Genealogies of the Raymond Families of New England
[ Table of Contents | Prev | Next ]

THE RAYMONDS IN HISTORY.

TEUTONIC ORIGIN OF THE NAME, ETC.

FERGUSON, speaking of his Teutonic Name System, says: "It is now put forward as an attempt to connect the family names of France, England, and Germany—so far as the ancient Teutonic element in each is concerned—as members of one common family, and to form them into a definite system in accordance with the nomenclature of the old Germans. It undertakes to show that as the Saxons and other German tribes in the names of England and Germany, so are the old Franks represented in the present names of France. And it further undertakes to show that in each case this correspondence does not consist merely in the casual resemblance here and there of individual names, but is to be traced in the coincidence of a complete and connected system common both to the old peoples and the new." He claims the name of Raymond is derived from the old German, Raginmund. Raimund Eighth century. English, Raymond, Rayment. Modern German, Raimund. French, Raymond.

Yonge says, "Another old Frankish form of name is Raginmund, much in use in Southern France, where there was a long line of Counts of Toulouse called Raymond, one of whom was celebrated by Tasso in the first crusade as a gallant knight. The old Romanesque territories are still its usual home."

[236]
The present form of the name is derived either from the French words Rai (i. e., a beam of light), and from Monde (i. e., world), or, from the Latin word Raimundus, which has precisely the same signification.

The early history of the Franks, who it is said gave birth to the name of Raymond, is veiled in obscurity. They were composed of several independent Teutonic tribes, inhabiting the forests on both banks of the lower Rhine down to the German Ocean. Before the year 240 these tribes had confederated, and were afterwards known by the name of Franks. They were a stalwart and powerful race, ravenous for plunder, despising danger and loving adventure and battle. In their light vessels they roamed over the seas, often visiting and plundering the coasts of Britain, Gaul, and even Spain and Sicily. They maintained both a state of war and peace with the Romans, yet they lived on comparatively friendly terms with them, and many served in the Roman armies and fought side by side against the West Goths, Saxons, Burgundians, and other Teutonic tribes. These alliances did not, however, prevent them from enriching themselves, whenever they had an opportunity, at the expense of the Romans, in whose territory of Gaul they had obtained large possessions in the latter part of the third century. At last, when that mighty irruption of the German tribes took place (374-5), Rome found that her principal defenders were the brothers and countrymen of the enemy. Under the name of Franks, German barbarians of every race composed the best troops of the imperial armies, and the body-guard of the emperor. The fall of the Roman Empire in the West was followed by incessant wars between all the Teutonic tribes then inhabiting Gaul, finally ending in favor of the Franks, who eventually established the kingdoms of both France and Germany.

[237]
"The House of Raymond established since the third century in Lauragais, where it has continuously held the lands of Saint-Amans and of Las-Bordes until the year 1775. Distinguished by its military services, by its alliances, by its possessions, and yet again by its antiquity. A crowd of authentic acts of this family, published and certified, engraved upon historic monuments, testify that it springs from the same origin as Raimond d'Angenois, and originally of Toulouse, where the name has been held in honor from time immemo rial." *

* Le Nobiliare de la France, par Saint Allais, Tome 10, p. 1.

COUNTS OF TOULOUSE FROM 778 TO 1229.

The County or Duchy of Toulouse was erected by Charles the Great (Charlemagne) in 778 for Chorsin (Torsin), to whom he gave it. The Council of Worms deprived him of it, and he was succeeded in 790 by William I., who was defeated by the Saracens in a bloody battle in 793, who pillaged the county far and wide. In 806 William retired to a monastery, but continued, however, in the government of his county until 810, when he was succeeded by RAYMOND (Rafinel), whose successor was Berenger, who afterward became Duke of Septimer. Bernard, son of William I., succeeded in 835, on the death of Berenger. William II., son of Bernard, born 826, succeeded his father, and was put to death as a traitor in 850, when he was succeeded by Fredelon.

RAYMOND I., the first hereditary count, succeeded his brother Fredelon in 852, and died 864 or 865, when he was succeeded by his son Bernard, who in turn was succeeded, in 875, by his brother Odo (Eudes), who acquired Albigeoise in 878.

RAYMOND II. succeeded his father Odo in 918. In 923 [238]he distinguished himself in battle with the Normans, over whom he gained a victory, and died the same year.

RAYMOND III. (Pons) succeeded his father, Raymond II., in 923. His dominions included the large territory from the Loire to the Pyrenees and eastward to the Rhone. He defeated the Hungarians in Provence in 924, and died about 950, when he was succeeded by his son William III. (Tailefer), who in 975 made a partition of the county with Raymond III., Count of Rouergue. He married Emma, daughter of the Count of Provence, about 990. Pons, son of William III., succeeded his father in 1037; he also inherited a part of the County of Provence. William IV. succeeded his father Pons in 1060. In 1088 he ceded his dominions to his brother Raymond IV., and went to Palestine.

RAYMOND IV. (de St. Gilles), born about 1041, Count of Nismes and Narbonne, married his cousin, daughter of the Count of Provence, in 1066. He married Matilda of Sicily in 1080; about 1085, in right of his great-grandfather, Rothbold, Count of Provence, he laid claim to the County of Forcalquier (the northern part of Provence). This claim was revived by his son Alfonso Jourdain, who succeeded in obtaining from Raymond Berenger of Provence an extension of the County of Venaissin. Raymond had had the glory of fighting and conquering the Moors in several battles in Spain by the side of the famous Cid under Alfonso the Great, who in 1094 bestowed upon him his daughter Elvira in marriage. In October, 1096, he assembled an army of 100,000 Crusaders, composing all the nobility of Gascony, Languedoc, Provence, the Limousin and Auvergne, with their adherents. He placed himself at the head of his army, accompanied by Adhemar de Montiel, bishop and legate of the Pope, and followed by his wife Elvira and his sons, advanced to Lyons, where he crossed [239]the Rhone, traversed the Alps, Lombardy, Frioul, and directed his march towards the territory of the Greek Empire, over the savage mountains and through the equally savage nations of Dalmatia, a country till that time unknown. He was among the most prominent at the capture of Jerusalem in 1099. The Crusaders so highly appreciated his talents and merits that they offered him the throne, which he declined. The same year he distinguished himself at Ascalon. In 1101 he led another army of Crusaders, and was defeated by the Turks in Cappadocia. He took Tortosa and besieged Tripoli, and died on the shores of the Mediterranean, near Tripoli, February 28, 1105. His vast possessions on the banks of the Rhone and Dordogne, and still more his exploits against the Saracens, render him one of the most remarkable among the great leaders of the Crusades. His character and virtues alone marked him out as a fit mediator between the Emperor Alexis and the Crusaders, an office in which he did all he could to prevent or heal the constant breaches that existed between the Latins and the Greeks, and to which, moreover, he obtained the confidence of both sides in spite of their mutual mistrusts. Bertrand, the eldest son of Raymond IV., succeeded his father in 1105. He married Alice, daughter of Eudes I., Duke of Burgundy. He embarked for Palestine in 1109, conducting Provencals and a fleet of Genoese and Pisans to the siege of Tripoli, which he captured the same year, and was named its Count. He died at Tripoli April 21, 1112.* He was succeeded [240]in Toulouse by his brother Alfonso Jourdain, Count of Rouergue, who was born in Palestine and baptized in Jordan in 1103. He was deprived of the County of Toulouse by the Duke of Aquitaine, but was restored about 1120. He was besieged in Orange by the Count of Barcelona and relieved by Toulousans. He made a treaty with the Count of Barcelona and went on a pilgrimage to St. Iago. In 1141, Louis VII. of France, who had married Elinor, Duchess of Aquitaine, the lineal female heir to Toulouse, now made an unsuccessful war against the Count, who was a male collateral heir, for the possession of the county. Alfonso took the cross, was at Acre in 1148, and died in April of the same year at Cæsarea.

* Bertrand was succeeded in Tripoli by his son Pontius, who married Cecelia, daughter of Philip I. of France and widow of Tancred of Sicily. He was succeeded in 1137 by his son Raymond I., who married Hodierna, daughter of Baldwin II. of Jerusalem. In 1151 he was succeeded by his son Raymond II., who married Eschive, Lady of Tiberias. He died without issue in 1187, soon after the battle of Tiberias, leaving Tripoli to his cousin and godson Raymond, son of Bohemond, fifth Prince of Antioch.

RAYMOND V., born 1134, succeeded his father Alfonso Jourdain as Count of Toulouse, Duke of Narbonne and Marquis of Provence in 1148, jointly with his brother Alfonso II. He married Constance, sister of Louis VII. of France, whom he repudiated. On the death of Raymond Berenger of Provence, to whose only daughter, Douce, he had been betrothed, he claimed the County of Provence, but was defeated by Alfonso I. of Aragon, who vested the fiefs of the county in his brother, Raymond Berenger III. Raymond V. sold to Alfonso all his right in the County of Arles, and ceded to him soon after his right in the County of Provence. Queen Elinor,* divorced from Louis of France, had married Prince Henry (Henry II.), of England, by whom she had Richard (Coeur de Lion), to whom in his boyhood his father had ceded the County of Aquitaine. But now, when Richard, already invested [241]with the government of his mother's county, was eagerly making ready for the crusade, Raymond, who had done him homage and sworn fealty to him as his mesne lord, chose to allege that the young duke was about to revive and enforce his mother's claim to the County of Toulouse, and took the opportunity of a revolt in Guienne to attack him. Philip of France adopted Raymond's quarrel. Henry supported his son. Raymond V. died in 1194.

* Elinor was the daughter of William, Duke of Aquitaine, and niece of Raymond, Count of Poitiers, who was remarkable for his great strength and valor. He married Constance, daughter of Bohemond II., Prince of Antioch, on whose death, in 1136, Raymond received the principality. He was defeated and killed by Noureddin, Sultan of Aleppo, January 27, 1149.

RAYMOND VI., born October 27, 1156, succeeded his father, Raymond V., in December, 1194. He was one of the most powerful, and probably the richest prince of Christendom, Count of Toulouse, Marquis of Upper Provence, Master of the Quercy, Rouergue, and the Vivarais, as Duke of Narbonne, Suzerain of Nismes, B‚ziers, and of the Countships of Foix and Comminges in the Pyrenees. He married first, Beatrice, the sister of the Viscount of B‚ziers, after her, the daughter of the Duke of Cyprus. He made peace with Richard, with whom he had been at war, and married his sister Joanna, Queen Dowager of Sicily, widow of William the Good, when Richard and his mother, Queen Elinor, not only resigned their claim to Toulouse, but restored, as Joanna's portion, some provinces conquered from the bridegroom. He allied himself with Richard against Philip of France in 1198. The following year he lost his wife, Joanna, and contracted an alliance with Elinor, sister of Pedro II., King of Aragon, who ceded to him Gevandan, as the dower of his sister. His only legitimate children were Raymond VII., who succeeded him, and Constance, who married Sanche VIII., King of Navarre. In 1208 Pope Innocent III. proclaimed a crusade against him, which continued through his life. He died in August, 1222.

RAYMOND VII., son of Raymond VI., born 1197. At the [242]early age of nineteen he exercised the powers of government in his father's name. He married Sancha, sister of Pedro II. of Aragon, and of Elinor, who had married his father. He continued the war against the Crusaders until 1229, when he was subjugated, and his dominions passed into the control of the conquerors. He died at Milhaus in Rouergue, September 27, 1249, leaving an only child, Jane, who, by the Treaty of Paris, April 12, 1229, he was compelled to place in the hands of Blanche, Queen of France. She was affianced to Alfonso, son of Louis VIII., and died without issue in 1271, when her domains were united to the French Crown.

WAR OF THE ALBIGENSES.

