Le Vicomte Raymond Roger arrêté en trahison par ordre du légat

This illustration by Charles-Joseph Mettais, titled “Viscount Raymond Roger Arrested by Order of the Legate,” depicts the arrest of Raymond-Roger Trencavel, viscount of Béziers and Carcassonne, in the context of the Albigensian Crusade in 1209. The scene shows the southern lord seized in a solemn and tense setting, surrounded by ecclesiastical dignitaries and armed figures, emphasizing the political and religious dimension of the episode. The image refers to the moment when, after the sack of Béziers and the siege of Carcassonne, Raymond-Roger was arrested by order of the papal legate, an episode emblematic of the collapse of southern powers in the face of the crusade. Published in Histoire populaire de la France, volume 1, Paris, Hachette, 1862, this engraving belongs to the nineteenth-century tradition of historical illustration, which sought to dramatize major episodes of the French past.