Albi

Who holds it

Name

Guillaume Peyre (Guilhem Peyre, Guillaume de Brens)

Title

Bishop of Albi

Since

1185

Confidence

high

Former provost of the cathedral chapter and administrator of the diocese from at least 1177; bishop from 1185 to 1227, died 1230. Under him Albi stays in the Catholic camp, and the fortified palace of La Berbie and the great cathedral of Sainte-Cécile will be his successors' answer to heresy.

What it holds

• Albi: the bishop's lordship rights in the city, shared with and disputed by the Trencavel viscount (the shares are not pinned)
• The bridge over the Tarn, the Pont-Vieux, around which the city grew on both banks (who took its tolls in 1200 is not pinned)

How it was acquired

Not pinned here; the bishops' rights in the city are old, and they become sole lords only after the Albigensian crusade.

How things stand that morning

Contested: the bishop's lordship is real but sits under, and against, the viscount's.

Wealth

The bridge and the river trade of the Tarn, the city's market, the bishop's tithes and dues.

Threats

• The Trencavel viscounts
• Heresy among the townsmen and the lords of the Albigeois

Advocates and rivals

The Trencavel viscounts, who hold the bishopric itself in fief from Toulouse; the counts of Toulouse; the Cathar church, which has its own bishop of Albi beside the Catholic one.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The 1132 enfeoffment and the 1178 imprisonment are attested; the actual division of lordship in 1200 is not.

On the map: The whole modern commune is drawn; the bishop's share of the city is not pinned.

Primary sources for Trencavel

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Deeds of the Counts of Barcelona, Anonymous (monks of Santa Maria de Ripoll) (first version 1162 to 1184; continued in the later 13th century; final version 1303 to 1314). The house chronicle of the counts of Barcelona.
• The Great Book of Fiefs, Various; compiled by Ramon de Caldes for Alfonso II of Aragon (compiled 1192 to 1194). The register of the count-king's feudal rights, finished a few years before 1200 and in use at Peter II's court: some 900 charters of homage, convention, oath, sale and marriage arranged by county and lineage, covering Catalonia, Roussillon, Cerdanya, Pallars, Urgell, the Carcassonne and Beziers lands of the Trencavels, Provence and Aragon.