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The imposing château
at Villandraut, France has always been known as "the castle of Pope
Clement", so it seems appropriate that this first paragraph should be
dedicated to him. Raymond Bertrand de Goth was born in 1264, the
son of Bérand de Goth, Lord
of Villandraut, and Ida de Blanquefort, presumably daughter of the lord
of that town, also near Bordeaux. While the couple likely had
other children, the only one mentioned is their first son, also Bérand de Goth, who
was born in 1250, 14 years before Raymond. It
is important to
note from the beginning that Bérand [the brother]
was Archdeacon of Auch before he was made Archbishop of Lyon in 1289,
and in 1297 [the year he died] he also became Primate of All Gaul and
Duke of Lyon. His younger brother, Raymond, studied arts and law
at Toulouse, Orléans and Bologna,
and was canon at the Cathedral of Saint André
in Bordeaux, when his brother appointed him his Vicar-General [principal
deputy]. When Bérand was elected
Cardinal-Bishop of Albino [Italy] in 1294, Raymond became Bishop of
St-Bertrand-de-Comminges, and soon was chaplain to Pope Boniface VIII,
who, in 1297, appointed him Archbishop of Bordeaux. Following the
death of Pope Boniface IX in 1304, the nearly evenly split Italian and
French cardinals elected Raymond pope in June 1305 and he was
consecrated on November 14 of that year. Taking the name Clement V, the
new French Pope headed the Roman Catholic Church until his death in
1314. One of first official acts was to create nine new French
cardinals, including his wealthy nephew,
Gaillard de la Mothe, who immediately
began construction of his own castle-residence in nearby Roquetaillade
[see my #27 & 137!] Nepotism run rampant, unfortunately. Now
on to the castle.
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