "a poor knight from Carcassonne who owned less than a quarter of the castle of Miraval."[1] Favoured by Raymond VI of Toulouse, he was also later associated with Peter II of Aragon and Alfonso VIII of Castile. His nom de plume was Audiart.[1]
Raimon has been identified with a person of the same name who undersigned a charter of 1151, which led some to place his birth date as early as c. 1135,[2] while others reject the identification with the Raimon de Miraval of the charter and estimate his birth date at 1160 based on the height of his career c. 1200.[1] That Raimon owned only a quarter of his family's ancestral castle is an indication either of partible inheritance or clan structure.[1] Miraval was captured by Simon de Montfort during the Albigensian Crusade. After the Battle of Muret in 1213 Raimon probably fled to Spain, after swearing never to sing again until he had regained his castle. At some point he separated from his wife, Gaudairença (or Caudairenga), herself the author of the (now lost) song Coblas e dansas, for uncourtly behaviour.[3]
Of Raimon's works 45 remain, of which 22 have melodies: one of the highest survival rates among troubadours.[4] Most of these works are of the trobar leu style. Raimon addressed many works to one named "Pastoret", but the identification of this person has been problematic, though he is usually identified as Raymond Roger Trencavel.[1][5] Raimon was admired by contemporaries and by most poets of later generations and he is famous for his handling of the subject of courtly love.[4] Raimon represents a move away from the traditional cansos celebrating the jois d'amor ("joys of love") or amor de lonh ("love from afar"), but rather emphasizing courtliness, honor, and reputation.[6] The highest virtue is faithfulness, but this hinges on courtliness (pretz e valor).[6]
ABBEY AND ORDER OF GRANDMONT
Abbey and Order in the department of Hte-Vienne, France. The exact date of the foundation of the order is very uncertain. The traditional story involves serious chronological difficulties, and is based on a Bull of Gregory VII now shown to be a forgery (see Martène and Durand, Ampl. Coll., VI, Praef.). The founder, St. Stephen, is said to have settled in the valley of Muret near Limoges in 1076, but Martène considers that the origin of the order cannot be placed earlier than about 1100. The Order of Grandmont has been claimed by both Benedictines and Canons Regular as a branch of their respective institutes, although the Grandmontines always maintained that they formed a distinct order. Martène considers that St. Stephen modelled his institute upon the life of the Carthusians. The so-called "Rule of St. Stephen" was compiled at the request of the fourth prior, Etienne de Liciac, by Hugh of Lacerta, and embodies the customs of Grandmont some 20 or 30 years after St. Stephen's death. The founder himself left no authentic writings. His maxim was "There is no rule save the Gospel of Christ"; as this was the basis of all rules, to practise its morality was to fulfil all the duties of a good religious. The early Grandmontines were noted for their extreme austerity. Poverty was most strictly observed; the rule forbade the possession of lands, cattle, revenue, or impropriate churches. Begging was only permitted when there was no food in the house, and even then the local bishop was first to be informed of their state. The law of silence was also very severe, as were the rules of fasting and abstinence.
After the founder's death in 1124 his disciples migrated to the neighbouring rocky desert of Grandmont, owing to a dispute about the ownership of Muret. Under Etienne de Liciac the order spread rapidly, and in 1170 numbered sixty monasteries, mostly in Aquitaine, Anjou, and Normandy. Under his successor, Bernard de Boschiac, eighty new foundations were made, and the "bons hommes" were to be found in nearly every diocese of France. The influence of the Grandmontines reached its height in the twelfth century. Their holy austerity roused the admiration of all beholders, and the kings of England and France vied with one another in bestowing favours upon them. Henry II of England bad the monastery rebuilt, and St. Louis erected a Grandmontine house at Vincennes. The golden age of Grandmont however lasted only some sixty years after the founder's death. From that time onwards the history of the order is an almost uninterrupted series of disputes. Even in the twelfth century the ill-defined position of the lay brothers caused troubles. They were far more numerous than the choir-monks, and were given entire control of all temporalities in order that the latter might be entirely free to carry on their spiritual duties. Gradual relaxation of the rules of poverty led to great possessions, and thus increased the importance of the lay brothers, who now claimed equality with the choir-monks. This led to scandalous scenes. In 1185, the lay brothers at Grandmont rose in open revolt, expelled Prior Guillaume de Trahinac with 200 of the religious, and set up an intruder. The political situation embittered these dissensions, the order being divided into two parties, French and English. Successive popes tried to restore peace, but in vain. In 1219 the prior of Grandmont and forty monks were again expelled by the rebellious lay brothers. In 1244 the papal delegates advised a union of the order with the Cistercians as a means of ending the disputes. This threat and the expulsion of a large number of monks produced a certain degree of peace. Numbers, however, declined; about 1150, the order bed over 1200 members, but towards the beginning of the fourteenth century only 800. Moreover, a relaxation of the rule (1224) led finally to the cessation of all observance.
