https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/1461.html
Rangard of La Marche was the daughter of Bernard of La Marche and Amelia; she is identified as the daughter of Amelia in some charters. She married Peter Raymond of Carcassonne. Her sister Almodis was married three times, first to Hugh of Lusignan, second to count Pons of Toulouse, third to count Ramon Berenguer of Barcelona. Rangard and Peter Raymond had four children: Ermengard, who married Raymond Bernard of Albi and Nimes, Roger, who died in 1067, Adalaide, who married the count of Cerdagne, and Garsendis, who married Raymond of Narbonne. After Peter Raymond died in 1060, Rangard ruled his counties with and for her son Roger. Rangard was associated with her husband from 1054 on; after his death she received an oath of fidelity from his cousin Raymond, affirming her control of Carcassonne, Beziers, Agde and towns along the Herault river. She and her son Roger received two castles and an oath of fidelity, Prouille and Mirepoix. The marriage contract Rangard made with William Raymond of Cerdagne for marriage with her daughter Adalaide includes her promise to put him in control of castles within the Razes (and only the Razes), to have castellans swear oaths of fidelity to him. Rangard was looking for the support of Narbonne-Cerdagne by this marriage. William Raymond was to share control of Razes with her, and to inherit it jointly with his wife after Rangard’s death, but he gave a different version later when he handed over his rights to the count and countess of Barcelona, along with his wife, whom he apparently abandoned. When Roger died in 1067, various relations had claims to the succession: his mother, Rangard, his sisters Adalaide (soon to marry the count of Cerdagne), Ermengard, wife of Raimond-Bernard (a Trencavel), viscount of Albi and Nimes, as well as first cousins and more distant relatives. Rangard’s attempt to hold on to power through the alliance with Cerdagne failed when her daughter Ermengard and Ermengard’s husband, the viscount of Albi and Nimes, joined with Rangard’s sister, Almodis, the countess of Barcelona, and her husband to take over the Carcassonne lands. The two sisters and their husbands arranged a transfer of their brother’s and father’s lands, Adelaide and her husband selling the rights he claimed to have in Carcassonne to Ermengard and her husband, though as Cheyette points out, neither possessed the rights they transferred: “the upper aristocracy of this age and place were really quite free with gifts and sales of rights and properties over which they had no control” (“The `Sale’, 845). In April 1070, Rangard accepted the transfer of power, giving up all her rights and claims in return for 400 ounces of gold; in August the abandoned Adalaide did the same with no recompense.
The letter:
In nomine Domini. Ego Raingardis comitissa, & gener meus Raymundus, & uxor ejus filia mea nomine Ermengardis & soror ejus Adalais, donamus insimul Domino Deo & Sancto Pontio Tomeriacensis monasterii, & Frotardo abbati, ac monachis ibidem Deo servientibus tam praesentibus quam futuris alodem qui vocatur Tonneus, & quantum ibi habuerunt juste vel injuste Wilelmus vicecomes Biterrensi s & Raymundus Rotgerii, & Garsindis vicecomitissa, & filii ejus Petrus & Willelmus. Est autem ille alodus in pago Biterrensi super fluvium Orbi, juxta Villamnovam, & habet affrontationes de uno latus, &c. Facta carta cessionis hujus anno MLXI, regnante Philippo rege, III nonas januarii, in praesentia bonorum hominum, id est domini Frotarii Nemausensis episcopi, & domini Guillelmi abbatis Caunensi, &c.
English translation:
In the name of the Lord. I Rangard, countess, and my son-in-law Raymond and his wife my daughter by name Ermengard and her sister Adalais, together we give to the Lord God and the monastery of St. Pons of Thomieres, and abbot Frotard and the monks serving God there present and future, the allod that is called Tonneus, and whatever viscount William of Beziers and Raymond of Roger and viscountess Garsind, and their sons Peter and William held there justly or injustly. That allod is indeed in the district of Beziers on the river Orb, near Villeneuve. and has boundaries on one side, etc. This charter of concession was made in the year 1061, in the reign of king Philip, on the third nones of January in the presence of good men, that is of the lord bishop Frotar of Nimes, and lord William abbot of Caunes, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment