Countess of Toulouse

Bom, Myra Miranda

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-10429-9_6

Myra Miranda Bom³

Part of the book series: The New Middle Ages ((TNMA))

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Abstract

Constance of France became Countess of Toulouse when she was about twenty-nine years old. Her husband was younger than her and not royal, but with nominal control over a greater geographic area than the Île-de-France. For the first time, we see Constance directly involved in ruling: consenting to documents, writing letters and presenting herself as a lord. This chapter shifts from big-picture politics to the nuanced detail of the archival record, including her use of titles, which gives insight into Constance’s religious sensibilities as well as her relationship with her husband and her involvement in politics. Illustrative were her final days as Countess of Toulouse, when Constance attended the Council of Lombers as representative of her husband and lord in her own right.

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Notes

1.
For details on their provenance, see Chap. 1.
2.
My count is based on Catalogues raimondins. Actes des comtes de Toulouse, ducs de Narbonne et marquis de Provence (1112–1229), ed. L. Macé (Toulouse: Privat, 2008), nos. 64–105.
3.
The “feudal arrangement” is only known of from a mentioning in an inventory; the act itself has not survived. Catalogues raimondins, no. 81.
4.
The act has survived as an eighteenth-century copy (Nîmes, Archives départementales du Gard, H37, no. 3) and was printed in the Gallia Christiana in provincias ecclesiasticas distributa, ed. D. de Saint-Marthe, 16 vols. (Paris: Ciognard, 1715–1874; reprint: Farnborough, 1970), vol. 6, col. 193. A recent edition of the charters is printed in Catalogue des actes des Comtes de Toulouse. III. Raymond V, 1149–1194, ed. Emile G. Léonard (Paris: Picard, 1932), no. 8 and in Catalogues raimondins, no. 66. NB the original mentioned in Catalogues raimondins, no. 66 (Archives départementales du Gard, H37, no. 5) cannot be found under that reference and is deemed to be lost.
5.
Franquevaux was founded in 1143 but very little is known about its early years. Constance H. Berman, The Cistercian Evolution. The Invention of a Religious Order in Twelfth-century Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), pp. 146, 249, 300.
6.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 66. In 1187 Raymond was promised by the same monks that he could assume their habit in the future if he were so inclined. Catalogues raimondins, no. 215.
7.
William IV of Montpellier supported the order before he retired to the Cistercian Grandselve Abbey. Berman, Cistercian Evolution, pp. 210–211.
8.
Catalogues raimondins, nos. 66, 67, 79, 82, 85, 96, 103 and no. 68, which was a confirmation of an earlier grant by his father Count Alfons Jordan. It is believed that he also founded a house of Cistercian nuns at Marrenx (Marrenz, Marrenc) in 1157. Berman, Cistercian Evolution, p. 300 n. 189.
9.
There were two exceptions, both involving donations to military orders, and Raymond continued to support the military orders later in life: The first was a part-sale, part-donation to the Templars, which is discussed below. The second was a donation to the Hospitallers. The information about the latter donation comes to us from a later confirmation (the original is lost), which dated the original donation to 1164. The donation is unusual because 1. Raymond alienates property without his wife’s consent, and 2. he gives away real estate rather than tax benefits. It may have been that the confirmation, which was made after Constance had left, excluded her name as it was no longer considered appropriate or desirable to mention her, or a mistake was made and the original donation took place in 1165 rather than in 1164, or the document is a forgery. Catalogues raimondins, no. 100.
10.
Dominic Selwood, Knights of the Cloister. Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania, c. 1100–c.1300 (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1999), pp. 53–57.
11.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 71; Printed in Cartulaire général de l’Ordre des hospitaliers de S. Jean de Jérusalem, 1100–1310, ed. J. Delaville le Roulx, vol. 1 (Paris: Leroux, 1894) [CGH], no. 264.
12.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 71; CGH, no. 269. The original charter may have been sealed. Marseille, Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhone, 56 H 4119, no. 1.
13.
See for its history and relationship to Cluny, Amy G. Remensnyder, Remembering Kings Past. Monastic Foundation Legends in Medieval Southern France (London: Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 237.
14.
Remensnyder, Remembering, p. 235; Selwood, Knights of the Cloister, pp. 31–32.