The people of the County of Toulouse, and of the great lordships depending on it, far surpassed in civilization and refinement all other parts of the Gaulish territory. Their numerous cities and towns flourished, governed by forms approaching republican. Freedom of speech was tolerated. The Jew and the Infidel could live side by side with the Christian. A great commerce was carried on with the ports bordering the coasts of the Mediterranean. The arts and sciences flourished. They possessed the most elegant literature of all Europe, and their written idiom was classic in Italy and Spain. Christianity with them was fervent and even enthusiastic. For a length of time associations had existed whose aim it was to purify the morals of the clergy, and the doctrine of the Church of Rome, without revolting against that church;—without being sensible of the exact degree of their dissent from her, they had adopted new opinions singularly combined with old dogmas. The most numerous of these associations, and who gave their name to all the others were the Albigenses, who derived the name from the city of [243]Albi. The attempt to discover the precise doctrinal opinions held by them is attended with a double difficulty. No formal creed, or definite doctrinal statement formed by themselves exists, and in default of this, it is impossible to depend on the representations of their views given by their opponents in the Church of Rome, who did not scruple to exaggerate and distort the opinions held by those whom they branded as heretics. It is probably impossible now to determine accurately what is true and what is false in these representations. It seems almost certain that the bond which held these reformers together, was not so much a positive, fully-developed religious faith, as a determined opposition to the Church of Rome. The reforms that were preached continued to extend, even dogmas were attacked; the priests were subjected to the insults of the people, and the domains of the church were invaded. At first, the church was content to condemn their errors at various councils (1165, '76, '78, '79). As their practical opposition to Rome became stronger, more decided measures were taken. Such was the state of things when the famous Innocent III., at the age of thirty-nine, ascended the pontifical throne in 1198. To his great task he brought the talents of an ambitious, and the energy of a violent and an inflexible character. This pontiff, who dominated over Europe by indulgences and excommunications, watched for and punished with severity every free exercise of thought in religious matters. He was the first to feel how serious and threatening for the Church of Rome was that liberty of mind that had now degenerated into revolt. He saw with inquietude and anger the new tendency of men's minds in Provence and Languedoc and proscribed the reformers.

Innocent had hardly ascended the papal throne when he sent commissioners to inquire into the religious condition of [244]the people in the provinces under the dominion of Raymond VI., which extended over the greater part of the Duchies of Aquitaine, Gascoigne and Narbonne, and the Marquisates of Toulouse and Provence, with a small part of Bearn and Basse Navarre. These territories included a large number of petty sovereignties, many of whose rulers were the kinsmen of Raymond. The supreme sovereignty over these provinces appertained to Philip Augustus of France.

The report of the commissioners to Innocent was such that he sent three other legates to Toulouse—Arnauld, Abbot of Citeaux, Peter de Castelnau, and Ravoul; he also sent a letter to Philip Augustus, in which he wrote: "A great monarch bears not the sword in vain; God has committed it to him for the service of the faith; at the summons of the Pontiff he must hasten wheresoever the faith is menaced. . . . In virtue of the power with which you are endued from on high, compel, therefore, the counts and barons to confiscate the goods of the heretics, and exercise a goodly severity against such of these lords as refuse to expel them from their own dominions." This appeal to the French king produced no substantial effect; he made empty promises to Rome and no less empty threats to Toulouse. Raymond, though of the papal faith, was strongly disposed to tolerate and protect his peaceful subjects in the enjoyment of their religious faith, made no progress in carrying out the demands of the Pope and his legates. This aroused the angry spirit of the legate Castelnau, who sought the haughty noble, and in insulting language menaced him because he refused, at the dictation of the legate, to enter a doubtful compact with the surrounding barons on the basis of a general extermination of the subjects whom he had resolved to protect; and finding his words excited in Raymond only scorn and indignation, he proceeded to excommunicate [245]the count, laying his territories under interdict. This act of a passionate priest likely to be lightly regarded, he appealed to the Pope to confirm the sentence, who forthwith wrote in his sternest, most withering style to Raymond, and elicited from him a promise that he would proceed to the work of separation and extermination. Raymond, however, made no progress in his reluctant task. A year passed on, and heresy flourished as before, notwithstanding some warlike demonstrations against it, in semblance at least on his part.

Castelnau, who watched him with the eye of a vulture, could not brook his tardy movements. He sought Raymond out at St. Gilles, where he was engaged on some expedition, and bitterly reproached him as a hypocrite, a heretic, a traitor, and whatsoever else might most deeply sting the pride of the regal chieftain, reiterating at the close of his harangue his former excommunication and interdict. On this occasion Raymond was so incensed as to utter words of menace against the personal safety of the legate, which he presently recalled. They were, however, spoken, and they sealed his doom.

Castelnau and his companions quitted the scene of this altercation in great wrath, leaving the count and his military companions no less excited. Having shortly afterwards to pass the Rhone, not far from St. Gilles, Castelnau and his companions took up their quarters at a village inn, and here they fell in with a gentleman of Raymond's court, a witness of the legate's outrageous conduct and sharing the general resentment excited by it. As the travelers issued from the church where they had all attended morning mass, on the day after their first encounter, the Toulousan engaged Castelnau in a disputation on the subject of heresy and its due punishment. The fiery zealot, on one hand, and on the other a young soldier who so recently witnessed the insult upon his princely commander, [246]and heard the interdict pronounced which involved in its deadly evil his own homestead, his own kin, and his familiar friends, were not likely to debate the point with temperance. The quarrel ran high between them, and ere they parted Castelnau had fallen a bloody corpse beneath the poniard of his opponent. This occurred in January, 1208.

The time had now come for more decisive measures against Raymond. Innocent proclaimed full remission of every sin against God and man committed in the course of their lives to all who shall take the cross against Raymond. Once more he summoned Philip Augustus to assume in person the direction of the war; he also called on the Duke of Burgundy, Simon De Montfort, Earl of Leicester, and other nobles to aid him in suppressing the heretics. Raymond, knowing with whom he had to deal, summoned his nephew, Raymond Roger, Viscount of Albi, Bezieres and Carcassonne, and sought an audience with Arnold, Abbot of Citeaux, before whom they both repelled the charge of holding opinions by Rome branded as heretical, demanding a fair trial to clear themselves from this aspersion, and also the false accusation of having been accessory to the death of Castelnau. The only reply they could elicit was a refusal to interfere. Raymond now appealed to his nephew and sovereign, Philip of France, for assistance and advice; the first he refused to give; his advice was implicit obedience. Roger also appealed to the French king and to Otho of Germany, without success. Raymond, following the advice of his sovereign, appeared before the Council of St. Gilles, did penance, and was forced to take arms against his subjects, while Roger returned home to arm in self-defense.

