Individual

Go to List of Family Names Go to List of People    < Previous Next >

Birth:          ABT 22 Oct 1071 France
Death:          10 Feb 1127 France

Notes
VII: Poitou, IX: Aquitaine
Crusader
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IX,_Duke_of_Aquitaine
William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm de Peitieus; Guilhem de Poitou French: Guillaume de 
Poitiers,) (22 October 1071 – 10 February 1127), called the Troubador, was the Duke 
of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his 
death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political 
and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as 
the earliest troubadour[1] — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose 
work survived.
Ducal career[edit]

William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife, Hildegarde of 
Burgundy. His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court, but the 
Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father's earlier divorces and 
his parents' consanguinity. This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon 
after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William's 
legitimacy.

Early career, 1088–1102[edit]

William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father. It has 
been generally believed that he was first married in 1088, at age sixteen, to 
Ermengarde, daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou. Biographers have described Ermengarde as 
beautiful and well-educated, though suffering from severe mood swings. However, 
Ruth Harvey's 1993 critical investigation shows the assumption of William's marriage 
to Ermengarde to be based largely on an error in a nineteenth-century secondary 
source and it is highly likely that Philippa of Toulouse was William's only wife.[2]

Further research[3] has found the claim that William was married to "Hermingerda", 
daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou is based on the very unreliable chronicle of William of 
Tyre, written between 1169 and 1187, more than 70 years after the events in question 
would have taken place. Tyre erroneously identifies Ermengarde's mother as Bertrade 
of Montfort, the sister of Amalricus de Montfort when her mother was in fact Audearde 
or Hildegarde of Beaugency. Tyre's chronicle lacks any contemporary corroboration, 
no primary text ever mentions a marriage between William and Ermengarde. It is 
therefore not only improbable that William married Ermengarde, it is likely that 
Ermengarde - at least as a wife of William - never existed.

In 1094, William married Philippa, the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse.
[4] By Philippa, William had two sons and five daughters, including his eventual 
successor, William X. His second son, Raymond,[5] eventually became the Prince of 
Antioch in the Holy Land, and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars 
and then Ramiro II of Aragon,[6] reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house.

William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court. The pope 
urged him to "take the cross" (i.e. the First Crusade) and leave for the Holy Land, but 
William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of 
Toulouse, his wife's uncle, to press her claim to Toulouse. He and Philippa did 
capture Toulouse in 1098, an act for which they were threatened with 
excommunication. Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities 
and partly out of a wish to see the world, William joined the Crusade of 1101, an 
expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099. To finance it, he had 
to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand, the son of Raymond IV.

The Duchess was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel, and persuaded William to grant 
him land in northern Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin 
Mary. This became Fontevraud Abbey, which would enjoy the patronage of their 
granddaughter Eleanor and would remain important until its dissolution during the 
French Revolution.

William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year. His 
record as a military leader is not very impressive. He fought mostly skirmishes in 
Anatolia and was frequently defeated. His recklessness led to his being ambushed on 
several occasions, with great losses to his own forces. In September 1101, his entire 
army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea; William himself barely escaped, 
and, according to Orderic Vitalis, he reached Antioch with only six surviving 
companions. (See Army of William IX on the Crusade of 1101.)

Conflict with Church and wife, 1102–1118[edit]

William, like his father and many magnates of the time, had a rocky relationship with 
the Church. He was excommunicated twice, the first time in 1114 for an alleged 
infringement of the Church's tax privileges. His response to this was to demand 
absolution from Peter, Bishop of Poitiers. As the bishop was at the point of 
pronouncing the anathema, the duke threatened him with a sword, swearing to kill him 
if he did not pronounce absolution. Bishop Peter, surprised, pretended to comply, but 
when the duke, satisfied, released him, the bishop completed reading the anathema, 
before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike. According to 
contemporaries, William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying, 
"I don't love you enough to send you to paradise."

William was excommunicated a second time for "abducting" the Viscountess 
Dangerose (Dangerosa), the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld, Viscount of 
Châtellerault. The lady, however, appears to have been a willing party in the matter. 
He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers (leading to her 
nickname La Maubergeonne), and, as related by William of Malmesbury, even painted 
a picture of her on his shield.

Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse, Philippa was enraged to discover a rival 
woman living in her palace. She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church; 
however, no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord, and whilst 
the Papal legate Giraud (who was bald) complained to William and told him to return 
Dangerose to her husband, William's only response was, "Curls will grow on your pate 
before I part with the Viscountess." Humiliated, Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the 
Abbey of Fontevrault. While in residence she may have had direct conversations or 
correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois, who was in constant contact with 
Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey. Philippa did not survive there long, however: the 
abbey records state that she died on 28 November 1118.

Later career, 1118–1127[edit]

Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained—although 
it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven-year revolt in order to avenge his 
mother's mistreatment, as Ralph of Diceto claimed, only to be captured by his father. 
Other records flatly contradict such a thing. Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 
1113; but at that time, the young William was only thirteen and his father's liaison with 
Dangerose had not yet begun. Father and son improved their relationship after the 
marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault, Dangerose's daughter by her 
husband, in 1121.

