Raymond Roger (1152 - 3rd April 1223), Count of Foix
(1188-1223) (
Ramon Roger, Coms de Fois, [or Foish or Foig]).
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Raymond-roger was the son of Roger-Bernard of Foix and Cécile Trencavel. He married Philippa de Moncade in 1189. They had three children: Esther, Roger-Bernard (who succeeded him as Count of Foix) et Cécile. He accompanied the French king Philippe-Auguste on Crusade to the Holy Land in 1191 and was present at the siege of Ascalon and at the fall of Saint-Jean-d'Acre. He returned when Philippe-Auguste abandoned the Crusade, miffed at the superior generalship of his fellow monarch Richard Cœur de Lion, King Richard I, The Lionheart. |
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Raymond-roger
increased his family domains in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
He took the high Urgell and the Cerdagne with a view to
retaking Andorra. With Arnaud de Castelbon he found himself
fighting the combined forces of Count Ermengol VIII of Urgell
and Bernard de Villemur, the Bishop of Urgell. Both Raymond-Roger
and Arnaud were captured and imprisoned from February to
September 1203. King
Peter II of Aragon intervened to secure their release,
and awarded the Raymond-Roger various Catalan seigneuries
in 1208 followed by the the castles of Usson
and Quérigut in 1209.
Raymond Roger was one of the most impressive personalities of the Cathar Crusade, indeed of all European history. He was a close relative of Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse and a staunch ally. He was famed for his military prowess as much as for his chivalry, loyalty and attachment to paratge. He was not merely a patron of the troubadours, but a formidable poet himself.
From
the taking of Carcassonne
in 1209 when Simon
de Montfort emerged as the military leader of the Crusade,
Raymond-Roger aligned himself with Raymond
VI of Toulouse. He started by retaking Preixan. Two
years later he was victorious at the battle of Montgey.
His own castle at Foix was besieged four times. In 1214
he was obliged to submit and his castle was handed over
to the papal legate who allowed Simon de Montfort to occupy
it. Raymond-Roger supported the uprising led by Count Raymond
VII of Toulouse and took part in the defence of Toulouse
in 1217 during with Simon de Montfort was killed. Soon aferwards,
in 1208, he was able to regain his own castle at Foix.
It
is not provable that he was a Cathar
believer himself, but his close relatives certainly
were. His wife, Philippa of Foix, became a Parfaite.
His sister, Esclaremonde
of Foix, was perhaps the most famous Parfaite.
The Count was a great orator, and attended the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 to defend Raymond of Toulouse before Innocent III and his Council. When he himself was accused of having murdered priests, he did not trouble to deny it, and told Innocent to his face that in the circumstances he regretted not having killed more of them. Not perhaps a good example of his diplomatic skills, but a very good one of his confidence, standing and courage.
By the time of his death in 1223, the count had regained all of his terittories with the exception of Mirepoix. Characteristically, he died while besieging it.
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Roger IV, Count of Foix (1241-1265). Roger initially aligned himself with Raymond VII of Toulouse, but abandoned the alliance after the final failed uprising against the French in 1242. |
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