15.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 78; Histoire civile, ecclésiastique et littéraire de la ville de Nismes avec des notes et les preuves, ed. M. Ménard, 7 vols. (Paris: Chaubert, 1744–1758), vol.1, part 2, p. 36, no. 24.
16.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 78.
17.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 83; Nîmes, Archives départementales du Gard, H1, no. 22 (copy). It is a notable testimony to the abbey’s great wealth at this time that it was able to pay such large sums of money while in the midst of an expensive renovation. Remensnyder, Remembering, p. 253; Kenneth J. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800–1200 (New York: Penguin, 1974), p. 255.
18.
“Et ego Constancia regina, predicti comitis uxor, quod suprascriptum est laudo et confirmo, in presentia supradictorum testium et aliorum complurium.” Archives départementales du Gard, G 134, no. 3 (original), printed in Catalogues raimondins, no. 80.
19.
Selwood, Knights of the Cloister, p. 70.
20.
Selwood, Knights of the Cloister, pp. 151–154.
21.
Catalogues raimondins, no. 80.
22.
J. Bradbury, Philip Augustus. King of France, 1180–1223 (London: Longman, 1998), p. 31; Steven Isaac, “All Citizens High and Low: Louis VII and the Towns”, in Louis VII and His World, ed. M. L. Bardot and L. W. Marvin (Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 62–85.
23.
“quod fecerat antecessor noster gloriosissimus rex Karolus Magnus.” Histoire générale de Languedoc, ed. C. de Vic and J. Vaissète, (3rd ed., Toulouse: Privat, 1872; reprint Osnabruck, 1973) [HGL] vol. 5 (Preuves), no. 601, col. 1175. The Archbishop Geoffrey of Loroux of Bordeaux likewise had received special confirmation and privileges after Louis and Eleanor were married in his cathedral. Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, ed. M. J. J. Brial (reprint, Farnborough: Gregg Press, 1967–1968) [RHGF], vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 2–3.
24.
January 1156, just outside the gates of the church of Saint-Martial in Assas (Hérault). HGL 5, no. 610, cols. 1193–1194.
25.
HGL 5, cols. 1207–1209, no. 618 (Narbonne, 1157) and cols. 1209–1210, no. 619 (Nîmes, 1157), See also cols. 1246–1247, no. 642 (Mende, 1161) and cols. 1262–1264, no. 650 (Lodève).
26.
RHGF 16, no. 338, pp. 109–110. Raymond of Tarazona may have been the Raymond of Fitero who was born in Tarazona and had been a canon there. He entered the Cistercian monastery of Escaladieu, of which Fitero was an affiliated abbey. In 1158, he went to Sancho III of Castile in order to have donations to Escaladieu reaffirmed. The king asked him to defend the castle and town of Calatrava. In response, he created a military order with Cistercian influence by moving the monks and others associated with the monastery to Calatrava. King Louis was instrumental in having the move approved by the papacy, but the Abbey of Escaladieu opposed the idea and objected to Fitero taking Cistercian resources away. Was the conflict between Raymond and the abbot the aftermath of a compensation deal? For the background see Joseph F. O’Callaghan, The Spanish Military Order of Calatrava and its Affiliates (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1975), p. 181.
27.
RHGF 16, no. 338, p. 110.
28.
“Accepimus ab amicis, quod Rex Anglicae hoc anno venire parat in nos. Tu vero, domine, quia vicinior es, citius scire potes, et nos qui tui sumus certificare, ne hostili dolo facile possimus opprimi. Post Deum tua potentia spes nobis est. Promissa tua nos laetificant, cum nobis in mentem redeunt. De sorore tua, domina nostra, Deo et tibi grates referimus.” RHGF 16, no. 217, pp. 68–69. The letter does not mention Count Raymond.
29.
“quidam de honestioribus civibus nostris et suburbanis … qui optime preparavaverant se, et munierant se, eo ipso die quo domina nostra soror vestra, movit iter, venturi erant cum ea ad curiam vestram, et ipsa in hoc non consensit”. Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana [BAV], Reg. lat. 179, fol. 221r.
30.
“Quin etiam cum istis duos honorabilis viros videlicet Petrum de roaxis et Guillelmum raimundi nomine serenitati vestre mittimus qui sunt de nostro consilio, quorum personas et probitatem satis novistis ut credimus. Item regiam pietatem vestram supplici prece obsecramus ut nepotibus vestris dominis nostris consilium et auxilium vestrum impendatis, et eos, et nos qui vestri sumus ab adversariis nostris si placet defendatis, et dominam sororem vestram sine mora nobis remittatis.” BAV, Reg. lat. 179, fol. 213v.
