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- BIOGRAPHY
Bernard was the son of Dodo dit Bernardo III de Comminges, comte de Comminges, seigneur de Samatan, and an illegitimate daughter of Alfonse Jordain, comte de Toulouse, duc de Narbonne. He was count of Comminges from 1176 to his death. On the death of his father in May 1176, he shared his father's estate with his brother Roger, who received the viscounty of Couserans.
About 1180 Bernard married Stéphanie dite Béatrix, comtesse de Bigorre, vicomtesse de Marsan, widow of Pierre, vicomte de Dax, and only child of Centulle III, comte de Bigorre, vicomte de Marsan, and Matelle de Baux. Their daughter Pétronille would have progeny.
From 1180 to 1195 he held the city of St. Lizier and drove out three successive bishops, until the pope intervened and designated Navarre, bishop of Couserans, as his legate in charge of the fight against the Cathars.
In 1192, having raided Bigorre he separated from Stéphanie, and in 1195 he married Comters de La Barthe, daughter of Arnaud-Guilhem I de La Barthe and his wife Navarre. They had a son Bernard V who would have progeny.
In 1197 Bernard divorced Comters on grounds of consanguinity, and on 7 December that year he married Marie de Montpellier, dame de Montpellier, dame de Muret, daughter of Guillem VIII de Montpellier, seigneur de Montpellier, Castries and Castelnau, and Eudokia Komnena. They had two daughters, Mathilde and Pétronille, who did not have progeny.
In 1201 Bernard and Marie separated. According to some sources, Marie left him to marry Pedro II, king of Aragón. According to others the king asked him to give up Marie in exchange for the cession to Bernard of the Val d'Aran, either because Pedro II had fallen in love with Marie, or more prosaically because he wished to seize the lordship of Montpellier and strengthen his presence in the Languedoc. Bernard then resumed married life with Comters de La Barthe and by her fathered another son Arnaud-Roger who would become bishop of Comminges.
Bernard also fathered two other daughters, Delphine who would be abbess of Esclache, and Mascarosse. The identity of the mother is unclear.
From a cautious neutrality in the Albigensian Crusade during the sieges of Beziers and Carcassonne, Bernard allied with Raymond VII, comte de Toulouse when he was attacked by the crusade's leader Simon V de Montfort. He took part in the fighting at Castelnaudary and Muret. In 1212 Simon de Montfort occupied Comminges, but the Lateran Council returned his county to Bernard in 1216, provided that he give his daughter Pétronille in marriage to Guy de Montfort, the youngest son of Simon V de Montfort. During the revolt of Occitania against de Montfort, he took part with his troops in the defence of Toulouse, then that of Marmande. At the request of the pope he ceased fighting in September 1220.
Bernard died on 22 February 1225.
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