Genealogical chart of the Viscounts Trencavel of Carcassonne. From, Histoire de Carcassonne. Privat, 1990

MIDDLE AGES THE TRENCAVEL DYNASTY The Viscounts of Trencavel : XIth-XIIth centuries  rom the XIth Century, the possessions of the Couserans were extended to the counties of Nîmes and Albi with the alliance between Ermengarde and Raimond Bernard Trencavel. Their son, Bernard Aton, was thus at the head of a vast principality that encompassed Carcassonne, Béziers, Limoux, Agde, Albi and Nîmes. His reign, from 1074 to 1129, marked an important stage in the topography of the city. The Narbonnais castle, which tradition places on the site of the towers of the same name, was abandoned in favour of a new residence, the palatium, which was built around 1120 against the ancient fortifications on the western facade. It was built shortly after the cathedral dedicated to Saint Nazaire and Saint Celse. The town, which had doubtless already been extended extra-muros around the Year One Thousand to encompass the suburbs of Saint-Vincent and Saint-Michel, was governed from 1192 by a consulate made up of leading citizens and bourgeois but did not receive a charte de coutume till between 1209 and 1229.

The Viscounts of Trencavel  XIth-XIIth centuries  The Trencavels and  the Crusade against the  Albigensians : 1209-1229  From the Siege of 1240  to the Creation of  the Royal Bastide