5242 x 3493 px | 44,4 x 29,6 cm | 17,5 x 11,6 inches | 300dpi
Aufnahmedatum:
9. Juli 2008
Ort:
Beaucaire, France
Weitere Informationen:
The Castle of Beaucaire was built over the site of the Roman Ugernum and was later the Merovingian capital of Pagus Argenteus - The Land of Silver. It overlooks the River Rhone, the traditional border with Provence, with Tarascon lying on the Provencal side. It was here, in an eleventh century castle, that King Richard I of England gave his sister Jeanne of England in marriage to Raymond VI of Toulouse; and it was here, a year later, in July 1197 that Jeanne gave birth to Raymondet, the future Count Raymond VII of Toulouse. During the Albigensian Crusades which started a decade later, Beaucaire fell to the French Catholic Crusaders. As elsewhere in the Midi, the inhabitants loathed their new masters. Even after Pope Innocent III purported to dispossess Raymond VI as Count of Toulouse and confirmed Simon de Montfort as his replacement at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1216, they would still wholeheartedly support their sovereign Count against the combined might of western Christendom. The pope had reserved Provence, including Beaucaire, for the young Raymond, but Simon de Montfort did not always obey God's representative on Earth, if the pope's instructions did not suit his own interests.Raymondet would have to take Beaucaire by force from the crusader army. In late April 1216 Raymond, just 18 years old, began his siege of Beaucaire, attracting supporting forces from far and wide. The French defenders were lead by Lambert de Croissy (now "Lambert de Limoux") but their position was difficult since, without hesitation, the population opened the gates of the town to their sovereign's son. "Our dear Lord is entering the town in joy, and now we shall be rid of the Barrois and the French!" (The Canso de la crozada laisse 156. Barrois were vassals of the Count of Bar).
