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Birth:          ABT 1073 Toulouse, France
Death:          28 Nov 1118 

Notes
regent of Toulouse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa,_Countess_of_Toulouse
Philippa (c. 1073 – 28 November 1118) was the sovereign Countess of Toulouse, as 
well as the duchess consort of Aquitaine by marriage to Duke William IX of Aquitaine.
Life[edit]

Early life and marriage[edit]

Philippa was born in approximately 1073 to Count William IV of Toulouse, and his wife 
Emma of Mortain. She was his only surviving child, and thus, by the laws of Toulouse, 
his heir. In 1088, William went on a pilgrimage to Palestine, leaving his brother 
Raymond of Saint-Gilles as regent. (Before he left, it is claimed, he also married his 
daughter to the King of Aragon in order to disinherit her; however, this marriage is 
apocryphal, as contemporary evidence shows that Sancho was still married to his 
previous wife at the time of his death in 1094.)[1]

Philippa's early life – if she was not married to Sancho Ramirez of Aragon – is 
something of a mystery. It is known that she did not marry William IX of Aquitaine until 
1094,[2] after the death of her father and the succession of her uncle; the 
circumstances in which she lived prior to her father's death, the manner of her 
disinheritance, and the arrangement of her marriage, are thus unknown. Those 
historians that argue her to have been married to Sancho Ramirez argue that her 
removal from Toulouse prevented her from effectively claiming her inheritance, and 
that with the death of Sancho, she was free to remarry based on her own choice. 
What is certain is that, upon the death of Count William, Philippa's claims were 
ignored, and Raymond became count.

Political life[edit]

When Raymond IV of Toulouse set out on the First Crusade in the autumn of 1096, he 
left his son Bertrand to rule the County. However, in the Spring of 1098, William and 
Philippa marched into the city of Toulouse, and took control without a single life being 
lost. In the next year, she gave birth to her first child in the city: William the 
Toulousain.

In 1099, her husband went on crusade and he left her as regent in Poitou.

She was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel and persuaded her husband to grant him 
land in Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1100 
he founded Fontevraud Abbey there.

She was stunned in 1100 when her husband mortgaged Toulouse to her cousin 
Bertrand in exchange for a vast sum of money, which the Duke used to go on Crusade 
himself. Philippa, removed from her home, was sent to his capital of Poitiers, from 
where she ruled Aquitaine on behalf of her husband whilst he was absent.

After William's return, he and Philippa for a time lived contentedly with each other, 
producing a further five daughters, and a son, Raymond. She also ignored the Duke's 
sexual boasting in song and talk, instead concentrating on religion (in particular the 
Abbey of Fontevrault, of which she remained a keen sponsor), especially the 
teachings of its founder, who preached the superiority of women over men. Her 
obsession with a doctrine considered offensive by many men of that time, combined 
with William's growing dissatisfaction with her, and his teasing of her (claiming to be 
founding an abbey of prostitutes), led to discord in the marriage.

Toulouse had been won back by William for his wife in 1113, following the death of 
Bertrand in Syria in 1112: his heir being his half-brother, the 9 year old Alphonse-
Jourdain, William had been unopposed. Thus, by 1114, Philippa was spending most of 
her time ruling there. Accordingly, she was less than pleased when, upon her return 
from Toulouse to Poitiers in 1114, she discovered her husband to have moved his 
mistress, Viscountess Dangereuse of Châtellerault, into her palace. Philippa appealed 
to friends and the church for assistance in ousting her husband's mistress, but to no 
avail – none could persuade the Duke to give up his mistress.

Later life[edit]

In 1116, a humiliated Philippa, devastated by her husband's repayment of her service 
to him for so many years, left the Court, taking refuge at the Abbey of Fontevrault. 
There she became a close friend of her husband's first wife, Ermengarde of Anjou, and 
the two spent much time reflecting upon the shortcomings of William. However, for all 
Philippa's devotion to the Abbey and its ideals, she found little peace there, both 
angry and resentful that her husband had cast her off in favour of a mistress. She died 
of unknown causes there on 28 November 1118, survived by her husband, his 
mistress, and Ermengarde, who would shortly attempt to avenge Philippa by attempting 
to have Dangereuse banished from Aquitaine.

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

Siblings
____ Philippa (Mathilde) (Maud) (ABT 1073 - 28 Nov 1118)

Marriage To ____ William (Guillaume) VII (IX) (ABT 22 Oct 1071 - 10 Feb 1127)
    m. 1094 dv. 1115 

Notes

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

Children by ____ William (Guillaume) VII (IX) ABT 22 Oct 1071 - 10 Feb 1127
____ William (Guillaume) VIII (X) (1099 - 19 Apr 1137)
OF AQUITAINE Agnes (Maud) (Matilda) (ABT 1105 - ABT 1159)

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