Raymond II Trencavel

Raymond II Trencavel (also spelled Raimond; 1207 – 1263/1267) was the last ruler of the branch of the Trencavel viscounts of Béziers. His entire life was occupied by efforts to reverse the downfall the Trencavel had experienced during the Albigensian Crusade, but he ultimately failed.

Raymond was only two years old when his father, Raymond Roger, died in prison on 10 November 1209. He would have automatically inherited the viscounties of Béziers, Carcassonne, Albi, and Razès, but Carcassone was granted to Simon de Montfort immediately after Raymond Roger's death and Albi was granted to him in June 1210. On 25 November 1209, Agnes, Raymond's mother and guardian, relinquished her dowry in the Pézenas and Tourbes, which would have gone to Raymond, to Simon in exchange for a pension of 3,000 solidi annually and compensation of 25,000 solidi for her dowry, to be made in four annual payments. When Raymond was only three, his mother negotiated the surrender of all his remaining lands and titles at the siege of Minerve on 11 June 1210. The surrender was made in the presence of Arnaud Amalric, Fulk of Toulouse, and Berengar of Barcelona and confirmed by the Council of Narbonne in January 1211. Until the formal act of the council, the overlord of the Trencavel viscounties, Peter II of Aragon, had refused to recognise Simon's takeover.

Raymond's youth after his surrender of his hereditary offices and lands was spent in the care of Raymond Roger of Foix and his successor, Roger Bernard II of Foix. In 1224, when after a general rebellion Amaury VI of Montfort ceded his rights over Raymond's former lands to the Crown, Carcassonne was reconquered by Roger Bernard and Raymond VII of Toulouse, who bestowed it (and Béziers according to one charter) on Raymond Trencavel, now of age. During the next two years as viscount, Raymond removed Guy des Vaux-de-Cernay from the diocese of Carcassonne and replaced him with Berengar Raymond, and he restored the abbot Alet, Boso, who had been deposed by a papal legation in 1222. Raymond's attitude towards the Church in the Carcassès is indicative of the Crusaders' disdain for the local clergy and the way in which the local nobility persecuted by the Crusade came to the support of the persecuted clergy. Raymond could not hold the town against King Louis VIII in 1226, however, and he was again dispossessed. His loss was less formal the second time and he continued to employ his title and act in his capacity as viscount into 1227. At that time he had achieved his majority and was even granting property to his former guardian, the count of Foix.

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