Counts of Toulouse

Counts Of Toulouse

The Count of Toulouse governed Toulouse beginning with the Merovingian dynasty as one of the greatest cities of southern Gaul, dependent on one or other of the rival Kings of the Franks descended from Clovis I. No succession of such royal appointees is known, though a few names survive to the present. With the Carolingians, the appointments (of both counts and duces, dukes) become more regular and better-known, though the office soon fell out of the orbit of the royal court and became hereditary.

The hereditary Counts ruled the city of Toulouse and its surrounding county from the late 9th century until 1270. The counts and other family members were also at various times counts of Quercy, Rouergue, Albi, and Nîmes, and margraves of Septimania and Provence. Also, Raymond IV founded the Crusader State of County of Tripoli, and his descendants were counts there.