In 1317 John XXII, sometimes said to have been a Grandmontine monk, issued the Bull "Exigente debito" to save the order from complete destruction. Its organization was altered and certain mitigations were approved. The number of houses was reduced from 149 to 39. The prior of Grandmont was made an abbot, and the superiors of the dependent houses, who had hitherto been known as "Correctors", were for the future to bear the title of Prior. The Abbot of Grandmont was to be elected by his own community, and not, as before, by the deputies of the whole order. A general chapter, to be attended by the prior and one monk from each dependent house, was to be held annually. These vigorous measures brought about a slight recovery, but, in spite of the vigilance of the Holy See and the good administration of the first abbots, the improvement was of short duration. The order suffered severely during the Hundred Years War. From 1471 till 1579 Grandmont was held by commendatory abbots; shortly after the latter date there were only eight monks in the monastery. The Huguenots seised the abbey on one occasion, but were expelled by Abbot Rigaud de Lavaur in 1604. In 1643 Abbot Georges Barny (1635-1654) held a general chapter, the first for 134 years, at which Dom Charles Frémon was authorised to found the Strict Observance of the Order of Grandmont. This new branch, which remained under the jurisdiction of the abbot, was conspicuous for the primitive austerity of its observance, but never numbered more than eight houses. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the two Observances together numbered only about 150 members, but the quarries were as frequent and as bitter as ever. Grandmont was one of the first victims of the Commission des Réguliers. The religious of the Strict Observance were dispersed in 1780, but the struggle for existence was prolonged till 1787, when the last two monks were expelled from the mother-house. The monastery was finally destroyed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and nothing but a few fragments of wall now remains.
Grandmont never produced any writers of importance. Apart from a number of lives of St. Stephen, the most important work issuing from Grandmont was Gérard Ithier's treatise "De institutione novitiorum" — a favourite spiritual work in the Middle Ages, usually but erroneously attributed to Hugh of St. Victor. The original habit of Grandmont was a coarse tunic with scapular and hood, brown in the early days but changed later to black. The monks gradually laid aside scapular and hood in favour of rochet and biretta. The original habit was resumed by the Strict Observance. The founder had expressly forbidden the reception into the order of houses of religious women, nevertheless four small nunneries in the Diocese of Limoges were admitted. Outside France the order only possessed five houses, two in Spain and three in England. These latter, situated at Alberbury, Creswell, and Grosmont, never attained any importance and were occupied by a very small number of monks.
After the founder's death in 1124 his disciples migrated to the neighbouring rocky desert of Grandmont, owing to a dispute about the ownership of Muret. About 1150 the hermits, being compelled to leave Muret, settled in the neighboring desert of Grandmont, whence the order derived its name. Under Étienne de Liciac the order spread rapidly, and in 1170 numbered sixty monasteries, mostly in Aquitaine, Anjou and Normandy. Under his successor, Bernard de Boschiac, eighty new foundations were made, and the "bons hommes" were to be found in nearly every diocese of France.
The influence of the Grandmontines reached its height in the twelfth century. Their holy austerity roused the admiration of all beholders, and the kings of England and France vied with one another in bestowing favours upon them. Henry II of England had the monastery rebuilt, and King St. Louis IX of France erected a Grandmontine house at Vincennes near Paris, and the order had a great vogue in France, as many as sixty houses being established by 1170. The system of lay brothers was introduced on a large scale, and the management of the temporals was in great measure left in their hands; the arrangement did not work well.
The golden age of Grandmont however lasted only sixty years after the founder's death. After then, the history of the order is an almost uninterrupted series of disputes, as quarrels between two categories of monks were a constant source of weakness. Even in the twelfth century, the ill-defined position of the lay brothers caused troubles. They were far more numerous than the choir-monks, and were given entire control of all temporalities so the latter might be free to carry on spiritual duties. Gradual relaxation of the rules of poverty led to great possessions, and thus increased the importance of the lay brothers, who now claimed equality with the choir-monks. This led to scandalous scenes. In 1185, the lay brothers at Grandmont rose in open revolt, expelled Prior Guillaume de Trahinac with 200 of the religious and set up an intruder. The political situation embittered these dissensions, the order being divided into two parties, French and English. Successive popes tried to restore peace, but in vain. In 1219 the prior of Grandmont and forty monks were again expelled by the rebellious lay brothers. In 1244 the papal delegates advised a union of the order with the Cistercians as a means of ending the disputes. This threat and the expulsion of a large number of monks produced a certain degree of peace. Numbers, however, declined; about 1150, the order had over 1200 members, but towards the beginning of the fourteenth century only 800. Moreover, a relaxation of the rule (1224) led finally to the cessation of all observance.
ROUTIERS
Mercenaries.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routiers
) and his relations with the Crown of Aragon. I'm aware that the Catalan nobles saw the area as particularly juicy.
). But the Albigensian (or Cathars) were not an isolated phenomenon : there were communities of similar heretics in Northern Italy and in the Rhone Valley, which the Church was just as busy stamping out, although there were not enough of them to deserve a Crusade. Probably there were a few heretic hunts in Provence at the time too.
