Everything about Raymond Vi Of Toulouse totally explained
Raymond VI of Toulouse (
October 27,
1156 –
August 2,
1222) was
count of Toulouse and
marquis of Provence from
1194 to 1222. He was also (as Raymond IV)
count of Melgueil from
1173 to
1190.
Biography
Born at
Saint-Gilles, he was a son of
Raymond V and Constance of France. His maternal grandparents were
Louis VI of France and his second wife
Adélaide de Maurienne. His maternal uncles included
Louis VII of France.
In 1194 he succeeded his father as count of
Toulouse. He immediately reestablished peace with both
Alfonso II of Aragon and with the
Trencavel.
He was married five or six times. His first wife,
Ermessende, Countess of
Melgueil, whom he married in 1172, died in 1176 without issue. His second wife was
Beatrice of Béziers, sister of
Roger II Trencavel; they divorced in 1189 and she was said to have become a
Cathar parfaite after the divorce. Raymond and Beatrice had one daughter,
Constance of Toulouse, who was married firstly to King
Sancho VII of Navarre, and secondly to
Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, lord of
Anduze.
Raymond then married for a third time, to Bourgogne, daughter of King
Amalric II of Jerusalem and his first wife Eschiva of Ibelin, daughter of
Baldwin of Ibelin. He divorced her in 1194. In October 1197 at
Rouen he married
Joan Plantagenet, but she fled from him in 1199 and died in childbirth. Their only surviving child was
Raymond VII of Toulouse (1197-1249).
His next relationship (marriage, some say) to a
daughter of Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus, had ended by 1202. His last wife was Leonor, daughter of King
Alfonso II of Aragon and
Sancha of Castile.
In Toulouse, he maintained the communal freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and extended his protection to the communal territory. A poet and a man of culture, he hated war but didn't lack energy, as shown by his dispute with the
papal legate Pierre de Castelnau, representative of
Pope Innocent III. Pierre's assassination on
January 15,
1208 led to Raymond's
excommunication. The excommunication was lifted after Raymond humbled himself before the Pope.
After the capture and massacre of
Béziers, the
siege and capture of
Carcassonne, and the death of
Raymond-Roger of Trencavel, he moved his camp, was again excommunicated by the
Council of Montpellier in 1211, and tried to organize resistance against the
Albigensian Crusade. More of a diplomat than a soldier, he was unable to stop of the advance of
Simon de Montfort, who conquered
Toulouse. Raymond was exiled to
England under his former brother-in-law
John Plantagenet.
In November 1215 Raymond and his son (the later
Raymond VII of Toulouse) were in Rome with
Raymond-Roger of Foix on the occasion of the
Fourth Lateran Council) to vindicate themselves and dispute the loss of their territories. Raymond's son-in-law,
Pierre-Bermond II of Sauve, was also there to lay claim to the county of Toulouse, but this claim failed. Raymond and his son went from Rome to
Genoa and thence to
Marseille in February 1216. Raymond's son set out from Marseille to regain the family territories in Provence; in May 1216 he besieged
Beaucaire and captured it on
August 24.
Meanwhile Raymond went to
Aragon, hoping to rally support. From there he engaged in secret negotiations with leaders in Toulouse during 1216. Simon de Montfort possibly believed that Raymond was on his way to the city in September 1216; at any rate he returned in great haste from
Beaucaire and conducted a partial sack of the city, apparently intended as punishment. Finally, on
September 12,
1217, Raymond re-entered Toulouse again. Simon de Montfort immediately besieged the city once more. Simon was killed during the siege (on
25 June 1218); his son
Amaury VI of Montfort took his place, and for five years the Crusade faltered. The failure of
Louis VIII's campaigns, from 1219 to 1226, finally permitted Raymond, and his son and successor, to recover most of their territories.
Trivia
Raymond VI is represented as one of four figures on the ceiling of the
Minnesota Supreme Court in the United States of America. His painting is next to
Moses,
Confucius, and
Socrates. Each painting representing an aspect of law. Raymond VI's painting is entitled "The Adjustment of Conflicting Interests", and "The scene is of Raymond VI of Toulouse standing before the papal legate in 1208. Raymond argued successfully for city freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and protection of the communal territory from the church." The paintings were made by
John La Farge in 1903.
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