Aside from theoretically owing allegiance to the King of France, Raymond held Provence as a vassal of the Holy Roman Emperor.

[citation needed] According to Henri Pirenne, "At the end of the 12th century Languedoc was swarming with those mystics who aspired to lead the Church and the age back to apostolic simplicity, condemning both the religious hierarchy and the social order".

[4] At first Innocent III tried to deal with the Cathars by peaceful conversion, sending into the affected regions a number of legates or representatives.

Papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was sent to address Raymond's tolerance for the practice of the Cathars, but withdrew for six months in 1206 out of concerns for his safety.

Raymond's son set out from Marseille to regain the family territories in Provence; in May 1216 he besieged Beaucaire and captured it on August 24.

Simon was killed during the siege (25 June 1218);[11] his son Amaury VI of Montfort took his place, and for five years the Crusade faltered.

The failure of Louis VIII's campaigns, from 1219 to 1226, finally permitted Raymond, and his son and successor, to recover most of their territories.

[13] In 1998, there was a new twist to this story: during excavations at the Hôtel Saint-Jean in Toulouse, the site of the former Grand Priory of the Knights Hospitaller, a medieval sarcophagus was discovered, and for a moment it was believed that it might contain the bones of Raymond VI.

The mayor of Toulouse, Dominique Baudis, took the opportunity to ask the Pope to lift Raymond VI's excommunication, without success.

Raymond argued successfully for city freedoms, extended exemptions from taxation, and protection of the communal territory from the church.