Now (1209) commenced the bloody war of extermination, which has scarcely a parallel in history. As town after town was taken, the inhabitants were put to the sword without distinction [247]of age or sex, and the numerous ecclesiastics who were in the army especially distinguished themselves by a bloodthirsty ferocity. It must not be supposed that all the cruelty was on the side of the crusaders; the bulk indeed was, as they were the successful party, but Albigenses and Romanists were alike ready to inflict as to receive martyrdom, and the heretics, like their persecutors, slaughtered and mangled such prisoners as fell into their hands. If they had comparatively little opportunity for the wholesale butcheries of Abbot Arnold and De Montfort, they neglected none that offered, massacreing garrison and inhabitants of any place that surrendered at discretion, priests and monks were their favorite prey. The first movement of the crusaders was in June, 1209, when Chasseneuille was attacked and capitulated; its inhabitants were massacred and the city burned. The next point of attack was the Castle of Bezieres, which was defended by Raymond Roger, this they carried by assault; a large number of the inhabitants of the surrounding country had taken refuge in the city. Roger and such of the inhabitants as escaped retreated to Carcassonne. The city was burned, and such of its inhabitants as were taken were massacred; a part only were heretics. The legate of the Pope, the Abbot of Citeaux, on being asked by one of his soldiers how to distinguish the faithful from the heretics, replied in these infamous and ever-memorable words: "Kill away, kill away; God will take care of his own." Some state the number who perished at sixty thousand; others say thirty-eight thousand. The executioner himself, the Abbot of Citeaux, in his letter to Innocent III., humbly admits that he was unable to slay more than twenty thousand. Meanwhile the crusading army was now recruited to more than three hundred thousand men. At the head of the French were the archbishops of Reims, Sens, and Rouen, [248]and the bishops of Autun, Clermont, Nevers, Bayeux, and Chartres, with the counts of St. Pol Nevers, Geneva, Forez, and numerous barons. The most powerful of the leaders was the Duke of Burgundy. The murderous march was now resumed for Carcassonne, which the crusaders besieged. Pedro of Aragon made an unsuccessful attempt of reconciliation; a furious attack was made on the castle, which was repulsed by Roger. The legate now proposed to negotiate, assuring Roger and his knights of safe-conduct to and from the legate's pavilion. Roger accepted and marched with his knights to the place of meeting, and while defending his own conduct and pleading the cause of his people, he and his companions were captured by an overpowering rush of armed men, disarmed and bound. Roger was consigned to a prison, where he soon died, leaving a young son, Raymond Trencavel. A large portion of the inhabitants escaped during the night. About one hundred and fifty of those captured, together with the captured knights, were publicly executed by hanging and burning alive. The viscounties of Bezieres and Carcassonne were now at the disposal of the legate. They were offered to the Duke of Burgundy, who not only rejected the gift, but declared that they had done Raymond Roger wrong enough already without despoiling him of his heritage. The counts of Nevers and St. Pol, to whom they were alternately offered, expressed themselves to the same effect. They were then offered to De Montfort, who accepted them. Raymond VI. was again excommunicated and attacked by De Montfort and went to Rome, where he pleaded his own cause in the Vatican.

In the spring of 1210, De Montfort began his second campaign. One after another, he attacked the castles on his way. Brom, having a strong castle, occupied him three days in reducing it; he then selected over a hundred of the inhabitants [249]whom he mutilated by putting out their eyes and cutting off their noses, leaving but a single individual with sight; he commanded him to guide the wretched company of bleeding sufferers to the next fortress, Cabaret, so to apprise its garrison of what they must expect, if they dared to oppose his progress. The Castle of Alaric was besieged; it held out eleven days; when the place was carried, many of its defenders having made a good retreat, only a small remnant remained for De Montfort to massacre. Near Narbonne, perched on a lofty rock and surrounded on all side by such precipices as rendered it seemingly inaccessible, stood the magnificent Castle of Minerva, famed no less for its natural strength than for the courage and fidelity of its lord, Giraud, one of the bravest and most loyal knights owing fealty to Raymond Roger, Viscount of Carcassonne. Now that the grave had closed over that champion of the oppressed, Giraud indignantly rejected the assumed authority of his murderer, and held the castle as a duteous vassal of Raymond Trencavel, the infant son of the viscount, and lawful inheritor of his possessions. De Montfort commenced a siege; for seven weeks the rock repelled the enemy, but it yielded no water spring to them whose sole dependence was on cisterns, which at length failed them, and Giraud proceeded under a flag of truce to De Montfort's camp to treat on the best terms he could for capitulation. De Montfort being exceedingly anxious to proceed on his march, and dreading the diminution of his host, from which, at the end of every forty days, many withdrew, granted terms that satisfied Giraud; the latter was about to make preparations for surrender, when Arnold, the legate, who had been absent during the treaty, suddenly returned. De Montfort, thereupon, claimed that nothing agreed upon during the legate's absence was binding until ratified by him. Arnold [250]immediately hit on a device for the attainment of his object. Knowing that the agreement entered into between the chiefs was as yet only a verbal one, he directed them to sit down apart, and each to furnish him with a correct written statement of every item in it; without a miracle, of course some discrepancy would appear, and on this the legate founded a pretext for declaring the whole agreement void. Giraud, anxious to succor his people now suffering from thirst, offered to waive his own version, and accept that of De Montfort. The articles of capitulation, as prepared by De Montfort, were read; when that article providing for the safety of such of the Albigensians as should renounce their faith was read, a French nobleman, Robert de Mauvaison, exclaimed that the pilgrims would never consent to such a clause, for they had taken the cross, not to show mercy to heretics, but to exterminate them.

The articles, however, were signed, and the gallant Giraud delivered up his fortress. The Abbot Guy de Vaux Cerney thundered forth the terrors of the church's ban on all who dared dispute her supremacy, and demanded an instant recantation of the doctrine held by the Albigenses. He was not allowed to proceed far in his sermon, when a general cry burst from his indignant hearers: "We will have none of your faith; we have renounced the doctrines of your Roman Church. You labor in vain to remove us from the truth which we have embraced, and from which nothing can remove us." Guy left them and proceeded to the house where the females were in like manner awaiting their fate, and here he was even more quickly and resolutely cut short in his discourse. While this was going on, De Montfort collected a large quantity of firewood, piling it in the most open space in the town. He then, in turn, visited the two assemblies, addressing them more [251]briefly than the Abbot had done, and pointing to the heap of wood, said: "Be converted to the Catholic faith, or ascend this pile!" Not one flinched or quailed; fire was applied, and thus did one hundred and forty human beings perish.

De Montfort's next point of attack was the strong Castle of Termes, a powerful frontier fortress on the borders of Roussillon. Raymond of Termes was a warrior no less brave than Giraud of Minerva. Termes held out for four months. The cisterns, their only resource, had been filled by rains. While the heat of summer operated prejudicially on the soft water so collected, the tainted beverage was drank, and brought such severe and fatal disease among the garrison, that a longer defense was considered hopeless, preparations were cautiously made, and in the dead of a November night, they silently abandoned their stout bulwarks, passed unobserved the first line of intrenchments, and hastily separated, seeking the mountain passes into Catalonia. Their flight was soon made known in De Montfort's camp. His army was quickly pressing on the footsteps of the fugitives, the greater number of whom they overtook, and men, women, and children were indiscriminately slaughtered. Raymond, the Lord of Termes, was captured alive, and consigned to a deep, dark dungeon under a tower in Carcassonne. All now seemed to augur immediate and utter destruction to the provinces; even Pedro of Aragon, attached as he had long been to the cause, and nearly allied both to the Count of Toulouse and to Raymond Roger, was beguiled by the plausibility of De Montfort, and to a great extent placed himself in his hands.

In March, 1211, De Montfort opens his third campaign, marching on Cabaret, where a stout defense was anticipated, instead of which, the citadel, hitherto impregnable by hostile power, was thrown open to him, and formed the first of a [252]series of unresisted triumphs along the line of mountainous fortresses that frowned upon the rugged passes connecting the provinces of Carcassonne and Toulouse. De Montfort's army was still some leagues distant from Toulouse, and braving their advance, stood the solitary but massive Castle of Lavour, in possession of Lady Guiraude, a widow and heretic. Her brother, Aimery de Montreal, whose possessions had been seized by De Montfort, having escaped with eighty of his faithful knights, was now assisting to man the walls of Lavour. Fouquet, Bishop of Toulouse, assembled the members of his own communion, and in a fiery harangue represented to them the vengeance they were bringing down on themselves by continuing so far undistinguished from the heretics of the place. He ceased not until he had enrolled a company of five thousand citizens of Toulouse, and marched them off as a reinforcement to swell the enormous army of De Montfort, already engaged in besieging Lavour. The siege proved a more arduous work than the assailants had anticipated; its progress was rendered remarkable by events that then occurred. Raymond VI., the miserable slave of superstition, was not ashamed to appear as a suppliant for favor at the hands of the two tyrants Simon and Arnold, but all his concessions proved vain; contempt, insult, and the avowal of a determination to take possession of his wide and valuable dominions so soon as their present enterprise shall have terminated, were all that he met in return for his advances. Raymond now threw off all semblance of submission, and as chief of Toulouse, applying to the independent lords of the surrounding provinces of Comminges, Foix, Bearn, Aquitaine, and to others who were involved in the charge of sheltering Albigensian believers, he formed a strong alliance. His first overt act of rebellion was an open prohibition, addressed to [253]his own subjects, against furnishing supplies to the besiegers' camp. Six thousand fresh troops on the march to join the army of De Montfort were arrested between the Tarn and the Garonne, by an ambuscade of chosen men commanded by the gallant Raymond, Count of Foix, and were massacred. Till now (May 3, 1211), Lavour had held out against the besiegers, when it was taken by De Montfort; Aimery, its defender, was dragged forth with his faithful companions in arms. De Montfort directed them forthwith to be hanged upon a gallows already erected for that purpose, but which, not being well secured, gave way with the weight of Count Aimery, and to avoid delay in repairing it, he commanded the other eighty to be butchered at once on the spot. The Lady Guiraude was brought forth and cast into a pit or well, found in the place, and buried under a heap of stones. The inhabitants of the castle were then collected, and, says Peter de Vaux Cernay, "The pilgrims burned them with inexpressible joy."

De Montfort next marched his crusaders to the Castle of Montjoye, which belonged to the Count of Toulouse, personally. Defense not being deemed practicable, the garrison forsook it; the crusaders razed it to the ground, no human victim appearing to reward their eager quest for blood. Next in their reach stood another castle of Raymond's, Cassero. This also was found indefensible against the fierce multitude that surrounded it. The inhabitants, having no way of escape, capitulated, sixty of those whom the castle contained were burned. In the words of Peter, the monk: "The soldiers seized nearly sixty heretics, and burned them with infinite joy."

