The Cross of Toulouse and the House of Toulouse.
 The
city of Toulouse lies well outside the borders of the Languedoc-Roussillon. Anyone
new to the area might therefore imagine that there is no connection between the
two. On the contrary, there are very powerful links between all of the ancient
territories ruled by the family of Saint-Gilles throughout the early Middle Ages.
The family of St-Gilles, Counts
of Toulouse, were once one of the most powerful families in Europe, ruling
an area rather bigger than that then controlled by the King of France. To take
one example of how strong the ancient links still are, their heraldic device,
the Cross
of Toulouse, is still in daily use throughout their ancient territories. You
will see it everywhere you go in the Languedoc. The present four departements
of the Languedoc all feature the Cross of Toulouse in their coats of arms - as
do a further five departments outside the Languedoc. They were all previously
part of the old Province of Languedoc, roughly corresponding the territories ruled
by the medieval Counts of Toulouse.
Some people mistakenly refer to the
Cross of Toulouse as the Cathar
Cross. For others the Cross of Toulouse is inextricably linked to the language
spoken in the Counts' territories, Occitan,
the first modern literary language of Europe, the famous language of the Troubadours.
For yet others the Cross of Toulouse is linked not just
with the Occitan language, but with Occitan culture. Occitan
speaking areas share more than language: they share a history,
a cuisine, architectural styles, traditional lifestyles,
a cast of mind, and of course ancient allegiances. For some
the Toulouse cross has been adapted as the badge of movement
dedicated to establishing Occitania
as an independent state. Supporters of Independence were
not the only ones to consider the political detaching of
Toulouse from the Languedoc, as one more in a long line
of irritating attempts by the centralising French State
to break the emotional link between an ancient capital and
its traditional heartland.
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Similar observations hold for Aragon
and Catalonia. Catalonia belonged to the Kings
of Aragon and Aragonese possessions north of the the
Pyrenees
( Pirenčus,
Pirineus,
Pyrénées)
once stretched to Provence. The old Aragonese County
of the Roussillon might be called the département
of the Pyrénées-Orientales now, but
it is still strongly Catalan and many on both sides
of the modern French-Spanish border look forward to
reunion as an independent state. Its coat of arms
is the coat of arms of the old Counts of Roussillon,
and is identical to the arms of Aragon.
Click on the following link for more on the The
House of Toulouse
... or see the menu below for related information.
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An introduction to heraldry 
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