31.
The Toulouse council had expressed this sentiment already in 1163 when they warned Louis of rumours of a renewed attack by King Henry II. BAV, Reg. lat. 179, fol. 214r.
32.
“Salvum quoque conductum personae vestrae et rebus vestris, pro vestro amore et curiae ratione et honore, dabit per omnem terram suam, et per terram baronorum suorum usque ad Sanctum-Aegidium, ibique praecipiet Comiti et sorori suae, ut vos excipiant et habeant cum honore et omni securitate, donec inde transitum inveniatis.” RHGF 16, no. 85, p. 25. The abbot made explicit that Louis gave no guarantee for travel through the lands of King Henry.
33.
RHGF 16, no. 85, p. 25; Myriam Soria, “Alexander III and France. Exile, Diplomacy, and the New Order”, in Pope Alexander III (1159–1181). The Art of Survival, ed. P. D. Clarke and A. J. Duggan (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012), p. 184.
34.
Fredric L. Cheyette, Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), p. 260. This peace was not unlike the general peace Louis had demanded in France at Soissons in 1155.
35.
RHGF 16, no. 221, p. 70 and translation online at https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/5.html.
36.
RHGF 16, no. 220, p. 70 and no. 222, p. 71.
37.
Berenger of Puisserguier may have had received legal advice based upon Roman law, which forbade women to be judges. Cheyette, Ermengard, pp. 213–216.
38.
RHGF 16, no. 273, p. 89 and translated online at https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/18.html; RHGF 16, no. 275, p. 90 and translated online at https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/15.html.
39.
“Majestatem ergo vestram suppliciter imploro, quatinus ejus subdolis suggestionibus fidem minime adhibeatis, sed, sicut decet et justum est, commentis suis delusum, et spe inani frustratum, ad me, cujus potestatis est, si placet, remittatis.” RHGF 16, p. 90, no. 275 and online at https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/15.html.
40.
“Benignior longe est consuetudo regni nostri, ubi, si melior sexus defuerit, mulieribus succedere et haereditatem administrare conceditur. Memento itaque quia de regno nostro es, et nos volumus ut regni nostri usum teneas; et quamvis imperio vicina sis, in hac parte eorum consuetudini et legibus non acquiescas. Sedeas ergo ad cognitionem causarum, diligenter negotia examinans zelo illius qui te feminam creavit, cum potuerit virum, et sua benignitate in manu feminae dedit regnum Narbonensis provinciae; et propter hoc quod femina, nostri auctoritate nulli personae liceat a tua jurisdictione declinare.” RHGF 16, p. 91, no. 280 and translated online at https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/18.html. Note that Ermengard’s right to rule is only in absence of a male heir.
41.
Cheyette, Ermengard, pp. 218–219.
42.
For similar dual loyalties see Theresa Earenfight, Queenship in Medieval Europe (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2013), pp. 176–179; Amy Livingstone, “Aristocratic Women in the Chartain”, in Aristocratic Women in Medieval France, ed. T. Evergates (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p. 72; Adela of England, Countess of Blois, faced a similar situation a generation earlier: A. Kimberley LoPrete, “Adela of Blois: Familial Alliances and Female Lordship”, in Idem, pp. 42–43.
43.
For example, William of Montpellier VII’s wife Matilda of Burgundy used the title “duchess” and called herself “sororem ducis Burgundiae” (HGL 5, no. 614, cols. 1201–1203) and Empress Matilda would not lower herself to the title Countess of Anjou.
44.
“C[onstantia] eius unica soror, comitissa tolose, dux narbone, marchisa Province.” BAV, Reg. lat. 179, fol. 222r.
45.
Lewis and Short and DuCange Latin dictionaries accessed online through Logeion. http://logeion.uchicago.edu.
46.
See Chap. 4.
47.
Venantius Fortunatus, “Vita S. Radegundis”, Acta Sanctorum, ed. Bolland, reprinted as Acta Sanctorum. The Full Text Database, ed. The Bollandists (Chadwyck-Healey, 2002), electronic resource (13 August); “St. Radegund”, in Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ed. and trans. J. A. McNamara, J. E Halborg and E. G. Whatley (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1992), pp. 70–86.