The march proceeded: castle after castle, village after village was swept down and overwhelmed by this terrible flood; a vast body of reinforcements, principally from Germany, [254]arrived to increase the desolating army of De Montfort, and he resolved to seize the magnificent capital of the country, the powerful and wealthy City of Toulouse, the bulk of whose citizens still professed allegiance to Rome. The City of Toulouse was shortly in a state of civil war; hostile bands paraded the streets—one controlled by Fouquet, its bishop, who had enrolled five thousand men for De Monfort's service; the other, called the "Black Company," the supporters of Raymond, who once more moved as an independent lord among the multitude, with whom he was still popular. Watching the return of the five thousand men from Lavour, who had been recruited in Toulouse, Raymond addressed them and the citizens in terms the justice of which they well understood. He set before them the certainty of general destruction to which they were exposing themselves and their families, by rendering the city an easy conquest to those who only conquered to annihilate. So well did he succeed with both parties that a suspension of hostilities took place. Fouquet, abandoning all hope of maintaining a civil war within the city, summoned around him his multitude of priests, denounced the city, and left it in order to join his crusading brethren.

De Montfort now besieged Toulouse. He had encamped for about ten days, when the Count of Foix attacked and defeated him, driving him back, recovering, with Raymond, many of the latter's castles. Raymond's own brother, Earl Baldwin, having been seduced to desert him, was now betrayed into the hands of the Count of Foix. Baldwin was commanded by his captors, as he valued his life, to make Montluc, held against them by the Crusaders, to surrender. Baldwin bade the besieged to defend themselves regardless of his fate; they capitulated, bargaining for their own safety merely, without mentioning Baldwin's.

[255]
The Albigenses, with total want of respect for granted terms displayed by both parties, hanged them to a man. Baldwin was tried by a tribunal, composed of the two Counts of Foix, Raymond Roger and his son Roger Bernard, and some barons of the principality; they found him guilty and sentenced him to death. Fearing, perhaps, fraternal relentings on Raymond's part, the counts, with their own hands, hanged him to an adjacent tree. Raymond, Count of Toulouse, continued to recover his castles. Having reduced Pujol, a fortress of De Montfort's, to extremities, he prevailed upon the garrison to surrender by swearing to spare all lives. But no sooner were the fortress and garrison in his hands, than, regardless of his oath, he ordered twenty-three of the principal persons amongst them to be hanged at the castle gate, which done, his people fell upon the remainder and massacred them all save one, who escaped with the tidings to De Montfort.

In the latter part of the year 1211, the Count of Foix besieged De Montfort, at Castelmaudari, where he was defeated. The monks of Citeaux, preaching with increased vehemence, soon swelled again the crusading army to its wonted extent, and as De Montfort renewed his advance the Toulousians abandoned every fortress they had retaken. Of the few castles that dared show resistance were those of St. Antonin and St. Marcel, where many suffered.

Another place, Boissac, after a spirited defense, fell into De Montfort's hands. No charge of heresy could be brought against any of the inhabitants. They had been greatly aided in their defense by the willing services of a body of routiers, who happened then to be within their walls to the number of three hundred men. These rude soldiers who knew nothing of controversial matters, roamed in numerous bands throughout the country, living merely by the sword, wherever they [256]could find employ, had enabled the garrison not only to hold out so far, but to demand fair terms as the price of surrender. The only terms that the conquerer would grant were, that the citizens would suddenly rise upon and massacre these routiers. There was no alternative. Boissac surrendered. Toulouse and Montauban had now become the only places of refuge for the terrified people.

In 1213, Raymond, alarmed by the rapid advances and successes of De Montfort, hastened to the court of his brother-in-law, Pedro, King of Aragon, to claim that sovereign's aid against the invader, who, under pretense of more fully establishing the ecclesiastical supremacy, which both the count and the king acknowledged was wresting the temporal possessions of the former from their rightful lord, and bringing the dominions of the latter into subjection to a foreign prince. De Montfort had issued formal decrees compelling, among other things, all widows and heiresses to marry Frenchmen only, for the space of the next ten years, thus most effectually extinguishing the pride of those high Provencal houses who had ever gloried in their unsullied descent from the ancient German races. The publication of Simon's decree issued from Pamiers at the time of the count's visit at Aragon, greatly tended to further his suit. Pedro was considered to be in high favor with the Pope, to whom he applied for intercession, and who addressed sharp reprimands to the fierce and arrogant prelate at Narbonne. But when the council assembled which he had commanded them to call together, they justified all that the Pope had condemned, made doubly fast all they were told to undo, and rendered to the Vatican reasons so satisfactory for their proceedings that Innocent revoked the concessions he had made to Pedro, and confirmed the proceedings of the council.

[257]
The King of Aragon, exasperated at such double perfidy, no longer hesitated to aid in person the aggrieved lords. Pedro chose a thousand knights, the flower of his army, long accustomed to battle against the Moors in Spain, and placing himself at their head, crossed the Pyrenees, and joined the Languedocian nobles, and with Raymond besieged the Crusaders in the Fortress of Muret. De Montfort hastened to their relief. An obstinately contested battle was fought; Pedro, the victor in fifteen battles against the Spanish Mohammedans, was slain and his army defeated.

Raymond and his son now hastened to England to seek assistance from their kinsman, King John. Meanwhile, De Montfort, with a recruited army, passed unresisted into Querci and Agenois, with very little hindrance in their work of cruelty and blood. Murillac was one of the places so happily recorded by the monk Peter: "I must not omit to state, that we found there seven heretics. Being conducted to the legate, they confessed their unbelief, and were then seized by our pilgrims and burned with unspeakable joy."

In 1215 the Council of Montpellier made De Montfort prince and monarch of all conquests of the Crusaders. Prince Louis of France now led a new army of Crusaders into Languedoc. The fourth General Council of Lateran was held, Raymond and son and his two great vassals, the Counts of Foix and Comminges, appeared before the venerated body, bringing letters from King John entreating and urging the council to do his brother-in-law and nephew justice. The counts knelt to the Pope, professing their entire submission to his injunctions, and complained of their utter spoliation by De Montfort. The pope declared that De Montfort had no right whatever to the dominions of the Count of Toulouse, which, even supposing Raymond VI. to be guilty, belonged to his son.

