The Lords of Durban

 

The strange interests of a doctor

Dr. Paul Courrent is fondly remembered in Rennes-les-Bains, where a garden in the centre of the town has been named after him. What is less known, is that he was a primary witness in the last few days of Saunière’s life, and thus may have stumbled upon one or more deathbed confessions of Saunière, if there were any. Interestingly, following the own doctor’s death more than three decades later, an interesting archive was stolen from his home – which could be directly linked with the mystery.
In between, when Dr. Courrent retired, he settled in Embres-et-Castelmaure, just outside of Durban-Corbières, a site known to have been visited by Saunière himself. Furthermore, upon his retirement, Courrent began to write a history of the Lords of Durban-Gléon. The Société Perillos was able to recover this handwritten genealogy, which we have used in our various presentations on the history of the lords of Perillos, for following the annexation of the Languedoc-Roussillon to the French Crown, the title of “lords of Perillos” was transferred to the Lords of Durban, who thus also took possession of the archives of Perillos. After the French Revolution, portions of these archives then ended up with certain families in Durban, and it were specifically these families that received a visit from Saunière.

Controversy

As usual in the story of Rennes-le-Château, following the announcement of our discovery, there were allegations that “we” – and specifically André Douzet – had handwritten this genealogy, that it was “clearly” “another” fake, and all of this to support the “ludicrous” notion that all roads of the Rennes-le-Château mystery lead to Perillos.

But thanks to the research of Jérôme Landgrafe, “we” can now announce that such criticism is entirely ill-founded. What “we” were able to trace, was the published version of this handwritten manuscript, which is, largely one-on-one with the manuscript in our possession.

The published version

The published version is called "Recherches sur le Département de l'Aude, Avec Illustrations et Blasons, 2me série", identifies Dr. Paul Courrent as the author and was published by "Les Imprimeries Gabelle » in Carcassonne.
It contains the following printing information: “25 copies are numbered from I to XXV, with a further 150 copies numbered 1 to 150.” It is in this book that Courrent entered the genealogy of the Treilles-Gléon-Durban.

Upon its discovery, we noted that we did not know which source material Courrent used to construct his genealogy. In the published account, Courrent does provide some detail, listing, amongst others:
- "Généalogie de la Maison de Treilles" by de Beaujon,
- the manuscript of the Maison de Rieux in the library of Carcassonne,
- parish registers from Villesèque des Corbières,
- information from the Gléon family itself (owned by M.H. Bonnes).

The written account

Rather than take our word for it, we reproduce the pages, namely pages 79 to 81, that our relevant to us, and confirm what we have said elsewhere.

Observations

We note how various members of the Durban-Gléon family were “Knights in the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem” as well as the Order of Malta. Interestingly, it is Jean Baptiste François de Gléon, the marquis of Gléon, who married in 1749. He thus became a knight in this illustrious order shortly after Ramon de Perellos y Roccafull had been grandmaster of that order. Coincidence?
But in previous generations, we also note that Edouard de Gléon married, with Pope Gregory XIII’s dispensation, Gabrielle de Voisins de Cornebarrieu, his cousin. Courrent notes that these lords “de Voisins” came from the Pierre de Voisins line, and that this man was once the lord of Couiza and Limoux… the area of Rennes-le-Château and a man who has a primary role in the mystery of that other village.

Such observations should help further cement the role of Durban in both the mystery of Rennes-le-Château and Perillos. The town featured as a half-way house for Saunière, to go from the former and learn about the latter. Of course, Courrent was also a contemporary of Henri Boudet, the priest of Rennes-les-Bains, whom before his stay there, had been a vicar of Durban, with access to certain parish records of Perillos. Indeed, perhaps Courrent did not learn his information from Saunière, but from Boudet?

Filip Coppens