48.
Adela: Elizabeth van Houts, “Changes in Aristocratic Identity”, Memory and Commemoration in Medieval Culture, ed. E. Brenner, M. Cohen and M. Franklin-Brown (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2013), p. 223. Constance: Romualdi II Archiepiscopi Salernitani Annales (893–1178), ed. W. Arndt, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores 19 (1866) [Online: Brepols, 2018], p. 417 and “Annales ceccanenses (Chronicon Fossae-Nova)”, ed. W. Arndt, in idem, p. 282. See also Teresa/Matilda of Portugal, Countess of Flanders (d.1218), who called herself Queen Matilda, by the grace of God Domina of Flanders and Vermandois. Karen S. Nicholas, “Countesses as Rulers in Flanders”, in Aristocratic Women in Medieval France, ed. T. Evergates (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p. 125; she was also addressed as “Dilecta nostra M. regina, comitissa Flandriae”. Layettes du Trésor des Chartes, ed. A. Teulet, 5 vols. (Paris: H. Plon, 1863–1909) vol. 1, p. 181, doc. 428. Furthermore, Dona Teresa de Castile, who married Henry of Burgundy in 1095, has been called the first queen of Portugal but I suspect her title regina was only in recognition of her royal blood. Colección documental del Archivo de la Catedral de León, ed. E. Sáez, (León, Centro de Estudios e Investigación “San Isidoro”, 1987), vol. 5, doc. 1436; Miriam Shadis, “Unexceptional Women. Power, Authority, and Queenship in Early Portugal”, in Medieval Elite Women and the Exercise of Power, 1100–1400. Moving Beyond the Exceptionalist Debate, ed. H. Tanner (New York: Palgrave, 2019), pp. 252, 260.
49.
R. H. C. Davis, King Stephen, 1135–1154 (London: Longmans, 1967), p. 105; Edmund King, King Stephen (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2010), pp. 262–264.
50.
Cambridge, Jesus College Archives, doc. 3a.
51.
Jesus College Archives, doc. 3b.
52.
Raymond only identified himself as her son after the death of his father, before then he called himself son of Count Raymond; Layettes du Trésor, vol. 1, p. 329, no. 364, which was issued jointly by Raymond, son of “regina Constantia” and Raymond, his son, son of “regina Johanna” in 1208. Raymond VI had married Joanne, who was a daughter of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor. Joanne used S. REGINE IOHE FILIE QUONDAM H REGIS ANGLORUM on her seal (before 1199), which in shape and image was very much like that of her mother-in-law Constance. Susan Johns, Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-century Anglo-Norman Realm (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003), p. 204, no. 8, and incidentally of her grandmother, Empress Matilda, who also identified herself as filia regis Henrici. Translation online at https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/26084.html. On the use of the matronymic see David Herlihy, “Land, Family, and Women in Continental Europe, 701–1200”, Traditio 18 (1962): 89–120. In Raymond VI’s case, however, the wish to associate was not for his late mother’s economic status but for her connection to the French crown.
53.
This was not unusual in the sense that her brothers called themselves “brother of the King of France”. See Chap. 2.
54.
BAV, Reg. lat. 179, fol. 222r.
55.
Catalogue des Actes, no. 8; CGH, no. 264; Archives départementales du Gard, G 134, no. 3; Archives départementales du Gard, H 1, no. 22; in the account of the Council of Lombers (see below); and Constance’s letter to her brother: BAV, Reg. lat. 179, fol. 225r. Raymond never used the title “Count of Saint-Gilles” to describe himself and the title was therefore ideal to claim the lineage without challenging her estranged spouse politically, although others, like King Henry II of England, who wanted to deny Raymond’s claim of Toulouse, called him Raymond of Saint-Gilles. See below and Macé, Comtes de Toulouse, p. 289; Constance’s first use of the title “Countess of Saint-Gilles” in an official document may have been as early as in 1165. Paris, Archives nationales de France [ANF], S 2139, no. 17.
56.
Marie-Adélaïde Nielen, Corpus de sceaux francais du moyen age. Tome 3: Les sceaux des reines et des enfants de France (Paris: Archives nationales, 2011), p. 140, nos. 51 and 51bis.
