- Roger I Trencavel
Roger I Trencavel (died 1150) was the eldest son of
Bernard Ato IV ,Viscount of Albi , Agde, Béziers, Carcassonne, Nîmes, and Razès. On his father's death in 1130 he inherited Albi, Carcassonne, and Razès, while his younger brother Raymond inherited Agde and Béziers and his youngest brotherBernard Ato V inherited Nîmes.Graham-Leigh, 42.]Beginning in Carcassonne in 1141, Roger was the first
Trencavel ruler to appointvicar s to go about the vicecomital business at the local level. [Graham-Leigh, 135.] He appointed vicars both from within his court and without the regions which they were supposed to adminsiter. It is clear, however, that Trencavel government was still rather primitive in Roger I's time.Roger I was a notable benefactor of the Order of the Temple and a fervent Crusader, making large grants to the first Templar preceptory in
Occitania atDouzens . [Barber, 39.] He made a grant to the Temple in 1133 of the village ofBrucafel "that Omnipotent God in his mercy should make us and our posterity live in good perseverance, and that after the course of this life should deign to receive us in a good end." [Barber, 46.] In July 1147 Roger endeavoured to join theSecond Crusade and so granted to the preceptory of Douzens the village ofCampagne-sur-Aude with all jurisdiction in return for their taking up the mortgage of 3,000 "solidi " of Urgell on the land. [Barber, 47.] Roger also exempted the Templars from taxes, such as the "usaticum ", on all his lands. He left fromAgde on the Crusade after being released from the encumbrance of his mortgage later in 1147.Roger was married to Bernarda (Bernarde), but he died childless in 1150. He was succeeded in Carcassonne, in accordance with an agreement of 1132, by his brother Raymond. Albi and Razès also went to Raymond, while Bernard Ato sqabbled over Agde, which was eventually split between the surviving brothers.
ources
*Graham-Leigh, Elaine. "The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade". Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005. ISBN 1 84383 129 5.
*Barber, Malcolm. "The Templar Preceptory of Douzens (Aude) in the Twelfth Century." "The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society in Southern France between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries". edd. Marcus Graham Bull and Catherine Léglu. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2005. ISBN 1 84383 114 7.Notes
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