Raimond de Turenne

Raymond-Louis Roger , Viscount of Turenne, known as Raymond de Turenne (1352-1413)

Biography

He is the son of Guillaume III Roger, count de Beaufort and Viscount of Turenne, and Aliénor de Comminges.

Its first years

Member of the high aristocracy limousine and of Provence, Raymond de Turenne is related with two popes of Avignon. He is the small nephew of Clément VI and the nephew of Gregoire XI. Husband of Marie of Boulogne, niece of Jeanne, the second wife of Jean II the Good, it can prevail himself of his relations with the court of France, for which it fights in Flandres (ride of Bourbourg), and of those with the Papauté of Avignon from which it orders the troops in Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy and war against the Eight Saints of Florence).

Raymond made his first weapons, in March 1368, against Bertrand of Guesclin to the seat of Tarascon, the battle of Arles and Céreste, close to Apt, where the truck drivers of Breton crushed the ost of Provence. He took part then in the repression of “hard” which had revolted against the exactions of the two armies (1).

With the return of its first countryside of Italy, where it had been made knight of weapons in front of Cuneo by Amédée VI of Savoy in 1372, it does not seem to have taken part in the bloody repression of the Tue-Chiens in Languedoc. It was the fact of her father and Gantonnet d' Abzac, its future lieutenant. On the other hand, Raymond engaged their survivors and made them fight against bribed Budos which wanted to take again its Château of Doors.

Strongholds of the Roger of Beaufort

In addition to the Viscount of Turenne and Châlus that his/her father will give to him in usufruct at the time of his marriage in October 1375, the family of Raymond de Turenne has many strongholds in Provence of which the Beams, Saint-Rémy, Pertuis, Meyrargues, Warp ends, etc in the Baronnies: Séderon, Châteauneuf-with-Mazenc, Savasse, and in Rhone-native Languedoc: Ales, Anduze, Bagnols-sur-Cèze, Cornillon, Door-Bertrand, Saint-Etienne-Valley-Frenchwoman, etc In reward of the military exploits of his/her son in Italy, Guillaume III Roger of Beaufort was seen giving on December 8th 1373, by the emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg, of the strongholds to Tuscany in évêché of Chiusi and the jurisdiction of Cortona (2).

Its war in Provence

Raymond de Turenne, who was Capitaine of the Weapons of the Comtat Venaissin and Capitaine pontifical in Italy, remains especially known by the war and plunderings which he undertook in Provence, in Baronnies and in Valdaine, with the doors of Montélimar (3), between 1389 and 1399, after the second dynasty angevine of the counts de Provence reconsidered the donations carried out by the queen Jeanne. But in its thesis supported in Montreal (Quebec), in August 1994, Régis Veydarier (4) showed why, in feudal right, the Viscount could only enter in armed conflict with the papal capacity (Clément VII and Benoît XIII) or comtal (Marie of Blois) which had despoiled it.

Regarded as " The Plague of Provence" , there however remained particularly appreciated by the Court of France. On January 27th and 28th 1390, at the time of the stay of the king in Avignon, Clément VII, who did not have that the name of Raymond de Turenne to the mouth, insisted that the royal army neutralized it. The Marmousets, which had their plan, did not hear it this ear and advised with the pope to treat.

Clement VII learned whereas, in this case only, Charles VI would be ready to enter Rome to install it on the throne of Saint-Pierre. In same time, the kingdom of Naples would return to Louis II of Anjou, cousin of the king, with Raymond de Turenne as General Capitaine, the county of Provence becoming the prerogative of Louis II of Bourbon which would name Guillaume Roger of Beaufort seneshal. A union between the second house of Anjou and the Roger of Beaufort was even considered.

But this union which had ceased having the royal favor did not make. The Council of Roy preferred to choose Jean II Meingre, Boucicaut marshal. June 25th 1393, in Abbeville, two royal emissary accepted instructions concerning the marriage of the marshal with Antoinette de Turenne, union to which was favorable his/her father.

These letters of assignment contain the famous paragraph that some regard as apocryphal book: “If nostre Saint Father or others disoient that one treated or had treated marriage of the brother (Charles de Tarente) of known as king de Sicile with the aforementioned girl (Antoinette), that it is answered that the aforementioned lord Raymond said that it aimeroit better than his daughter had died than than she was married with the brother of the known as king. Because he is too large lord. And please marry it with man of whom it can be been useful and that it leaves it honoured being, and not with lord in front of which him faudroit to kneel”.

The union between Boucicaut and Antoinette de Turenne took place with the castle of Beam-in-Provence, on December 23rd, 1393, in the presence of Raymond de Turenne. In January 1394, Guillaume Roger of Beaufort informed his/her son that he considered that its grand-daughter “meschamment was meschamment married” in this Boucicaut “has if grant dishonor and shame of nostre chalk-lining”.

End of its life

Contrary to a legend as false as tough, Raymond did not die not drowned in the Rhone in 1399. But it settled in its Viscount of Turenne where it is known under the name of Raymond VIII.

We find it indeed, on April 4th, 1402, in Brantes, the foot of Ventoux, at the time of a transaction between Odon de Villars, husband of its Alix niece of the Beams, and Philippe de Lévis, their nephew, who was to go guarantee with respect to Raymond in the observation of this agreement between the Viscount, Odon and Alix. In the event of non-observance, the latter began to pay 50.000 guilders with Raymond VIII of Turenne (5).

February 11th, 1408 (3 of the ides of February), Benoît XIII, who resides then at Oporto-Venerates, in the gulf of Genoa, at the request of the marshal Boucicaut, son-in-law of the Viscount and governor of the Superb Republic for France, raises the excommunication of Raymond de Turenne and discharge of all the censures gives him which it had incurred so far as well under the pontificate of Clement VII as under his. Raymond VIII even made accept by the pope that Ameil of Breuil, the archbishop of Turns, was charged to exonerate it. With this date the Viscount was to be in his county of Beaufort-in-Valley, depend on the archdiocese of Turns (6).

Lastly, on September 22nd, 1411, Charles VI sends a letter to its Seneshal of the Limousin about a complaint which addressed to him “its heart and ferroaluminium cousin Raymond de Turenne, count de Beaufort and of Alest (Ales), Viscount of Turenne and Valernes” concerning the fortress of Cazillac which is in the middle of the Viscount of Turenne and is used as den to the enemies of the king. Charles VI gives reason to the Viscount and request with the Seneshal to make it destroy (7).

Antoinette, only daughter of Raymond VIII, and his/her Boucicaut son-in-law, declared viscountess and Viscount of Turenne only on April 4th 1413. Raymond de Turenne thus died undoubtedly in the current of March of this year. On the other hand, one still does not know where nor how and its place of burial remains still unknown.

Random links: