See also: Toulouse (homonymy)

After having been the capital of the Kingdom Visigoth, Toulouse remains the large metropolis of France of the South. It follows that the county of Toulouse is a territorial principality which extends according to the times with all the Aquitaine or with most of the Languedoc and even with grounds beyond the the Rhone.

As of the time mérovingienne, a count or duke is placed at Toulouse, then capital of whole Aquitaine. One knows Launbod, then Didier († 587).

Pépin the Brief takes Toulouse in 767. But the duke Chorson is made prisoner by the Basques in 788. Charlemagne then entrusts defense to his/her cousin Guillaume de Gellone, that the Moors beat in 793. Guillaume de Gellone withdraws with the convent in 806 and it is Bégon, wire of Gerard Ier count de Paris, which becomes marquis de Toulouse. It has as a successor Bernard, duke of Septimanie (820), then of Toulouse (834), which takes part in 844 in the rebellion of Pépin of Aquitaine and finds death there. A count Guillaume succeeds to him.

The family of the futures counts de Toulouse appears towards 840 when Pépin II names Frédelon, up to that point count de Rouergue. Frédelon joins with Charles the Bald person, who confirms it in his functions in 845 and names his brother Raymond count de Quercy. Died of Frédelon (towards 852), Raymond succeeds to him, but is évincé in 863 per Bernard de Septimanie and dies the following year. After a war against the count d' Auvergne Bernard Plantevelue, the son of Raymond, Eudes, reinstalls themselves in Toulouse and exerts its relatively independent power there. His/her son Raymond II succeeds to him, then his grandson Raymond III Pons, who annex Septimanie and extend his suzerainty on the Albigensian, the Rouergue and the Quercy.

The count of Toulouse Guillaume Taillefer († 1037) Emme wife, girl of the count d' Arles, Roubaud II. From this marriage a claim by the family comes from Toulouse of part of the heritage of Provence, claim which leads to the agreement of 1125 by which the count of Toulouse receives, with the title of Marquis de Provence, the areas in the North of the Durance and Beaucaire, however that the count de Barcelone, Raymond Bérenger Ier, whose woman is heiress of a branch junior, guard a Comté of Provence organized around the counties of Arles and Forcalquier. The agreement is specified in 1174.

Count in 1088 with died of his brother Guillaume IV of Toulouse, the grandson of Guillaume Taillefer, Raymond IV, up to that point count of Saint-Gilles, increases his principality by the acquisition of the Rouergue and the Narbonnais, as well as rights on many cities of low Languedoc. He leaves it with his son Bertrand II when he leaves for the first Croisade without spirit return, and he dies by besieging Tripoli in 1105. Bertrand leaves in his turn, founds the Comté of Tripoli in 1109 and leaves Toulouse to his brother Alphonse the Jordan. Alphonse the Jordan knows difficulties, fact face with the military companies of the duke of Aquitaine and loses his suzerainty on the Périgord, the Agenais and the Velay.

His/her son Raymond V removes a Viscount of Toulouse whose holders followed one another in the same family since the 9th century, restores his authority on the Vicomté of Carcassonne and on Montpellier, an attack of Henri II Plantagenêt thanks to the assistance of his/her brother-in-law Louis VII resists, made alliance with Genoa in 1164 and is placed finally under the suzerainty of Plantagenêt. His/her son Raymond VI wife the sister of Richard Lion-hearted, which brings to him in dowry part of the Resident of Agen and acquires the suzerainty of Armagnac and Astarac. But it cannot resist the tendencies separatists of the Viscounts and especially of the cities, where the appearance of the catharism starts to disturb the spirits. It passes for asset to the heresy. The intervention of the legates undermines his capacity, and the Crusade come from France of North the attack directly. It is Simon IV of Montfort which controls the county of Toulouse, that it conquers city after city. It is victorious at the time of the Bataille of Low wall of the Toulouse army reinforced by that of Pierre II of Aragon, which dies in the combat (1213). Toulouse falls in 1215, and Simon de Montfort becomes count. A time taken refuge in England, Raymond VI returns in 1217 and reconquers Toulouse, then Carcassonne. He dies in 1222. His/her son Raymond VII takes again the combat.

Amaury de Montfort, wire of Simon, then yields his rights to king de France and Louis VIII leads a new Crusade in 1226. Raymond VII then chooses to compromise: low Languedoc is annexed to the royal field and Raymond VII keeps the Toulouse one - just as its marquisat of Provence - but it must give his Jeanne daughter in marriage to a brother of holy Louis, Alphonse of Poitiers, the county of Toulouse returning to the royal field if Jeanne dies without child. It is what occurs in 1271. Meanwhile, Alphonse will have reorganized the administration of the county and will have cleansed the financial position of cities often touched by the social disturbances.

The count of Toulouse was one of the six even laic primitive

Subdivisions and mobility

See too

Internal bonds

• List of the counts de historical Toulouse
• List of the French counties