57.
Johns, Noblewomen, p. 203, no. 3.
58.
Jitske Jasperse, “Manly minds in Female Bodies. Three Women and Their Power Through Coins and Seals”, ARENAL 25.2 (2018), p. 309.
59.
“The Handlist (to the Exhibition)”, in Good Impressions. Image and Authority in Medieval Seals, ed. N Adams, J. Cherry and J. Robinson (London: British Museum, 2008), p. 116, no. 7.3. Queen Adelaide of France’s seal seems to have been of the same type, but only a sketch remains. Kathleen Nolan, “The Tomb of Adelaide of Maurienne and the Visual Imagery of Capetian Queenship”, in Capetian Women, ed. K. Nolan (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), p. 57. Isabelle was buried with her silver seal matrix in 1190. Elizabeth Danbury, “Queens and Powerful Women: Image and Authority”, in Good Impressions. Image and Authority in Medieval Seals, ed. N Adams, J. Cherry and J. Robinson (London: British Museum, 2008), p. 17.
60.
Martine Dalas, Corpus de sceaux francais du moyen age. Tome 2: Les sceaux des roix et de régence (Paris: Archives nationales, 1991), pp. 146–147.
61.
Henry had a double-sided equestrian seal before he became King of England, one side with drawn sword, the other with a lance. Nicholas Vincent, “The Seals of King Henry II and his Court”, in Seals and Their Context in the Middle Ages, ed. Ph. Schofield (Oxford: Oxbow, 2015), pp. 8–9.
62.
M. A. F. Borrie, “A Sealed Charter of the Empress Matilda”, British Museum Quarterly 34.3–4 (1970), pp. 104–107.
63.
Matilda’s seal is the earliest remaining of the seal of imperial consorts, so it is hard to tell if hers was an innovation or a copy of her predecessors.
64.
The title “domina anglorum” implied lordship over England and was often used by men (dominus) who were due to be crowned. Charles Beem, The Lioness Roared: The Problems of Female Rule in English History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), p. 52.
65.
King Stephen and King Henry II did this upon their crowning.
66.
Possibly the earliest extant fragment of the impression of Raymond V’s seal is from 1160. Nîmes, Archives départementales du Gard, G 134, no. 3. Mentioned in Catalogues raimondins. Actes des comtes de Toulouse, ducs de Narbonne et marquis de Provence (1112–1229), ed. L. Macé (Toulouse: Privat, 2008), pp. 109–110, no. 80. The wax remnants are currently concealed in a leather pouch.
67.
Catalogue des Actes, p. LXIX. On the reverse: “… DEI GRA COMES [TOLO]SE MARCHIO PROVINCIE”. A reconstruction of the seal of Raymond of Toulouse shows RAIMUNDUS in the nominative case, even though non-royal lords usually had their names in the genitive case. It is therefore either a mistake in the reconstruction or an exceptional show of unbridled ambition on the part of Raymond.
68.
Nielen measured Constance’s seal imprint at 6.2 cm, Macé measured Raymond’s seal at 6 cm diameter. Nielen, Corpus de sceaux, p. 140; Laurent Macé, Les comtes de Toulouse et leurs entourage, XIIe–XIIIe siècles. Rivalités, alliances et jeux de pouvoir (Toulouse: Privat, 2000), pp. 109–110; William W. Clark, “Some Observations on Pairs of French Round Seals from the Later Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries”, Notes in the History of Art 33.3–33.4 (2014), p. 42, n. 4; William Clark, “Signed, Sealed and Delivered: The Patronage of Constance of France”, in Magistra Doctissima: Essays in Honor of Bonnie Wheeler, ed. D. Armstrong, A. Astell and H. Chickering (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2013), p. 212, n. 9.
69.
There is no evidence that Raymond used this seal before his marriage.
70.
Archives départementales de l’Aube, PD, 3 H 108, published in Jasperse, “Manly Minds”, p. 316, figs., 12a and b.
71.
Also called Judith. John B. Freed, Frederick Barbarossa. The Prince and the Myth (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016), p. 14.
72.
Archives départementales de Meurthe-et-Moselle, G 449, printed in Jasperse, “Manly Minds”, p. 313 fig. 10b.
73.
Jasperse, “Manly Minds”, pp. 311–314.
74.
