County of Toulouse - History

History

Toulouse and Aquitaine (as well as Gascony) were once again part of the kingdom of the Franks. Following his victory, Pippin the Short died in 768 and was followed by his sons Charlemagne and Carloman. As a result of this event, Hunald, son of the late Duke Waifer, raised an insurrection against Frankish power in Aquitaine. Charlemagne soon intervened and defeated him. In 771, Carloman died and Charlemagne was left as the only ruler of the Frankish realm. In 778, Charlemagne led his army into Spain against the Arabs. On his way back there happened the famous event of Roncesvalles (Roncevaux in French): Charlemagne's rear-guard was attacked in the pass of the same name by some Basque warriors. This led Charlemagne to realize that Frankish power in Gascony and Aquitaine was still feeble, and that the local populations were not entirely loyal to the Franks. Consequently, that same year he completely reorganized the administration of the region: direct Frankish administration was imposed, and Frankish counts (deputies of the Frankish king) were created in key cities, such as Toulouse.

In 781, he set up the Kingdom of Aquitaine, comprising the whole of Aquitaine (including Gascony, formally) plus the Mediterranean coast from Narbonne to Nîmes (area then known as Gothia), and gave the crown of Aquitaine to his three-year-old son Louis. Other such kingdoms were created inside the wider Carolingian empire in places such as Bavaria or Lombardy. They were meant to ensure the loyalty of local populations in territories freshly conquered and with strong local idiosyncrasies. Crowns were given to the sons of Charlemagne. The people of Aquitaine were known in the whole empire for their strong spirit of independence, as well as their wealth. Indeed, the region was quite prosperous during that period, past the recovery from the war of conquest.

Charlemagne in turn saw he could not trust the local nobility of the Vasconia, whose ties and loyalty to the Franks were flimsy. He took to appoint Frankish counts of his trust and create counties (e.g. Fezensac) that could fight the power of regional lords, like the duke Lupus. General supervision of this Basque frontier seems to have been placed in the hands of Chorson, count or duke of Toulouse. These politics displeased the Basques, and in 787 or 789 we learn that Chorson was captured by Odalric "the Basque", probably son of duke Lupus, who forced Chorson to an agreement which Charlemagne considered so shameful that replaced him by the Count William in 790.

The reign of Charlemagne in general saw a great recovery of western Europe after the Dark Ages preceding it, and Toulouse was no exception. Toulouse was a major Carolingian military stronghold in front of Muslim Spain. Military campaigns against the Muslims were launched from Toulouse almost every year during the reign of Charlemagne. Barcelona was conquered in 801, as well as a large part of Catalonia. Together with the northern areas of Aragon and Navarre along the Pyrenees, the region became the southern march (the Spanish March) of the Frankish empire.

In 814, Charlemagne died, and his only surviving son was Louis, king of Aquitaine, who became Emperor Louis the Pious (Louis le Pieux). The Kingdom of Aquitaine was transmitted to Pippin, the second son of Louis the Pious. Gothia was detached from the Kingdom of Aquitaine and administered directly by the emperor, thus recreating the limits of the former duchy of Aquitaine. Problems soon arose. Louis the Pious had three sons, and in 817 he arranged an early allocation of the shares in the future inheritance of the empire: Pippin was confirmed king in Aquitaine (Pippin I of Aquitaine), Louis the German was made king in Bavaria, while the eldest son Lothar was made co-emperor with future authority over his brothers.

In 823, Charles the Bald (Charles le Chauve) was born from the second wife of Louis the Pious. Soon enough, she wished to place her son in the line of succession. Louis the Pious was rather weak, and fight started between the three sons on one side, and their father and his new wife on the other side, which eventually would lead to the total collapse of the Frankish empire. Louis the Pious was toppled from power, then reinstalled, then toppled, then reinstalled again. In 838 Pippin I of Aquitaine died, and Louis the Pious and his wife managed to install Charles the Bald as the new king of Aquitaine. At the Assembly of Worms in 839 the empire was re-divided like this: Charles the Bald was given the western part of the empire, Lothar the central and eastern part, while Louis the German was keeping only Bavaria. Pippin II of Aquitaine, the son of Pippin I, was not going to accept such a decision. He was hailed king by the Aquitanians (but not by the Basques, who by then had seceded and detached Vasconia from Aquitaine), and he resisted his grandfather. Louis the German in Bavaria also opposed the decision of his father.

