Raymond-Roger Trencavel (1184-1209) http://www.cathar.info/120513_trencavel.htm
It was Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Viscount of Béziers and Carcassonne, who faced the full force of the first crusade. Ramon VI of Toulouse had proposed an alliance with Raymond-Roger, his nephew, and when the offer was rejected he offered his submission to the Crusaders and joined the Crusade. The 1247 personal seal of Raymond Trencalel, Count of Beziers, from the French National archives, Catalogue number D760 Aware that the Crusaders were on the way, Raymond-Roger reconsidered his position and joined them en route to offer his submission too, but it was rejected. (If he joined them as well, his lands would be protected and there would be no-where for the Crusaders to destroy and pillage - which is why Arnaud Amaury rejected the offer.) Raymond-Roger returned to Carcassonne, ordering Béziers to prepare for action on his way. He sent all Jews away to safety, knowing that the Catholic army would kill them if they ever got hold of them. This was a precaution as no-one expected Béziers to fall, and certainly not for a long time. Everyone had known that the Jews would have been slaughtered if the town fell, but not that the Crusaders would massacre everybody they found, Catholics included, if they took the town, as they did on 22nd of July 1208. Still under the command of their leader Arnaud Amaury Abbot of Cîteaux, appointed by Pope Innocent III, the Crusaders now turned towards Carcassonne. Seal of Raymond Roger Tranceval. Click for a larger image in a new window. Tranceval Seal. From 1st to 15th of August Carcassonne was besieged. Raymond-Roger Trencavel was seized during a truce. Without their commander the inhabitants surrendered. The Crusaders expelled the inhabitants with a day's safe conduct, so that they could loot at leisure. Raymond-Roger was imprisoned in his own cachette. Peter II of Aragon of Aragon, his suzerain, could not help him and left the Crusaders bitter and disappointed. It was at this stage that Simon de Montfort was appointed to hold Raymond-Roger's territories, and so took over leadership of the Crusaders who stayed. Raymond-Roger Trencavel, Viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers, Albi and the Razès died in mysterious circumstances in his own prison on 10th of November 1208, a few weeks after his capture. He was aged just 24. He left an infant son, Raymond II, who became the ward of Raymond Roger Count of Foix. He later sought exile in Aragon, returning during the course of the later Cathar Wars in a failed attempt to reclaim his rightful lands and titles. Raymond-Roger Trencavel's mysterious death seems to have been generally recognised as murder: At the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 Raymond of Roquefeuil made the accusation explicit and no-one, including Innocent III, demured. The Canso laisse146 cites Raymond's words in respect of the right's of the dead Viscount's infant son: "My lord, true Pope, have pity on an orphan child, young and in exile, son of the honoured viscount whom the crusaders and Sir Simon de Montfort took charge of and then killed. Wrongfully and shamefully he was martyred and paratge brought low, brought down by a third, by a half, and yet you have no cardinal or abbot in your court who believes more truly in the Christian faith than he did. As they have killed the father and disinherited the son, will you, My Lord, give him his fief and keep your own dignity? And if you refuse to give it to him, may God do you the grace to add the weight of his sins to your own soul! If you do not appoint a day soon to give him his fief, then I myself claim it. I claim the right and the inheritance from you on the Day of Judgement when we shall all be judged". This speach was well received. The barons commented to each other how well he had laid the accusation and the Pope said "This shall certainly be seen to". That his crusaders had murdered the Viscount would hardly have been news to the Pope. In a letter two years earlier Innocent III himself acknowledged in writing to Arnaud Amoury and others that Raymond-Roger Trencavel had been "wretchedly slain" - "miserabiliter interfectus" {Patrologiae Latina (J-P Migne, Paris, 1844-64) v 216, col 739}.