Only a fragment is left of this seal, which was attached to a 1201 donation. Barcelona, Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Colleciones sigilliografía, Sellos pendientes, no. 49.
75.
Based upon a later drawing of an 1184 seal impression. Clark, “Observations”, p. 38 and p. 40 fig. 4.
76.
Clark, “Observations”, p. 38 and p. 41 fig. 5 (cast). The seals of Alix of Dreux and Agnes of Nevers were paired with those of their husbands. Of interest is also Joanne of England’s seal (wife of Count Raymond VI). Except for its lens shape, it may have followed an example set by Raymond V and Constance in the sense that their seals were complementary. Joanne is shown on the obverse standing, crowned, with a fleur-de-lys branch in her left hand and pointed with her right; on the reverse (or vice versa), she is seated on a low throne, without crown, and with the Toulouse cross held up in her left hand. Her title: regina. She was the daughter of King Henry II and widow of King William II of Sicily. Jitske Jasperse, Medieval Women, Material Culture and Power. Mathilda Plantagenet and her Sisters (Amsterdam: ARC Humanities Press, 2020), pp. 55–57; Good Impressions, p. 116, no. 7.4; Clark, “Observations”, p. 38.
77.
In Louis Blancard’s reconstruction, the reverse of the seal shows a mounted and armed rider attacking with a lance. Louis Blancard, Iconographie des sceaux et bulles conserves dans la partie antérieure à 1790 des Archives départementales des Bouches-du-Rhône (Paris: Dumoulin, 1860), vol. 1, Planche 5.2.
78.
Use of Constance’s seal before 1165 should not be completely ruled out. One of the documents has three slits for seals so it was technically possible that her’s and her husband’s seals were attached. Unfortunately, only illegible fragments of wax remain without leaving any indication to whom the imprints belonged. Nîmes, Archives départementales du Gard, G 134, no. 3.
79.
ANF, S 2139, no. 17; William W. Clark, “Signed, Sealed and Delivered: The Patronage of Constance of France”, in Magistra doctissima: Essays in Honor of Bonnie Wheeler (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2013), p. 202; Jean de Thoulouse, “Annales de l’Abbeye de Saint-Victor”, Paris, Bibliothèque national de France [BNF], Ms. Lat. 14,368, fols. 940v-943r places the document in 1165.
80.
ANF, K25 no. 5 [3]; Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, “Women, Seals, and Power in Medieval France, 1150–1350”, in Form and Order in Medieval France (reprint, Aldershot: Ashgate, 1993) x, pp. 63–64.
81.
ANF, S 4440, no. 1 (summary).
82.
ANF, K 25, no. 5 [3] (original).
83.
ANF, K 25, no. 5 [8] (original).
84.
CGH, no. 551 (original lost).
85.
ANF, L 1030, no. 39 (copy).
86.
“Quod ut ratum permaneat et inconvulsum, presentem paginam sigillo nostro fecimus insignari.” ANF, K 26, no. 11
87.
For example, Eleanor had a new seal with her new marriage and Louis had to eventually drop his Duke of Aquitaine counter-seal. It seems that Queen Adelaide only acquired her seal after she became a widow. Bedos-Rezak, “Women, Seals”, p. 63.
88.
CGH, no. 551.
89.
ANF, K 26, no. 11 (1190): “Ego constancia Sancti Egidii comitissa senioris ludovici regis francorum filia.” Sometimes individuals were called by titles that were technically correct but not preferred. For example, Empress Matilda, who called herself domina and imperatrix, used regina on her seal, but was called Countess of Anjou by her enemies or Count Raymond V of Toulouse who was called “of Saint-Gilles” by King Henry II of England. Bishop Maurice of Paris, Pope Alexander III and an unknown clerk refer to Constance as the Countess of Toulouse, a title she did not use herself other than on her seal. ANF, S 4440, no. 1; Gallia Christiana, vol. 8, cols. 614–615; RHGF 15, p. 942, no. 370.
90.
Gaucelin of Lodève, Albert of Nîmes and Pons d’Arsac of Narbonne were all present at the Council of Tours in 1163. Robert Somerville, Pope Alexander III and the Council of Tours (1163). Study of Ecclesiastical Politics and Institutions in the Twelfth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), p. 28.
91.
