Saint-Gilles, at the edge of the Camargue, was one of the great pilgrim shrines of twelfth-century Christendom and a port where merchants and crusaders took ship for the Holy Land.
The abbey claims the lordship of the town round it, but it lives beside the counts of Toulouse, who draw their oldest title, count of Saint-Gilles, from this very place, and the two have long quarrelled. The Hospitallers keep their great priory for Provence here.
Who holds it
- Title
- Abbot of Saint-Gilles
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
No source consulted names the abbot on 1 January 1200.
What it holds
- Saint-Gilles: the abbey's claimed lordship of the town round the shrine, contested by the counts of Toulouse (the shares are not pinned here)
How it was acquired
Not pinned here.
How things stand that morning
Contested between the abbey and the count.
Wealth
Pilgrims, the port's trade with the East, and the fairs and markets of the town.
Threats
- The count of Toulouse
- Heresy and war in the Rhône country
Advocates and rivals
The counts of Toulouse, counts of Saint-Gilles (Raymond VI); the Hospitallers' grand priory in the town.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The pilgrimage, the port and the comital title are attested; the abbey's share of the town's lordship and its abbot are not. Later events (the legate Peter of Castelnau is murdered near the abbey in January 1208 and buried there; Raymond VI does penance here in 1209) show how central the place becomes.
On the map: A disc over the town; the modern commune stretches far into the Camargue.
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.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.