Eventually Louis the Pious died in 840. Lothar the eldest son claimed the whole empire, general war broke out. First allied with his nephew Pippin II, Louis the German soon allied with his half-brother Charles the Bald and they jointly defeated Lothar. Then in August 843, they signed probably the most important treaty in European history, the Treaty of Verdun. The empire was divided in three: Charles the Bald was given the western part, Francia Occidentalis (Western Frankland, soon to be called France), Louis the German was given the eastern part, Francia Orientalis (Eastern Frankland, soon to become the German Holy Roman Empire), while Lothar was given the central part, soon to be conquered and divided by his two brothers.

The family feud had left the empire weak and undefended. Some invaders rightly analyzed the situation and took advantage of it: the Vikings. Following the Treaty of Verdun, Charles the Bald moved south to defeat Pippin II and add Aquitaine to his territory. First he conquered Gothia over its rebelled count (who had taken advantage of the Carolingian feud) and had him executed. In 844, he set west and was besieging Toulouse, the capital of King Pippin II of Aquitaine. However, he had to withdraw without being able to capture the city. That same year, the Vikings entered the mouth of the Garonne River, took Bordeaux, and sailed up as far as Toulouse, plundering and killing all along the Garonne River valley. They moved back when they reached Toulouse, without attacking the city. It is still a matter of debate among historians whether they were called by Pippin II in his fight against Charles the Bald (as Charles' propaganda later claimed), helped defeat Charles the Bald, and left with due payment from Pippin II, or whether they just took advantage of the war to invade unchecked but moved back at the sight of the strong garrison of Toulouse who had just resisted successfully Charles the Bald.

Following these events, Charles the Bald in 845 signed a treaty with King Pippin II of Aquitaine whereby he recognized him as king of Aquitaine, in exchange of which Pippin II was relinquishing the northern part of Aquitaine (county of Poitiers) to Charles the Bald. However, the Aquitanians grew very unhappy with their king Pippin II, perhaps for his friendliness towards the Vikings who inflicted terrible damage on the population, and so in 848 they called Charles the Bald to topple Pippin II. In 849 Charles the Bald was south again, and he was handed over the capital of Aquitaine, Toulouse, by Frédelon, the count of Toulouse recently appointed by Pippin II. Charles the Bald then officially confirmed Frédelon as count of Toulouse. Soon the whole of Aquitaine was submitting to Charles the Bald, and in 852, Pippin II was made prisoner by the Basques and handed over to his uncle Charles the Bald who put him in a monastery.

In 852, Count Frédelon of Toulouse died, and Charles the Bald appointed Frédelon's brother Raymond (Raimond) as the new count. This was a special favor, normally counts were only administrative agents not chosen in the same family. However, it would prove to be the start of the dynasty of the counts of Toulouse, who were all descendants of Count Raymond I of Toulouse (Raimond I). In 855, following the example of his grandfather Charlemagne, Charles the Bald recreated the kingdom of Aquitaine (without Gothia), and he gave the crown to his son Charles the Child (Charles l'Enfant). Meanwhile, Pippin II of Aquitaine had escaped from his monastery in 854, and he was raising an insurrection in Aquitaine. It did not prove very popular among Aquitanians though, and he was unsuccessful. He then resorted to calling the Vikings for help. In 864, at the head of a Viking army, Pippin II of Aquitaine besieged Toulouse where the count of Toulouse resisted fiercely. The siege failed, and the Vikings left to plunder other areas of Aquitaine. Pippin II, abandoned by all, saw the ruins of his ambitions. He was captured and again put in a monastery by his uncle, where he died soon after.

