[Fools' Guild 08] - The Parisian Prodigal

by Alan Gordon

  One account of the Albigensian Crusades states that Baudoin returned to Toulouse in 1194 after the death of his father, but that Raimon VI refused to recognize him, forcing him to return to Paris. Again, the accuracy of this account cannot be verified. One Internet genealogy posits the marriage of Baudoin to a noblewoman of the house of Lautrec, a town not far from Toulouse. This Toulouse-Lautrec lineage supposedly continued unabated until the nineteenth-century production of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, the famous painter. However, a close examination of the Web site reveals the candid acknowledgment that there are no records supporting this claim prior to the fourteenth century.

  Baudoin’s inability to communicate would have been likely. The linguistic differences between langue d’oc, spoken in the south of what is now France and langue d’oïl, spoken in the north, were significant. Langue d’oc was much more closely related to the Catalan of that time, to the point that native speakers of the two languages would have had a much easier time understanding each other than a Toulousan would a Parisian.

  Peire Roger, the viguier at the time of this account, did step down from the post in 1205, according to known accounts. The reasons for his resignation had been unknown until this translation. One thing may be said for him: His predictions of the falling out of the two brothers and Baudoin’s eventual fate proved to be accurate. The histories of the Albigensian Crusades agree that Baudoin abandoned his brother to join the crusading forces led by Simon de Montfort in 1211. After years of battle, Baudoin was betrayed and taken captive while sleeping. Raimon, when presented with the brother who had betrayed him, ordered that he be executed. The order was carried out by, among others, the Count of Foix. Baudoin, cousin to the King of France, brother to the Count of Toulouse, was hanged in 1214.

  Acknowledgments

  The English translation of the Hymn of Saint Agnes is by Friar J. T. Zuhlsdorf, and is used with his permission, for which I give him my profound thanks.

  Having my jesters stay in the same place for two consecutive books allows me to thank once again all those scholars acknowledged in the previous book. In addition, I owe a great debt to Fredric L. Cheyette’s Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours and Leah L. Otis’s Prostitution in Medieval Society. The ever-growing list should also include Malcolm Lambert, Arnaud Esquessier, Gabriel de Llobet, and Claudie Pailles. I take full responsibility for any errors made.