William was readmitted to the Church around 1120, after making concessions to it. 
However, according to legend, he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first 
wife, Ermengarde, who had, upon the death of Philippa, stormed down from 
Fontevrault to the Poitevin court, demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of 
Aquitaine—presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa. In October 
1119, she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus II 
and demanded that the Pope excommunicate William (again), oust Dangerose from the 
ducal palace, and restore herself to her rightful place. The Pope "declined to 
accommodate her"; however, she continued to trouble William for several years 
afterwards, thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in 
Spain.

Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León. 
Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba. 
During his sojourn in Spain, William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally 
that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor. The vase probably originated 
in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century.

In 1122, William lost control of Toulouse, Philippa's dower land, to Alfonso Jordan, the 
son and heir of Raymond IV, who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV. 
He did not trouble to reclaim it. He died on 10 February 1127, aged 56, after suffering 
a short illness. His nickname, "the Troubadour", was only applied in the nineteenth 
century. In contemporary documents the only nickname he occasionally bears is "the 
Younger" (Latin junior), to distinguish him from his father.[7]

Poetic career[edit]

William's greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour — a lyric 
poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan.

He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. Eleven of his songs survive 
(Merwin, 2002). The song traditionally numbered as the eighth (Farai chansoneta 
nueva) is of dubious attribution, since its style and language are significantly different 
(Pasero 1973, Bond 1982). Song 5 (Farai un vers, pos mi sonelh) has two significantly 
different versions in different manuscripts. The songs are attributed to him under his 
title as Count of Poitou (lo coms de Peitieus). The topics vary, treating sex, love, 
women, his own sexual and literary prowess, and feudal politics.

An anonymous 13th-century vida of William remembers him thus:

The Count of Poitiers was one of the most courtly men in the world and one of the 
greatest deceivers of women. He was a fine knight at arms, liberal in his womanizing, 
and a fine composer and singer of songs. He traveled much through the world, 
seducing women.

It is possible, however, that at least in part it is not based on facts, but on literal 
interpretation of his songs, written in first person; in Song 5, for example, he describes 
how he deceived two women.

In a striking departure from the typical attitude toward women in the period, William 
seems to have held at least one woman in particularly high esteem, composing several 
poems in homage to this woman, who he refers to as midons (master):[8]

Every joy must abase itself,
 and every might obey
 in the presence of Midons, for the sweetness of her welcome,
 for her beautiful and gentle look;
 and a man who wins to the joy of her love
 will live a hundred years.
 The joy of her can make the sick man well again,
 her wrath can make a well man die,

His frankness, wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time. 
He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages, one of the 
founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante, Petrarch, and François Villon. 
Ezra Pound mentions him in Canto VIII:


And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,
 had brought the song up out of Spain
 with the singers and viels...

In Spirit of Romance Pound also calls William IX "the most 'modern' of the 
troubadours":

For any of the later Provençals, i.e., the high-brows, we have to... 'put ourselves into 
the Twelfth Century' etc. Guillaume, writing a century earlier, is just as much of our 
age as of his own.

—?Ezra Pound, cited in Bond 1982, p. lxxvi

William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences. 
In fact, William granted large donations to the church, perhaps to regain the pope's 
favour. He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou (which had stood since 
the Merovingian era), later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and 
surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day.

One of William's poems, possibly written at the time of his first excommunication, since 
it implies his son was still a minor, is partly a musing on mortality: Pos de chantar m'es 
pres talenz (Since I have the desire to sing,/I'll write a verse for which I'll grieve). It 
concludes:
I have given up all I loved so much:
 chivalry and pride;
 and since it pleases God, I accept it all,
 that He may keep me by Him.

 I enjoin my friends, upon my death,
 all to come and do me great honor,
 since I have held joy and delight
 far and near, and in my abode.

 Thus I give up joy and delight,
 and squirrel and grey and sable furs.

Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs (c. 1102) upon his return from the 
Crusade of 1101. These might be the first "Crusade songs":


Then the Poitevin duke many times related, with rhythmic verses and witty measures, 
the miseries of his captivity, before kings, magnates, and Christian assemblies.[9]

Parents
DE POITOU William (Guillaume) VI (VIII) (ABT 1026 - 25 Sep 1086)
OF BURGUNDY Hildegarde (ABT 1056 - AFT 1104)

Siblings
____ William (Guillaume) VII (IX) (ABT 22 Oct 1071 - 10 Feb 1127)

Marriage To ____ Philippa (Mathilde) (Maud) (ABT 1073 - 28 Nov 1118)
    m. 1094 dv. 1115 

Notes

Parents
____ William (Guillaume) IV (ABT 1046 - 1094)
DE MORTAIGNE Emma (ABT 1058 - AFT 1080)

Children by ____ Philippa (Mathilde) (Maud) ABT 1073 - 28 Nov 1118
____ William (Guillaume) VIII (X) (1099 - 19 Apr 1137)
OF AQUITAINE Agnes (Maud) (Matilda) (ABT 1105 - ABT 1159)

Produced by Fzip 1.7 6/20/2017