“Tranchetoison”. Onomastics, heraldry, and sigillography in the house of Viscount Trencavel (eleventh-thirteenth century)
Type de matériel :
22
This work re-examines the use of the Occitan nickname “Trencavel”, which the Viscounts of Béziers, Carcassonne, Albi, and Razès adopted from the eleventh century until their disappearance from the political scene at the end of the thirteenth century. The semantic construction of this descriptor leads us to translate and understand it as the equivalent of “Tranchetoison”. An analysis of the seals and heraldry that the family bore enables us to place the adoption and inclusion of vair in the canting arms of the princes at the end of the twelfth century ( c. 1180), encoding a name that evolved during the time when the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) instigated a dynastic break. The attempts of the heir to recover his ancestral domains were accompanied by a formal modification of the paternal arms, before the King of France himself changed heraldic fur to signify the devolution of the vicontiel domain to King Louis IX, as well as the end of the heroic acts of the “Tranchetoison” house.
Réseaux sociaux