[258]
The council, however, decreed that Raymond the father had forfeited everything he possessed. As an act of charity, the dower of his Aragonese Countess was preserved, and to his son, the issue of his marriage with the Queen Dowager of Sicily (though having been pronounced guiltless, as having been too young to participate in the offenses of his father), of all the father's extensive possessions, only those situated in Provence, fiefs of the empire, and as yet unassailed, were allotted. Raymond VII., being then about nineteen years of age, having waited upon the Pope to take leave, after the council had dealt thus hardly by his father and himself, Innocent raised him from his knees, seated him by his side and said: "Listen to me, my son; if you govern yourself by my councils, you shall always do well. Love God above all, and be careful to serve him; never take the property of others, but defend your own if any would deprive you of it. So acting you will never want for domains; and, that you may not meanwhile be too short of lands and lordships, I give you the County Venaissin, with all its dependencies, Beaucaire and Provence, to provide for your subsistence, until the Church shall again assemble in council. At that new Ecumenic Council you may present yourself, and justice shall be done you in respect of your claims against the Earl of Montfort." "But if, in the meanwhile, Holy Father," young Raymond in accents of entreaty inquired, "I can expel from my hereditary domains this general and the other robbers who have stolen them, may I pray Your Holiness not to be wroth with me?" Innocent returned no direct answer, but dismissed him with these words: "Whatever you attempt, my son, may God in his mercy give you grace to begin well, and end better." The council determined the Catholic faith, terminated the crusade, and dissolved, November 30, 1215.

The first movement towards a renewal of the war was [259]made early in the following year by the son of Count Raymond for the recovery of his inheritance. He took the field at the head of an army, which was raised as in a moment by his welcome summons, and so successful was his opening campaign, that De Montfort, roused from his security, saw the peril at once. His experienced tactics, however, proved too much for the ardent young commander, whom he prevailed on to conclude a truce with him before he had heard the tidings already communicated to De Montfort, that Toulouse had thrown off the yoke of the usurper, openly proclaiming the lawful and still beloved sovereign. The war had now been carried on for seven years against the papal armies, whose recruiting territory was nearly the whole of civilized Europe; Germany, France, Spain, all responded to the call of the great head of the Church of Rome. On the other hand, the military strength of the Count of Toulouse lay entirely within his own dominions, among a population largely composed of those of the Roman faith. The continued wearing away of Raymond's available forces compelled him now to seek foreign aid. While his son engaged the enemy at home, he had raised an army in the northern provinces of Spain, composed of mercenaries, and was rapidly marching at their head towards his ancient capital. But De Montfort, having so far outwitted the son, advanced with his whole collected force to meet the father. Raymond's army dispersed themselves at once without a battle, and De Montfort marched to take vengeance on Toulouse, which soon fell into the hands of the Crusaders. Philip of France invested De Montfort with the fiefs conquered by the Crusaders, who with the bishop sacked the city. Toulouse, exasperated by the perfidy and barbarity it had experienced at the hands of the Crusaders, received a year later once more its ancient lord, with a [260]fixed determination of upholding his rights. It was not long before powerful reinforcements poured into the city, headed by the principal chiefs and nobles of the surrounding territory. De Montfort besieged the city for many months. In June, 1218, he was attending the services of the church when news was brought him that the besieged had made a sally and taken his favorite machine, "the cat," which they were destroying by fire. He left the church to superintend in retaking the machine. In this he succeeded; but at the same moment a ponderous stone cast from the walls smote him on the forehead and laid him low in death. A month later, the siege, which had been resisted for nearly a year, was raised. Raymond the younger now renewed his efforts to recover possession of his father's conquered castles. Meanwhile Innocent III. had died and been succeeded by Honorius III., who supported Amauri de Montfort, who succeeded his father, and now authorized a new crusade. Early in 1219, Prince Louis of France and Amauri de Montfort laid siege to the Castle of Marmaude, an important post, until the inhabitants offered to capitulate, and Prince Louis willingly granted them permission to leave the place in safety, rejecting the counsel of the Bishop of Saintes, that he should seize, burn, and otherwise slay the whole body, civil and military, as heretics and apostates. While a few of the principal chiefs and knights were going through the form of surrendering themselves at the tent of Louis, Amauri, at the head of his troops, privately entered the unguarded city, where, of five thousand inhabitants of all ages and conditions, they left not one alive; every man, woman and child was butchered before Louis could interpose to stay the work of death. About this time, Raymond, having obtained the age of sixty-five, seems to have confided all his warlike operations to his son, who, with his steadfast friends [261]the two Counts of Foix (father and son), and other nobles, carried on the war for the succeeding five years, which were marked by a series of victories and defeats, besieging and besieged, until 1224, when Amauri de Montfort concluded a convention with the counts and left Languedoc, conditionally ceding all the Crusaders' conquests to Louis VIII., who attempted to obtain the sanction of Honorius III. to another crusade. Meanwhile, Raymond VI. died and was succeeded by his son, Raymond VII., who endeavored to effect his rec onciliation with the Church, but without success. A year passed in negotiations and the hearing of the claimants to the substantially conquered territory which Raymond VII. had inherited. In 1226, the Council of Paris excommunicated Raymond, assigned all his domains to Louis, and arranged a new crusade against him. Louis and all his barons took the cross against Raymond. The king led his Crusaders in person; his horsemen are said to have numbered fifty thousand, with a multitude of foot soldiers. Sanctioned by the Pope's blessing, accompanied by his legate and by the veteran Fouquet, Bishop of Toulouse, he engaged in a vigorous war against the heretics—in reality to deprive his powerful vassal counts of their possessions, and to secure to himself what had been the great prize aimed at by Simon de Montfort.