In 866, Charles the Child died. Charles the Bald then made his other son, Louis the Stammerer (Louis le Bègue), the new king of Aquitaine. By then, the central state in the kingdom of France was rapidly losing authority. Charles the Bald was rather unsuccessful at containing the Vikings, local populations had to rely on their local counts to resist the Vikings, and the counts soon became the main source of authority, challenging the central authority of Charles the Bald in Paris. As they grew in power, they started to be succeeded in the same family and establish local dynasties. Wars between the central power and the counts arose, as well as wars between the competing counts, which further debilitated the defenses against the Vikings. Western Europe, France in particular, were again entering a new dark age, which would prove even more disastrous than the one of the 6th and 7th centuries.

In 877, Charles the Bald had to give in: he signed the Capitulary of Quierzy, which allowed counts to be succeeded by their sons when they died. This was the founding stone of feudalism in western Europe. Charles the Bald died four months later. The new king of France was his son Louis the Stammerer, formally king of Aquitaine. Louis the Stammerer did not choose any of his sons to become the new king of Aquitaine, thus in effect putting an end to the kingdom of Aquitaine, which would never be revived again. Louis the Stammerer died shortly after in 879 and was succeeded by his two sons, Louis III and Carloman. Louis III inherited northwest France, while Carloman inherited Burgundy and Aquitaine. In practice however, during the years 870-890 the central power was so weakened that the counts in southern France achieved complete autonomy. The dynasties they established ruled independently. The central state in Paris would not be able to reassert its authority over the south of France for the next four centuries.

By the end of the 9th century, Toulouse had become the capital of an independent county, the county of Toulouse, ruled by the dynasty founded by Frédelon, who in theory was under the sovereignty of the king of France, but in practice was totally independent. The counts of Toulouse had to fight to maintain their position at first. They were mostly challenged by the dynasty of the counts of Auvergne, ruling over the northeastern part of the former Aquitaine, who claimed the county of Toulouse as their own, and even temporarily ousted the counts of Toulouse from the city of Toulouse. However, in the midst of these Dark Ages, the counts of Toulouse managed to preserve their own, and unlike many local dynasties that disappeared, they achieved survival. Their county was just a small fraction of the former Aquitaine, the southeastern part of it in fact. However, at the death of Count William the Pious of Auvergne (Guillaume le Pieux) in 918 they came into the possession of Gothia which had been in the family of the counts of Auvergne for two generations. Thus they more than doubled their territory, once again reuniting Toulouse with the Mediterranean coast from Narbonne to Nîmes. The county of Toulouse took its definite shape, from Toulouse in the west to the Rhone River in the east, a unity that would survive until the French Revolution as the province of Languedoc. Toulouse would never again be part of the Aquitaine polity, whose capital in later times would become Poitiers, then Bordeaux. At first though, the memories of Aquitaine lived strong in Toulouse. Count William the Pious of Auvergne was the first to recreate the title of Duke of Aquitaine for himself in the 890s. Then the count of Poitiers inherited the title in 927. In 932 the king of France Raoul was fighting against the count of Poitiers, and he transferred the title of Duke of Aquitaine to his new ally Count Raymond III Pons of Toulouse (Raimond III). However, the title did not mean much. The various counts of the former Aquitaine were all independents, and did not recognize a superior authority.

Various factions were competing for the throne of France, but since all central authority had disappeared, the position of King of France had become an almost empty title. After Raoul's death, another faction succeeded in establishing an English bred Carolingian prince to the throne, Louis IV from Overseas (Louis IV d'Outremer). Raymond III Pons was from the opposite faction and so when he died in 950 Louis IV awarded the title of Duke of Aquitaine to Count William III Towhead of Poitiers (Guillaume III Tête d'Étoupe) who was an ally of Louis IV. From now on the title of Duke of Aquitaine would be used in the family of the counts of Poitiers, whose power base of Poitou was in the northwestern part of the former Aquitaine. The counts of Toulouse would soon forget any dreams about Aquitaine. Eventually, at the death of the Carolingian king of France Louis V in 987, the Robertian faction succeeded in having its chief, Hugh Capet (Hugues Capet) elected to the French throne. This time, the Carolingian dynasty effectively ended. Hugh Capet was the founder the Capetian dynasty, which would rule in France for the next eight centuries. However, from now on the history of France is irrelevant to Toulouse, at least until the 13th century.

