[2] After Pippin the Short conquered Septimania, his successor Charlemagne imposed an administration where Frankish counts were established in key cities such as Toulouse.

The first count, Fredelo (appointed by Pippin II) ruled the Toulouse region under the sovereignty of the king of Francia in the 840s.

Later in the 12th century, the county was affected by the Albigensian Crusade, and by 1229, the Treaty of Paris saw Toulouse formally submitted to the crown of France, ending its independence.

Septimania, the Visigothic province roughly corresponding to the later county of Toulouse, fell briefly to the Emirate of Córdoba in the 750s before it was conquered into Francia by Pippin the Short in 759 following the Siege of Narbonne.

Because of this event, Hunald II, son of the late Duke Waifer, raised an insurrection against Frankish power in Aquitaine.

On his way back the famous event of Roncesvalles (Roncevaux in French) occurred: Charlemagne's rear-guard was attacked in the pass of the same name by some Basque warriors.

This led him to realize that Frankish power in Gascony and Aquitaine was still feeble, and that the local populations were not entirely loyal to the Franks.

Louis the Pious had three sons, and in 817 he arranged an early allocation of the shares in the future inheritance of the empire where Pippin was confirmed king in Aquitaine.

In 823, Charles the Bald was born from the second wife of Louis the Pious which caused a succession crisis among the ruling circle, this eventually led to the decentralization of the Frankish empire.

In practice, during the years 870–890, the central power was so weakened that the counts in southern France achieved complete autonomy.

After Raoul's death, another faction succeeded in establishing an English bred Carolingian prince to the throne, Louis IV.

Eventually, on the death of the Carolingian king of France Louis V in 987, the Robertian faction succeeded in having its chief, Hugh Capet elected to the French throne.

The counts of Toulouse had extended their rule to the Mediterranean coast, but they would not long enjoy the large domain they had succeeded in carving out for themselves.

By the end of the 10th century, France was ruled by thousands of local rulers who controlled only one town, or one castle and the few villages around.

Between 900 and 980 the counts of Toulouse gradually lost control over the county, with the emergence of local dynastic rulers in every part of it.

Abd al-Rahman III of Córdoba managed to reunite Muslim Spain and launched an offensive against the northern Christian kingdoms and went as far north as Toulouse, without capturing the city.

However, Toulouse was perhaps faring a little better than northern France in the sense that its proximity to Muslim Spain meant there was a strong flow of knowledge and culture coming from the schools and printing houses of Córdoba.

At the beginning of the second millennium, the drifting attitude of the clergy and the confiscation of the Church by the Toulouse administration initiated a degradation of the worship.

In Saint-Sernin, he met a strong opposition in the person of Raimond Gayrard, a provost who had just built a hospital for the poor and was proposing to build a basilica.

Supported by count Guilhem IV, Saint Raymond finally gained permission from Pope Urban II to dedicate the building in 1096.

In 1152 we have traces of a commune consilium Tolosae making police ordinances in its own name "with the advice of Lord Raymond, count of Toulouse, duke of Narbonne, and marquis of Provence".

Twenty-three years later there were twelve capitularii or consuls, six for the city and six for its suburbs, all of them elected and sworn to do justice in whatever municipal matters were brought before them.

With twenty-four members, probably elected, the Capitouls granted themselves the rights of police, trade, imposition and started some conflicts with the closest cities.

In 1222 the number of capitularii was increased to twenty-four; but they were forbidden to touch the city property, which was to remain in the charge of certain communarii chosen by themselves.

Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, a Catholic, who was excommunicated for his dispute with the pope, later sympathised with the heretics because he saw the crusade take an unholy path with the extermination at Bézier.

Though Simon was practically the Count of Toulouse by 1214, it was not until Pope Innocent III's decision following the Fourth Council of the Lateran in November 1215 that it was made official.

Raymond VI recognized the support he had received from the population, helping him to preserve his interests, gave up his last prerogatives to the Capitouls.

The county's sole heiress Joan was engaged to Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, a younger brother of Louis IX of France.

Reinforcing its place as an administrative center, the city grew richer, participating in the trade of Bordeaux wine with England, as well as cereals and textiles.

Particularly with the Liber Judiciorum as codified in 642/643 and expanded on in the Code of Recceswinth in 653, women could inherit land and title and manage it independently from their husbands or male relations, dispose of their property in legal wills if they had no heirs, and women could represent themselves and bear witness in court by age 14 and arrange for their own marriages by age 20.