Raimund Berenguer (Provence) de Provence (1195 - 1245)

Born 1195 in Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

Ancestors

Husband of Béatrix (Savoie) de Provence — married Dec 1220 in Chambery, Savoie, France

Descendants

Died 19 Aug 1245 at about age 50 in Aix-en-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France

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Biography

Ramon Berenguer IV (1195 – 19 August 1245), Count of Provence and Forcalquier, was the son of Alfonso II of Provence and Garsenda of Sabran, heiress of Forcalquier. After his father's death (1209), Ramon was imprisoned in the castle of Monzón, in Aragon until he was able to escape in 1219 and claim his inheritance. He was a powerful and energetic ruler who added Forcalquier to his domain. Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica had this to say about Raymond:

Count Raymond was a lord of gentle lineage, and kin to them of the house of Aragon, and to the family of the count of Toulouse, By inheritance Provence, this side of the Rhone, was his; a wise and courteous lord was he, and of noble state and virtuous, and in his time did honourable deeds, and to his court came all gentle persons of Provence and of France and of Catalonia, by reason of his courtesy and noble estate, and he made many Provençal coblas and canzoni of great worth.

On 5 June 1219, Ramon married Beatrice of Savoy, daughter of Thomas I of Savoy. She was a shrewd and politically astute woman, whose beauty was likened by Matthew Paris to that of a second Niobe. Along with two stillborn sons (1220 & 1225), Ramon and Beatrice had four daughters, all of whom married kings.

1. Margaret of Provence (1221–1295), wife of Louis IX of France 2. Eleanor of Provence (1223–1291), wife of Henry III of England 3. Sanchia of Provence (1228–1261), wife of Richard of Cornwall, king of Germany 4. Beatrice of Provence (1234–1267), wife of Charles I of Sicily

Ramon Berenguer IV died in Aix-en-Provence. At least two planhs (Occitan funeral laments) of uncertain authorship (one possibly by Aimeric de Peguilhan and one falsely attributed to Rigaut de Berbezilh) were written in his honour.

Beginning in 1220, Provence east of the Rhone had a new ruler, Ramon Berenguer IV, of the Catalan dynasty. He was the first Count of Provence to actually reside in Provence permanently, usually living with his court in Aix. He launched a military campaign to impose his authority over the cities of Provence, ending the independence of Grasse and Tarascon, occupying Nice, which had tried to ally with Genoa; and founding a new town, Barcelonette, in the far east of Provence, near the Italian border.

The ambitions of Ramon Berenguer were energetically resisted by the new Count of Toulouse, Raimond VII, who had lost most of his own territory to France. Raimond VIl became an ally of Marseille and Avignon in their fight against Ramon Berenguer. In 1232 his army devastated the terrorities of Ramon Berenguer around Tarascon and Arles.

Ramon Berenguer responded to this attack by strengthening his alliance with France; he married his daughter, Marguerite, to King Louis IX of France, and appealed to Frederic II, the Holy Roman Emperor, for support. In exchange for his support, Frederic demanded that the cities of Arles and Avignon be governed by the Holy Roman Empire. A prolonged struggle took place between Raimond VII and his allies, the cities of Marseille and Avignon, against Ramon Berenguer for authority in Provence. Arles was blockaded and all traffic on the Rhone River stopped.

The French army finally intervened to help Ramon Berenguer, the French king's father-in-law. Raimond VII was forced to abandon his quest, and Ramon Berenguer was able to appoint his own candidate as bishop of Avignon and to subdue the rest of eastern Provence. When Ramon Berenguer died in 1245, not quite forty years old, he controlled all of Provence between the Rhone and Italian border except the rebellious city of Marseille.[51] Ramon Berenguer had four daughters, but no sons.

After his death his youngest daughter and heiress, Beatrice, married Charles, Count of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII. Provence's fortunes became even more closely tied to the Angevin Dynasty.

He was the Count of Provence from 1209–1245, Predecessor: Alfonso II, Successor: Beatrice.

Sources

• Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson Vol. IV. page 635

• Royalty for Commoners Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Stuart, Roderick W. Royalty for Commoners. Baltimore, MD, USA: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2002.Original data: Stuart, Roderick W. Royalty for Commoners. Baltimore, M

• Pedigrees of Some of the Emperor Charlemagne's Descendants. Volume I

• Howell, Margaret. Eleanor of Provence: Queenship in Thirteenth-Century England, 2001 Medieval Lands Project on Raymond Berenger de Provence, the fourth Count of Provence

• Giovanni Villani, Rose E. Selfe, ed. (1906), "§90—Incident relating to the good Count Raymond of Provence.", Villani's Chronicle, Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani (London: Archibald Constable & Co.), 196. The Provençal coblas and cansos referred to do not survive and Ramon Berenguer is not listed among the troubadours, though he was their patron.

• “The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England“, Revised and Updated [Paperback]

Antonia Fraser