Raymond VI of Toulouse

Raymond VI of Toulouse (October 27, 1156 – August 2, 1222) was count of Toulouse from 1194 to 1222.

He was a son of Raymond V and Constance of France. His maternal grandparents were Louis VI of France and his second wife Adélaide de Maurienne. His maternal uncles included Louis VII of France.

Raymond VI he succeeded his father in 1194. He immediately reestablished peace with both Alfonso II of Aragon and with the Trencavel.

He was married no less than six times. His first wife, Ermesinde, Countess of Melgueil, died in 1176 without issue. His second wife was Beatrix de Carcassone, whom he divorced in 1189. Raymond and Beatrix had one daughter:

1. Constance of Toulouse, married King Sancho VII of Navarre

Raymond then married for a third time to Bourgogne, daughter of King Amalric II of Jerusalem and his first wife Eschiva of Ibelin, daughter of Baldwin of Ibelin. He divorced her in 1194. In October 1197 at Rouen, he married Joan Plantagenet, but she fled from him in 1199 and died in childbirth. Their only surviving child was:

1. Raymond VII of Toulouse (1197-1249)

His fifth relationship (marriage, some say) to a daughter of Isaac Comnenus of Cyprus, had ended by 1202. His sixth and final wife was Leonor, daughter of King Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile.

In Toulouse, he maintained the communal freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and extended his protection to the communal territory. A poet and a man of culture, he hated war but did not lack energy, as shown by his dispute with the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau, representative of Pope Innocent III. Pierre's assassination on January 15, 1208 led to Raymond's excommunication. The excommunication was lifted after Raymond humbled himself before the Pope.

After the capture and massacre of Béziers, the siege and capture of Carcassonne, and the death of Raymond-Roger of Trencavel, he moved his camp, was again excommunited by the Council of Montpellier in 1211, and tried to organize resistance against the Albigensian Crusade. More of a diplomat than a soldier, he was unable to stop of the advance of Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, who conquered Toulouse. Raymond was exiled to England under his former brother-in-law John Plantagenet.

In May of 1216, his son Raymond VII of Toulouse besieged Beaucaire and captured it on August 24. On September 12, 1217, he recaptured Toulouse, which Simon de Montfort immediately besieged again. Simon was killed there but his son Amaury VI of Montfort took his place. The failure of the crusade of Louis VIII permitted Raymond to recover most of his county.

Preceded by: Raymond V

Count of Toulouse

Succeeded by: Raymond VII