Cities and Barons now voluntarily submitted to Louis, all save the splendid city of Avignon, to which he laid siege, pressing it with all his force for three months unsuccessfully. He is stated to have lost, by pestilence and the sword, twenty thousand men during those three months, and when at last the place capitulated, it was on such terms as were often granted, but never before kept by the conquering Crusaders. The verbal submission of all the Languedocians was secured by intimidation. Military operations during the following [262]year were suspended, but early in 1228 the war recommenced and Toulouse was besieged. The Crusaders assembled each morning close under the walls of Toulouse, and instead of assailing its walls, marched across the plains, through the valleys, over the mountains, deliberately cutting down, uprooting and utterly destroying the fruit trees and every vegetable growth that could give promise of a future supply to the wretched proprietors and laborers of the soil. Raymond's allies began to submit, and he commenced negotiations. In April, 1229, the Council of Paris received the submission of Raymond VII. He made the best terms he could, and they were sufficiently hard. Among them he obliged himself to raze the walls, and to fill up the formidable ditches of Toulouse, while a French garrison, occupying the splendid Narbonnese Castle, would keep strict watch over the proceedings of the citizens. Another article bound him to set a price on the head of every suspected heretic throughout his dominions, and a third, to make war on his allies, the Count of Foix and all who yet showed a disposition to preserve their independence.

This treaty put a final close to the secular part of the contest, which had been carried on for more than twenty years, between the people and princes of Languedoc on the one side, and the Court of Rome on the other. By this treaty Raymond surrendered to the king all his possessions in France, and to the legate of Rome all that he possessed in the Kingdom of Arles. After this universal renunciation, the king, as if by favor, granted him as a fief, for the remainder of his life, a part only of what he had taken from him; namely, a portion of the diocese of Toulouse, of Albigeois, and of Quercy, with the entire dioceses of Agenois and of Rouergue. These provinces which the king restored to him were, moreover, to form [263]the portion of his daughter Jane, then nine years of age, whom he named his sole heiress, and whom he engaged to deliver immediately into the hands of Blanche of Castile, the Queen-mother of France, that she might bring her up under her own eyes, and afterwards marry her to one of her sons at her discretion. He also promised to pay twenty thousand marks of silver in four years.

In 1229 the Church of Rome established in Languedoc the first of its Inquisitions, and a complete code of persecution was adopted that accelerated the exterminating process, and in a few years the sect was all but extinct.

ASSUMPTION AND TRANSMIGRATION OF FAMILY NAMES.

The period at which family names were assumed and christian names first came into use is generally assigned to about the year 1000. Before this time men had but a single name, to which was annexed the name of his landed estate, his place of abode, or some peculiar characteristic of mind, body or condition. Lower says one of the earliest double names was that of Raymond Berenger, who went down under the sword of the first Simon de Montfort, presumably in the Albigensian war. The names of Stephen and Pierre Raymond are found on the roll of the first Knights Hospitalers of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, when, in 1117-18, by charter from the Pope, the hospital came under military control. The latter is probably the same Pierre Raymond of Hautpool, who is named among the principal knights who followed Raymond IV. to the first crusade in 1096. At the commencement and during the unequal contest of the Albigensian war, considerable numbers of the kinsmen of Raymond withdrew to Italy, Germany, and other countries, entered the service of foreign princes, formed alliances and became the founders of families.

[264]
Marc Raymond of Albi, one of the sons of Roger II., Viscount of Albi, and of Adelaide, daughter of Raymond V., Count of Toulouse, withdrew to Italy. He married Beatrix d'Alben of the German branch of the same from about the year 1030. At the end of the war and the final destruction of the ancient lordships of Toulouse, many of their descendants submitted to the new rulers, and became prominent, especially in the military service of France, where their descendants are to be found as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century.

According to Lower the name of Raymond was introduced into England at or about the time of the Conquest (1066). They appear to have first settled at a place called Raymond, in the Hundred of Wye, in Kent. While there are several prominent families of the name, especially in the County of Essex, who claim their ancestors came from Raymond in Kent, yet none appear to trace them beyond about the middle of the sixteenth century. Perhaps the most distinguished was Lord Robert Raymond, son of Sir Thomas Raymond, Knight, one of the King's Bench, and who was a grandson of John Raymond, of London, Gent., 23d Elizabeth (1581). Lord Robert Raymond was a distinguished ornament of the English Bench. He was born December 20, 1673. Member of Parliament for Bishop's Castle, County Salop, in the last two Parliaments of Anne, and for Ludlow and Helston in Cornwall in the reign of George I. Appointed Solicitor General 13th May, 1710; Attorney-General 9th May, 1720; made a Sergeant-at-Law January, 1723-4; a Justice of the King's Bench the February following; a Commissioner of the Great Seal 7th January, 1724-5, and Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench 28th February following; created Lord Raymond, Baron of Abbotts-Langley by patent dated 15th January, 1730-31; died at his house in Red Lion Square 15th April, [265]1732. He married Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Northey, and had issue, Edward, Robert, and Thomas, who died infants, and Robert, the second Lord Raymond, aged sixteen years at the decease of his father. He married June 25, 1741, Mary, daughter of Montague Blundell, and died September 19, 1756, aged thirty-nine, without issue. In February, 1711, the estate called Langleybury, which formed a part of the possessions of the ancient monastery of St. Albans, was conveyed to Lord Robert Raymond and Beversham Filmer in trust for the sole use of Sir Robert and his heirs. The second Lord Robert enjoyed the estate until his death, leaving no issue; the estate passed to Beversham Filmer and the title became extinct.

The Irish Raymonds, from identity of name and the circumstance of having held possessions in the ancient territory of the Clan Maurice, were supposed to have been the descendants of Raymond le Gros, who invaded Ireland in 1171. It appears, however, more likely that they sprang from the family of Raymond in Essex, and settled in Ireland as lately as the end of the reign of Elizabeth (1603). In 1613-14 Samuel Raymond, a clerk of the Court of Castel Chamber (the Irish Star Chamber), incurred the censure of the House of Commons for a breach of privilege in serving a law process on Robert Blennerhassett, the member for Tralee. In 1617 he had a patent as Comptroller of Customs at Dingle, County of Kerry. About 1170-71 another Raymond appeared in Ireland. One Raymond le Pauvre, or Poure according to the old French orthography, was, with others, received by King Dermott (McMorrogh, King or Chief of Leinster), and raised in fortune far above their previous condition. Raymond, without changing his appellation, became the founder of the noble Irish family of Pöer or Power.

Genealogies of the Raymond Families of New England
[ Table of Contents | Prev | Next ]
Friday, 30-Dec-2005 22:24:10 MST