County of Razès
The Razès ( Catalan Rasès) is the historical name of a small landscape in the south of France which includes the basin of the Sou river . This corresponds to the area of the canton of Alaigne and part of the canton of Limoux in the Limoux arrondissement of the Aude department .
In earlier centuries, however, the name Razès encompassed a much larger territory ( Grand Razès ) which formed a county in the Middle Ages . It corresponded roughly to the entire arrondissement of Limoux as well as parts of the arrondissements of Carcassonne and Narbonne in the east . In the course of the Middle Ages, however, this county was to disintegrate through cession and largely merge into the county of Carcassonne.
history
The name des Razès was derived from the Diocese of Rhedesium or Pagus Rhedensis , the center of which was the city of Rhedae founded by the Visigoths . This city controlled the connecting passage from the Corbières to the Pyrenees .
After the Franks had ousted the Visigoths from Toulouse after the Battle of Vouillé in 507, the Razès formed the southern part of Septimania , the area that the Visigoths had left north of the Pyrenees. At the beginning of the 6th century, an archdeaconate of the diocese of Carcassonne was established in Rhedae . The city was renamed Civitas Attacensis ("City of the Atax River ") according to an old Roman custom . At the Council of Narbonne in 788 it was placed under the Archdiocese of Narbonne. During the Moorish occupation of Septimania, Rhedae was the metropolitan seat of the Archbishop of Narbonne .
After the conquest of Septimania by Charlemagne in the late 8th century, the Razès became a county. It bordered on the north with the county of Carcassonne , in the east with the county Narbonne, in the south with the counties of Roussillon , Conflent and Cerdanya and in the west with the county Couserans (later Foix ). Well-known medieval castles that played a role especially in the time of the Cathars were Termes , Peyrepertuse , Puivert and Puylaurens . Important religious institutions were the abbeys of Sainte-Marie in Alet-les-Bains and Saint-Hilaire in Saint-Hilaire near Limoux .
During its existence, the County of Razès largely shared the fate of its northern neighbor. Initially belonging to the family of Duke Wilhelm of Aquitaine , the Razès came under the control of the Raimundingers . They were driven out of their territories in 863 by the rebellious Margrave Humfried von Gothien , and Humfried was also put to flight a year later. Like Carcassonne, King Charles the Bald has now awarded the Razès to Oliba II from the family of the Bellonid dynasty , which had previously ruled Carcassonne. Oliba II suffered the loss of Fenouillèdes to the Counts of Urgell and Cerdanya in 870 and was expelled by Count Bernard II of Toulouse in 872 , but was able to receive his possessions again in the same year after Bernard had been murdered.
Through the marriage of Countess Arsinde with the Count of Couserans , a new dynasty came into the possession of the Razès, which reached the height of their power under Count Roger the Old , whose brother Odo founded an independent count line in the Razès. Under this family, however, several areas of the Razès such as Capcir , Donnezan and Sault had to be ceded to their southern rivals Oliba Cabreta of Cerdanya and Besalú. After the Count's house died out in 1062, the Razès again fell to the Counts of Carcassonne; their heiress Ermengarde sold all her rights in 1067 to the Counts of Barcelona , who now ruled directly over the Razès.
After the death of Count Raimund Berengar II in 1082, Ermengarde's son Bernard Aton IV. Trencavel rose against his brother and, with the support of the local nobility, took control of Carcassonne and Razès. He assumed the title of Vice Count and compelled the Counts of Barcelona to recognize him as his vassal. The House of Trencavel ruled over this region for a hundred years, but during this time the territorial unity of the Razès was to be dissolved.
In the years 1170 to 1171, King Alfonso II of Aragon tried to take direct control of the vice-counties of Languedoc and depose the Trencavel. This venture failed in the Razès, which the king devastated, but could not achieve any decisive success. He also completely destroyed the city of Rhedae, the old center of Razès, whose castle was successfully defended by Pierre de Vilar. Vice-Count Roger II was able to reconcile himself with the Aragonese king in 1171, but he had to cede further areas of the Razès around Peyrepertuse to Aragon. The thus reduced territory of Razès (now called Haute-Razès) was now concentrated around the country around Limoux.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Razès was also a destination of the Albigensian crusade , in the course of which the castle of Rhedae was destroyed by the crusaders, later the village of Rennes-le-Château was to be built on its site . After the region was temporarily freed from the crusaders by the Count of Foix and his sons, they had to surrender to the crusade of King Louis VIII of France in 1226 . The last vice count was deposed, and the Razès was attached to the crown domain and placed under the administration of the Seneschal in Carcassonne .
Since the beginning of the 14th century, the Razès was part of the newly established diocese of Alet and since 1642 the Seneschallat ( Sénéchaussée ) of Limoux legally subordinate. With this, represented by four members in the General Estates of 1789, the Razès was incorporated into the Aude department in 1790.
