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Historical person
1185–1209
Raymond Roger Trencavel was the young viscount of Béziers, Carcassonne, Albi and Razès when the Albigensian Crusade entered Languedoc in 1209.
Trencavel attempted to defend his territories after Béziers was sacked and Carcassonne was besieged. He surrendered after negotiations and died in captivity later in 1209. His fall allowed Simon de Montfort to take control of the Trencavel lands.
In Kate Mosse’s Labyrinth, Trencavel’s court and the siege of Carcassonne provide the political setting for Alaïs’s story. His defeat marks the collapse of the local authority protecting the city and its mixed religious population.
Series
The Languedoc Trilogy links three periods of southern French history through recurring landscapes, hidden manuscripts and the long memory of religious violence. Labyrinth moves between the Albigensian Crusade in 1209 and an archaeological discovery in 2005; Sepulchre connects 1891 with a modern investigation; and Citadel follows a women-led…
All books in this series