Cardinal Boso, Boso’s Life of Alexander III, ed. P. Munz, trans. G. M. Ellis (Oxford: Blackwell, 1973), p. 60; William of Newburgh, History of English Affairs, vol. 2, pp. 64–67.
92.
Cardinal Boso, Boso’s Life of Alexander III, ed. P. Munz, trans. G. M. Ellis (Oxford: Blackwell, 1973), p. 61; Newburgh, History of English Affairs, vol. 2, pp. 66–67.
93.
Somerville, Pope Alexander III, p. 50.
94.
Beverly M. Kienzle, Preaching in the Lord’s Vineyard. Cistercians, Heresy and the Crusade in Occitania, 1145–1249 (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2001), p. 3 n. 7; Linda M. Paterson, The World of the Troubadours. Medieval Occitan Society, c.1100–c.1300 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 1–9; Joseph R. Strayer, The Albigensian Crusade (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1971, reprint 1992), pp. 1–3, 10–11.
95.
Roger of Howden incorporated an early version of the trial at the Council of Lombers into his Chronicle. He placed it mistakenly at the end of 1176, where the long tract feels a bit out of place. Roger may have received the account when his fellow countrymen returned from Henry of Clairvaux’s preaching tour against the heretics in the Toulouse in 1178 (he visited Albi), which may explain why he placed it not long before discussing this tour rather than in 1165. A contemporary or near contemporary manuscript of Roger’s Chronicle can be found in London, British Library [BL], Royal 14 C 2 (fols. 163r–168r), which the section on the Council of Lombers being finished by 1191. William Stubbs based his edition of Roger’s text predominantly on this manuscript and it was published as Chronica magistri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. W. Stubbs, 4 vols. Rolls series 51 (1868–1871), vol. 2, pp. 105–117. Two later editions were made by Philippe Labbé and by M. Capot for Jean de Doat. Labbé reportedly based his edition on a now-lost manuscript and “Consilium Lumbariense”, in Sacrosancta concilia, ed. Ph. Labbé et al. (Paris: Impensis Societatis Typographical, 1671): cols. 1470–1479. Pilar Jiménez has published Labbé’s text but with some minor discrepancies: Jiménez, “Sources juridiques pour l’étude du catharisme: Les actes du ‘concile’ de Lombers (1165)”, Clio et Crimen 1 (2004), pp. 365–379. The Doat edition was a copy of the Inquisition records of Carcassonne and became part of a seventeenth-century manuscript collection by Jean de Doat and his associates in BNF, Doat 21 (Microfilm BNF Richelieu MF21376). None of these versions are straightforward copies of each other. Roger’s Council of Lombers texts is shorter than the two other early versions remaining by Labbé and Doat, and a close examination of the texts suggests that the latter editions are expansions of an earlier, shorter text.
96.
John Arnold, in conversation.
97.
Further research is needed to rule out a slightly earlier meeting of this council in 1163 or 1164.
98.
Mistakenly called Gerard of Albi in Chronica Magistri, vol. 2, p. 107
99.
This Arnold is variously called Nerbone (of Narbonne?), Hebeno, Ebeno and de Be.
100.
HGL 5 (Preuves), Inscriptions 39, p. 12; Chronica Magistri, p. 107, n. 1
101.
His name is variously transcribed as Hugo and as Bego. Damien Carraz, L’Ordre du Temple dans la basse vallée du Rhône, (1124–1312): Ordres militaires, croisades et sociétés méridionales (Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2005), p. 93 n. 54. See also Alan Forey, Templars in the Corona de Aragón (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 370. Probably Verrières (Aveyron), near Milau.
102.
Actes des comtes, nos. 27–30.
103.
Elaine Graham-Leigh, The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2005), p. 87; HGL 4, p. 490, no. 177.
104.
Macé, Comtes de Toulouse, p. 315.
105.
The sworn allegiance was repeated in 1158. Isarn of Dourgne is only in the Labbé and Doat editions, not in Roger of Howden’s text.
106.
Sicard had made donations to this abbey so his brother could enter HGL 4, p. 490, no. 177.
107.
Medieval Lands. A Prosopography of Medieval European Noble and Royal Families, ed. C. Cawley, electronic resource: https://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/TOULOUSE.htm.
108.
Ernest E. Jenkins, “The Interplay of Financial and Political Conflicts Connected to Toulouse during the Late Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries”, Mediterranean Studies 17 (2008), p. 47.
109.
Archibald R. Lewis, “The Development of Town Government in Twelfth Century Montpellier”, Speculum 22.1 (1947), p. 58; “Bon homines” was used elsewhere in Europe as for example in ninth-century Francia for the prominent men of Bourges. Janet Nelson, King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne (Oakland: University of California Press, 2019), p. 58; In pre-eleventh-century Northern Iberia, Wendy Davies, “Boni homini in Northern Iberia: A Particularity that Raises some General Questions”, in Italy and Early Medieval Europe. Papers for Chris Wickham, ed. R. Balzaretti, J. Barrow and P. Skinner (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 60–72; and in Italy and England, Peter Coss, Aristocracy in England and Tuscany, 1000–1250 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), p. 414.
110.
Also called “prudi homini” or “prudhommes” or in the Low Countries, “Goede Lieden”.
111.
They had much in common with the Petrobrusians, who were heretics from Gascony who followed Peter Bruis and Henry of Lausanne, two fiercely anticlerical (but not dualist) heretics who believed themselves to be the true voice of God and who stirred the masses with their preaching. Their heretical ideas had spread throughout the South of France when they came to the attention of Bernard of Clairvaux, who sponsored a preaching mission in Southern France in 1146 to combat their heretical beliefs. Geoffrey of Auxerre, “Vita tertia sancti Bernardi”, PL 185 (pp. 312–314); cf. Kienzel, Preaching, p. 110; Moore, Birth, pp. 94–98.
112.
By calling him a wolf they returned the accusation that the heretics were like “the lupus rapax (ravaging wolf) [Matt. 7:15] which, for example, Bernard of Clairvaux had called a heretic named Henry in an open letter to the citizens of Toulouse. Bernard of Clairvaux, The Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. B. S. James (New ed., Stroud, Sutton, 1998; original 1953), pp. 388–389; Bernard of Clairvaux, Epistolae, PL 182, no. 242. On Henry, see Kienzle, Preaching, pp. 91–97.
113.
“in curia Raimundi comitis Tolosani vel uxoris ejus quae erat presenta”. BNF, Doat 21, fol. 16r; BL, Ms. Royal 14 C2, fol. 167r; “Consilium Lumbariense”, col. 1479.
114.
Emily Corran, Lying and Perjury in Medieval Practical Thought. A Study in the History of Casuistry (London: Oxford University Press, 2018), p. 52; Cheyette, Ermengard, p. 192.
115.
Adam Kosto, Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000–1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. 148–149; Hélène Débax, “Le cartulaire de Trencavel (Liber instrumentorum vicecomitalium)”, in Les cartulaires. Actes de la table ronde organisée par l’École nationale des chartes et le G.D.R. 121 du C.N.R.S., ed. O. Guyotjeannin, L. Morelle, and M. Parisse (Paris: École des Chartres, 1991), pp. 291–299.
116.
BNF, Doat 21, fol. 19v. One of the many oaths to Countess Ermengard of Narbonne is edited and translated in Frederic L. Cheyette, “Women, Poets, and Politics in Occitania”, in Aristocratic Women in Medieval France, ed. T. Evergates (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), p. 166.
117.
“et ego Sicardus uicecomes Lautrocensis, hanc sententiam Ratam habemus, et istos hereticos esse scimus et eorum sententiam improbamus.” BL, Ms. Royal 14 C2, fol. 168v.
118.
“Et ego Constantia soror regis franciae uxorque comitis Raimundi Tholosani, similiter,” BNF, Doat 21, fol. 20r; BL, Ms. Royal 14 C2, fol. 168v; “Consilium Lumbariense”, col. 1479.
119.
Constance’s second place in the list of lay witnesses is interesting. She is still considered higher in rank than all other lay lords, but comes after Raymond Trencavel, who technically owed her his loyalty. Both Constance and Trencavel were counts, so the most reasonable explanation is that Constance came second on account of her sex. Sicard of Lautrec confirmed after her.
120.
“… et neptae nostrae liberaliter concedimus et donamus in matrimonium castrum Minerbae.” Letter from Louis VII to Viscount Roger of Béziers. HGL 5, no. 9, col. 279; Graham-Leigh, Southern French Nobility, p. 99.

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Bom, M.M. (2022). Countess of Toulouse. In: Constance of France. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10429-9_6

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