The counts of Toulouse had extended their rule to the Mediterranean coast, but they would not long enjoy the large domain they had succeeded in carving for themselves. The 10th century was perhaps the worst century for western Europe in the last two millennium. Four centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, civilization had declined, arts and education were in a very poor state. There had been momentarily a rebirth of culture and order in the time of Charlemagne, but soon with the return of invasions (especially the Vikings), western Europe was falling again. This conjugated with dramatic civil wars as explained above, as well as bad weather, plagues, population loss. Entire areas of western Europe returned to wilderness. Cities were completely depopulated. Churches were abandoned or plundered, the Church was experiencing a sharp decline in morals. It seemed as if the legacy of the Roman Empire would completely disappear. Culture from the Antiquity only survived in a few scattered monasteries. This was in sharp contrast with the then flourishing emirate of Córdoba in Spain or the Byzantine Empire. Another phenomenon of these times was the complete disappearance of central authority. Power fragmented, falling first in the hands of counts, then viscounts, then in the hands of thousands of local feudal lords. By the end of the 10th century, France was ruled by thousands of local rulers who controlled only one town, or one castle and the few villages around. Toulouse and its county was exactly reflecting this situation. Between 900 and 980 the counts of Toulouse gradually lost control over the county, with the emergence of local dynastic rulers in every part of the county. By the end of the 10th century the counts of Toulouse only had authority over a few estates scattered around the county. Even the city of Toulouse was ruled by a viscount independent from the counts of Toulouse!

Invasions had also returned. The famous ruler of the emirate of Córdoba, Abd al-Rahman III, managed to reunite Muslim Spain, and carried the emirate of Córdoba to its zenith, transforming it into the prestigious caliphate of Córdoba in 929. In the 920s he launched a general offensive against the Christian kingdoms in the north of Spain. In 920 (and possibly also in 929) one of his armies crossed the Pyrenees and went as far north as Toulouse, without capturing the city. In 924, the Magyars (ancestors of the Hungarians) launched an expedition toward the west and went as far as Toulouse, but they were defeated by Count Raymond III Pons of Toulouse. At the end of the 10th century all the Carolingian wars and subsequent invasions had left the county of Toulouse in disarray. Large expenses of lands were left uncultivated, many farms had been abandoned. Toulouse was perhaps faring a little better than northern France in the sense that its proximity with Muslim Spain meant there was a strong flow of knowledge and culture coming from the schools and printing houses of Córdoba. Toulouse had also retained Roman Law unlike northern France, and had in general kept more of the Roman legacy, even in these troubled times. The ground was there for a recovery of civilization.

The end of Carolingians marked the beginning of Feudalism.

At the beginning of the millennium, the drifting attitude of the clergy and the confiscation of the Church by the Toulouse administration initiated a degradation of the worship. The Saint-Sernin church, the Daurade basilica and the Saint-Étienne cathedral were not maintained properly. New religious currents appeared, like the Cluniac reform.

Bishop Isarn, helped by Pope Gregory VII, tried to put everything back in order. He gave the Daurade Basilica to the Cluniac abbots in 1077. In Saint-Sernin, he met a strong opposition in the person of Raimond Gayrard, a provost who had just built a hospital for the poor and was proposing to build a basilica.

Supported by count Guilhem IV, Saint Raymond finally gained permission from Pope Urban II to dedicate the building in 1096. The religious quarrels had just awoken the faith of Toulouse. This rebirth was accompanied by a new demographic progression, supported by technically more efficient agriculture.

The suburbs of Saint-Michel and Saint Cyprien were built during this period. The Daurade bridge connected in 1181 the Saint-Cyprien suburb to the gates of the city. The suburbs of Saint-Sernin and Saint-Pierre des Cuisines also had a remarkable expansion.

