Toulouse: Esclarmonde the Black, Queen of Toulouse Once upon a time, Esclarmonde’s court resounded with music, songs, and poetry. The most talented troubadours and minstrels from northern Spain and the counties of Toulouse and Provence performed for her guests. Cathars, Christians, Jews, Moors, and members of both the lower and upper clans were all welcome at her court, provided they possessed talent. Some elders remember that she was embraced during Abd al-Rahmân’s campaign against the Franks between 729 and 732. She fought the Moorish Cainites during the first decades of her unlife, before the region became stable and allowed a certain way of life to develop.