List of Counts Razès
| Surname | Reign | relationship | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Wilhelmids | |||
| William of Gellone | to 790 | From Charlemagne invested. Also Count of Toulouse and Razès, Duchy of Aquitaine . | |
| Berà I. | 790-830 | Son of the previous one | Margrave of the Spanish Mark , Margrave of Septimania , Count of Girona , Besalú , Conflent and Razès |
| Argila | 830-845 | Son of the previous one | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Berà II. | 845-850 | Son of the previous one | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Miró Etilius | 850 | Son of the previous one | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| The Raimundinger | |||
| Fredelon | 850-852 | Count of Toulouse | |
| Raimund I. | 852-863 | Brother of the previous one | Count of Toulouse |
| Humfried of Gothien | 863-864 | Margrave of the Spanish march, Count of Girona, Empúries and Roussillon | |
| The Bellonids | |||
| Oliba II. | 864-872 | Count of Carcassonne and Razès | |
| The Raimundinger | |||
| Bernard II | 872 | Son of Raymond I. | Count of Toulouse |
| The Bellonids | |||
| Oliba II. | 872-879 | Count of Carcassonne and Razès | |
| Acfred I. | 879-906 | Brother of the previous one | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Bencion | 906-908 | Son of Oliba II. | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Acfred II. | 908-934 | Brother of the previous one | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Arsinde | 934 - ??? | Daughter of the previous one | Countess of Carcassonne and Razès |
| The Comminges House | |||
| Arnaud I. | 934 to approx. 957 | Husband of Arsinde | Count of Couserans and part of Comminges , Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Odo | ??? - 1011 | Son of Arsinde and Arnaud I. | Count of Razès |
| Arnaud II | 1011-1037 | Son of the previous one | Count of Razès |
| Raimund I. | 1037-1052 | Son of the previous one | Count of Razès |
| Raymond II. | 1052-1062 | Son of the previous one | Count of Razès |
| Roger III | 1062-1067 | Cousin of the previous one | Count of Carcassonne and Razès |
| Ermengarde | 1067 | Sister of the previous one | Countess of Carcassonne and Razès |
| The house of Barcelona | |||
| Raimund Berengar I. | 1067-1076 | Count of Barcelona, Girona, Osona, Carcassonne and Razès | |
| Raimund Berengar II. | 1076-1082 | Son of the previous one | Count of Barcelona, Girona, Osona, Carcassonne and Razès |
| The Trencavel declare themselves to be vice counts and formally recognize the suzerainty of Barcelona | |||
List of Vice Counts of Razès
| Surname | Reign | relationship | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Trencavel | |||
| Bernard Aton Trencavel | 1082-1129 | Son of Ermengarde | Vice Count of Carcassonne. Razès, Béziers, Albi, Nîmes and Agde |
| Roger I. | 1129-1150 | Son of the previous one | Vice Count of Carcassonne, Razès and Albi |
| Raymond I of Béziers | 1150-1167 | Brother of the previous one | since 1129 Vice Count of Béziers, since 1150 Vice Count of Carcassonne, Razès and Albi |
| Roger II Taillefer | 1167-1194 | Son of the previous one | Vice Count of Carcassonne, Razès, Béziers and Albi |
| Raimund Roger | 1194-1209 | Son of the previous one | Vice Count of Carcassonne, Razès, Béziers and Albi |
| The house of Montfort l'Amaury | |||
| Simon IV. De Montfort | 1209-1218 | Leader of the Albigensian Crusade | |
| Amaury de Montfort | 1218-1224 | Son of the previous one | Leader of the Albigensian Crusade renounces his rights in favor of the French crown |
| The Trencavel | |||
| Raymond II. | 1224-1226 | Son of Raimund Roger | Vice Count of Carcassonne, Razès, Béziers and Albi |
| Submission of Carcassonne and des Razès to the French crown | |||
The wrong Merovingians
The county of Razès is also the subject of the book Le Trésor Maudit de Rennes le Château or L'Or de Rennes , published in 1967 by Gérard de Sède (the original but unpublished manuscript is from Pierre Plantard ) and his comments on the Conspiracy of the legendary Prieuré de Sion . Plantard pretends to be a member of the Frankish ruling family of the Merovingians , which is said to have survived to this day. The progenitor is said to have been, without any evidence, a son of King Dagobert II , who was called Sigibert "Le Plant-Ard". He came into the possession of the County of Razès through his Gothic mother, where his family ruled for several generations until the conquest of Septimania by the Franks. In addition to Plantard, the Count House of Boulogne and its member Gottfried von Bouillon , who in turn is said to have been the first Grand Master of the Prieuré, are said to have descended from them.
These claims found their way into the pseudo-historical works The Holy Grail and His Heirs (1982) and The First Crusade - Background and Effects (2004).