Resumen de L'habitat seigneurial en Haut-Languedoc (Xe-XIVe s.). Approche archéologique de l'aristocratie méridionale

Florence Journot

• English

  During the tenth and eleventh centuries seigniorial habitation seems to have been sparse. Although their sites had generally been determined by the public authorities in function of the road network, residences were probably controlled by the occupants. This state of affairs seems to have favoured an individualism of tenants prejudicial to higher forms of government. From the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, the appropriation of land for roads and mining made it difficult for the Vicount of Beziers to preserve his border regions. As for the Bishop of Lodève, he divided his territory up into sections : the most important around the city, and the others, dominated by small castra or fortiae, on secondary roads. The castle remained a simple construction, composed of several buildings housing the different members of a family wielding but a fragmented power.

• français

  Les Xe-XIe s. sont caractérisés par un habitat seigneurial sommaire, probablement commandité par ceux qui y habitent, mais dont la situation est choisie par l'autorité publique, essentiellement par rapport aux routes ; cette situation a dû rapidement favoriser l'individualisme des tenants au détriment de l'autorité supérieure. Aux XIIe-XIVe s., routes et mines sont les bases principales d'une appropriation de l'espace que le vicomte de Béziers a du mal à maintenir sur ses marges. Quant à l'évêque de Lodève il quadrille son territoire : points-clés autour de la cité et petits castra ou fortiae sur les axes secondaires. Le château reste encore une construction simple, juxtaposition de plusieurs logis où coexistent les membres d'une caste au pouvoir fragmenté.