A letter from Ermengard and Raymond Bernard

Translated letter:

In the name of the Lord.  I Raymond-Bernard viscount and viscountess Ermengard his wife we together as one are sellers to you lord Raymond count of Barcelona and lady Almodis countess by this document of our sale.  We sell you the whole county of Razès with all its appurtenances and both those castles of Razès and all other castles which are in said county or which pertain to that county or ought to pertain or have pertained, and all their castellancies, and moreover all the abbeys which are in said county and pertain to that county or ought to pertain or have pertained, with all their allods, tithes, and first fruits, and the offerings of the faithful and all their appurtenances.  We sell you the aforesaid county with all its said castles, abbeys, churches, towns and all the domains which pertain or ought to pertain or have pertained to said county, and with all others honors, customary payments, and every uncultivated land and cultivated, and hills and rocks and woods with all the meadows and pastures, mountain land or plains, houses and mills and milling rights, waterways (aquis aquarum), markets and tolls and market-fees, pasture rights, barren lands, rights to provisions, payments, viaducts and highways (viae ductibus vel reductibus) and all other things which can be said or named which pertain or should pertain to said county and that whole viscounty and all its appurtenances and jurisdictions, and all other things which pertain to said county and viscounty in whatever way.  Said county borders in the east on the county of Narbonne, in the south on the county of Roussillon, Couffoulens and Cerdagne, in the west on the county of Toulouse, in the north on the county of Carcassonne.  As said county is enclosed within these aforesaid  borders, so we sell said county and all that is detailed above, to be your own allod to do whatever you wish.  We accept, however, from you as the price of said county a thousand ounces of gold by weight.  Said county and all that has been detailed we sell you and pronounce and determine wholly without any diminishing, without any reservation, without any retention on our part, to do all that you might wish with said county and all the things pertaining to it.  Which if we the sellers should etc.* then we would pay you or your posterity double and moreover this sale of ours or determination would remain firm for all time.  This was enacted 6 nones of March, in the year 1067 from Christ’s Incarnation in the 8th year of the reign of king Philip.  Sign of Raymond Bernard viscount.  Sign of Ermengard viscountess, his wife, who [we] made and signed this sale or determination and asked witnesses to sign.  Peter, priest, who as requested wrote the sheet of this bestowal and subscribed it on the day and year stated. 

Original letter:

In nomine Domini.  Ego Raymundus Bernardi vicecomes & Ermengardis vicecomitissa uxor ejus, nos simul in unum venditores sumus vobis domno Raymundo Barcheonae comiti & domnae Adalmodi comitissae per hanc scripturam nostrae venditionis.  Vendimus vobis totum ipsum comitatum de Redez cum omnibus suis pertinentiis, et ipsos ambos castros de Redez, & totos alios castellos qui in jamdicto comitatu sunt, vel qui ad ipsum comitatum pertinent vel pertinere debent vel pertinuerunt, & totas illorum castellanias, insuper & totas abbatias quae in jamdicto comitatu sunt, vel quae ad ipsum comitatum pertinent vel pertinere debent vel pertinuerunt, cum totos illorum alodios, decimas & primitias, & fidelium oblationes, & omnes illarum pertinentias.  Vendimus vobis jacdictum comitatum cum supradictis omnibus castellis, vel abbatiis, ecclesiis, villis, & totis dominicaturis quae pertinent vel pertinere debent vel pertinuerunt ad jamdictum comitatum, & cum totis aliis honoribus, & usaticos, & totum eremum vel condirectum, & pujos, & rochas, & sylvas cum totis pratis & pascuis, tam montuosis similter & planis, domibus, & molendinis & molendinariis, aquis acquarum, mercatis & teloneis & leddas, pascuariis, garricis, albergas, placitos viae ductibus vel reductibus, &  omnes alias res quae possunt dici vel nominari quae pertinent vel pertinere debent vel pertinuerunt ad jamdictum comitatum, & totum ipsum vicecomitatum, & totas earum pertinentias & justitias, & omnes alias res pertinent ad jamdictum comitatum vel ad vicecomitatum qualicumque modo.  Affrontat autem praedictus comitatus a parte Orientis in comitatu Narbonensi, de Meridie in comitatu Rossilionense & Confluente & Ceritaniae, de Occiduo in comitatu Tolosanensi, de Aquilone in comitatu Carcassensi.  Sicut includitur jamdictus comitatus infra has praedictas affrontationes sic vendimus vobis praedictum comitatum & praedicta omnia, ut sit vester proprius alodus ad faciendum quodcumque volueritis.  Accepimus autem a vobis in pretium pro praedicto comitatu uncias auri mille ad pensum.  Praedictum comitatum & praedicta omnia vendimus vobis & jactimus & diffinimus integriter sine ulla minoratione, & sine ulla reservatione, & sine ulla nostra retentione, ad faciendum hoc totum quod volueritis de praedicto comitatu & de omnibus rebus sibi pertinentibus.  Quod si nos venditores, etc., in duplum vobis aut vestrae posteritati componamus aut componat, & insuper haec nostra venditio vel diffinitio omni tempore firma permaneat.  Actum est hoc VI nonas martii, anno ab Incarnatione Christi MLXVII, VIII regni Philippi regis.  S. Raymundi-Bernardi vicecomiti.  S. Ermingardis vicecomitissae uxor ejus, qui hanc venditionem vel diffinitionem fecimus & firmavimus, & testes firmare rogavimus.  Petrus presbyter qui hujus scedulam largitionis rogatus scripsit & subscripsit die & anno praefixo.

Historical context:

This is the first recorded sale of Razès with assorted castles and abbeys by Ermengard and her husband to the count and countess of Barcelona, territory that was not altogether in their control.  The sale is partly a way to assert Ermengard’s right to that territory against the claims of her cousin Roger, count of Foix.  According to the HGL (3.362, bk 14, ch 66), to ensure the sale the viscount and viscountess gave as hostage two of their principal vassals who surrendered as prisoners at Girone.  They are mentioned in #294 (June 27, 1070). 

Scholarly notes:

* Presumably this passage described how they might break the contract.  

Printed source:

Histoire Générale de Languedoc 5.549-51, 280.2, CCXXXV; also in Liber Feudorum Maior, ed. Francisco M. Rosell, Barcelona, 1945, 2.300-01, # 817.  

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