Narbonne

Who holds it

Name

Berengar (Berenguer of Barcelona)

Title

Archbishop of Narbonne

Since

1191

Confidence

high

English Wikipedia lists him as archbishop from 1191 to 1212 and notes that Innocent III ordered his removal on 29 May 1207; he is replaced by the Cistercian legate Arnaud Amalric in 1212.

What it holds

• Narbonne: the archbishop's half of the lordship of the city, beside the viscount's
• The archiepiscopal palace and the cathedral quarter
• Archiepiscopal lands in the Narbonnais (not detailed; the castles of Capestang and Montels are built later)

How it was acquired

The shared lordship of archbishop and viscount is old (tenth and eleventh centuries); its exact lines are not pinned here.

How things stand that morning

Held in half, by an absentee.

Wealth

A port town with salt from its lagoons and trade with Spain and the eastern Mediterranean; Narbonne becomes the greatest cloth town of Languedoc in the next century.

Threats

• Papal pressure on an absentee archbishop
• Heresy in the province
• The viscount's rival half

Advocates and rivals

The viscount of Narbonne; the townsmen; the papal legates and Cistercians, who blame the absent archbishop for heresy in his province.

Places of note

• Cathedral of Saint-Just and the archbishop's palace: Seat of the archbishop (the present palace is mostly thirteenth and fourteenth century)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The double lordship is well attested; the shares and limits in 1200 are not established here.

On the map: A disc over the medieval town stands in for the archbishop's half of the lordship; the modern commune of Narbonne is far larger. The archbishop's rural lordships are not drawn.

Primary sources for Toulouse

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.

• Chronicles of Saint-Martial of Limoges, Bernard Itier and other monks of Saint-Martial; Geoffrey of Vigeois for the earlier chronicle (Geoffrey's chronicle to 1184; Bernard Itier's notes about 1195 to 1225). Bernard Itier, librarian of Saint-Martial, kept dated notes through 1200 of what reached Limoges: Richard's death at Chalus in 1199, the viscounts of Limoges and the lords of the Limousin, John's passage through Aquitaine in 1200 and the affairs of Angouleme and the Lusignans, and the abbey's own elections and prices. Read online
• 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.
• Documents of the French Royal Treasury of Charters, vol. 1 (755 to 1223) (755 to 1223; the archive was organised from the 1190s). The treaties and bonds the French crown kept in its own archive, printed in date order. Read online
• 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.