The end of the 11th century marked the departure of count Raymond IV to the crusades. Various succession wars followed, besieging Toulouse several times. In 1119, the population of Toulouse proclaimed Alphonse Jourdain count. Alphonse Jourdain, willing to be grateful to his people, reduced the taxes immediately.

With the death of the count, an administration of 8 "capitulaires" was created. Under the direction of the count, they had the responsibility of regulating the exchanges and making sure the laws were applied. These were the Capitouls, whose first acts were dated in 1152.

In 1176, the "chapitre" already had 12 members, each of them representing a district of Toulouse, or a suburb. The consuls quickly opposed count Raimond V. The population of Toulouse was divided on the subject, and after 10 years of fighting, in 1189, the town council finally obtained the submission of the count.

In 1190 began the construction of the future Capitole, the common house, the town council headquarters. With 24 members, probably elected, the Capitouls granted themselves the rights of police, trade, imposition and started some conflicts with the closest cities. Toulouse was usually victorious, extending the domination of the patria tolosana.

Despite the intervention of the King, the administration of the Capitouls gave a relative independence to the city, for nearly 600 years, until the French Revolution.

Anecdotally, the players of the Stade Toulousain, the local Rugby team, today wear the red and black colors of the Capitouls.

Catharism is a doctrine professing the separation of the material and the spiritual existences, one of its possible inspiration may be Bogomilism of Bulgaria. It conflicts with the orthodox confession. Called "heretics", the Cathars found a strong audience in the south of France, and during the 12th century. Simon de Montfort tried to exterminate them.

Toulouse was reached by the Cathar doctrine too. The orthodox White Brotherhood pursued the hereticals Blacks in the streets of the city. The abbot of Foulques took advantage of this because the heretics were his creditors, and encouraged this inquisition.

Some people joined the white fighters, others chose to assist the besieged population. The consuls did not wish to encourage the division of Toulouse, and defied the pontifical authority, refusing to identify the heretics. Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, a Catholic, who was excommunicated for his dispute with the pope, later sympathised with the heretics because he saw the crusade take an unholy path with the extermination at Bézier.

In 1211, the first siege of Toulouse by Simon de Montfort was unsuccessful but two years later, he successfully defeated the Toulouse army. Under the threat of killing many hostages, he entered the city in 1216, and appointed himself as a count.

Simon de Montfort was killed by a stone at the Siege of Toulouse in 1218. Until the last siege, the "whites" were fought against by the Toulouse populace. Louis VII finally decided to give up in 1219. Raymond VI recognized the support he had received from the population, helping him to preserve his interests, gave up his last prerogatives to the Capitouls.

The 13th century went in a political direction opposite to the path drawn by the past centuries. In 1229, the Treaty of Paris introduced the University of Toulouse, intending to teach theology as well as Aristotelian philosophy. Copied from the Parisian model, the teaching was supposed to dissolve the heretic movement.

Various monastic orders, like the congregation of the order of frères prêcheurs, were started. They found home in Les Jacobins. In parallel, a long period of inquisition began inside the Toulouse walls. The fear of repression obliged the notabilities to exile, or to convert themselves. The inquisition lasted nearly 400 years, making Toulouse its capital.

Count Raimond VII was convicted of heresy and died in 1249 without an heir. The Toulouse county was given to the King of France, who imposed his laws. The power of the Capitouls was reduced.

In 1323 the Consistori del Gay Saber was established in Toulouse to preserve the lyric art of the troubadours. Toulouse became the centre of Occitan literary culture for the next hundred years; the Consistori was last active in 1484.

Reinforcing its place as an administrative center, the city grew richer, participating in the trade of Bordeaux wine with England, as well as cereals and textiles.

Accompanying the inquisition, many threats affected the city. Plague, fire and flood devastated the districts. The Hundred Years' War decimated Toulouse. Despite strong immigration, the population lost 10,000 inhabitants in 70 years. Toulouse only had 22,000 people in 1405.