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Birth:          ABT 1100 
Death:          1161 

Notes
received Tortosa in 1136, became a Cistercian monk at Grandselver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_VI_of_Montpellier
William VI or Guillem VI (died 1161) was the eldest son of William V and his wife 
Ermessende, daughter of Count Peter II of Melgueil.[1] William succeeded his father in 
the lordship of Montpellier in 1121, while still a minor, under his mother's guardianship. 
He suppressed a revolt of the bourgeoisie in 1143 and participated in several military 
campaigns of the Reconquista in Spain (1134, 1146–47). He also increased the public 
character of the lordship in Montpellier and supported the growth of its trade.[2][3]
Power sharing[edit]

At the beginning of William's reign, secular authority in Montpellier was shared 
between the Guillem dynasty, the hereditary viguiers of the town, and the Bishop of 
Montpellier.[4] In 1139 William confirmed the vicarage to the heirs of the old viguier 
Bernard Guillem, and the surviving document shows that the viguier’s power has 
increased since 1103 and was probably at its height.[4] William did secure the 
reaffirmation of his seigneurial rights at Castelnau (1132, 1138) and Lattes (1140).[5] 
In 1139 William possessed several censives in the suburb of Villa Nova. A cens (plural 
censives) was a right to tax land, although earlier it had probably been a right to tax 
persons. By the twelfth-century it could be applied to the lands owing taxes.[5]

In 1140 a dispute arose between William VI and the bishop over jurisdiction in 
Montpellieret.[4] The bishop alleged that William was extending the walls and 
fortifications of the town to encompass some of the episcopal section of Montpellieret 
and was forcing vassals of the church of Montpellier to contribute to the local defence 
fund: "William had built a fortification [vallam] to wall his city in the tenancy of the 
bishop [and had made] the men of Montpellier, and other men of [the cathedral of] the 
Blessed Peter, [contribute to] the collection of the commune [communitas] of 
Montpellier."[6] This may show that control of the walls and fortifications was already 
in the hands of the bourgeoisie, as it certainly was by 1196. It is probable that William 
was the first lord of Montpellier to oversee the extension of the walls to include 
territory judicially under the control of all three leading figures in the town.[7]

William's feudal rights included the fealty and homage of several castellanies in the 
region around Montpellier. He procured general oaths of loyalty from the castellans of 
these in 1130 and again in 1147.[8] He purchased the castle of Pouget in 1129, and 
bestowed it on his brother, William of Aumelas, and purchased that of Santeragues in 
1147–48.[9] Among the castles which William controlled (some more than others) were 
Montferrier, Pignan, Coronsec, Frontignan, Valmale and Saint-Pons-de-Mauchiens.[8]

Town administration[edit]

William inherited the services of two scribes who had worked for his father since at 
least 1103. One named William, who described himself as a "scribe of Lord William of 
Montpellier" (scriba domini Guillelmi Montispessulani), operated as late as 1139. 
Another, Girbertus, officially became scribe in 1113 and continued to serve down to 
1125.[10] William VI also hired his own scribe, Petrus Angelus, between the years 
1128 and 1136.[10] Early in William's reign documents start to sharply distinguish 
knights and other noblemen from burgesses in the witness lists, either by surnames or 
by title of occupation.[11] In 1139 William instituted an administrative change: he 
began using a notary (notarius) named Durantus instead of a mere scribe (scriba).[12] 
He served for the remainder of William's reign.

In 1146, William, in preparation for his journey into Spain, handed the government of 
the town over to his mother, stipulating that should she die it would pass to three 
burgesses, Olricus Adalguerius, Guillelmus Letericus and Atbrandus, to govern "with 
the counsel of the other witnesses of this testament."[13] These three burgesses 
reappear as witnesses to William's last will, indicating their closeness to the ruling 
clan.[14] In 1149 William purchased the jus naufragii (the right to salvage shipwrecks) 
from the Count of Melgueil for 3,000 sous melgoriens.[15] The sou minted at Melgueil 
was the standard currency of the region, and William was vigilant to insist that the 
counts of Melgueil not debase it, to detriment of Montpellier's commerce. In 1128, in 
concluding a war with his son-in-law, Count Bernard IV of Melgueil, William extorted a 
promise that the coinage would not be debased. William himself controlled the mint, 
however, and in 1130 he had to agree not issue any coinage on his own authority, but 
only with the approval of the count.[8] These agreements were confirmed in 1132, 
1135 and 1145–46.

Revolt of 1141–43[edit]

In 1141–42 the viguier Aimon, at the head of the bourgeoisie, led a revolt against 
William and expelled him from the town. Alfonso Jordan, the Count of Toulouse, 
"attempted to fish in troubled waters", receiving a strong rebuke from Pope Anacletus 
II, with whom William VI had a close relationship bordering on an outright alliance.[4]
[8] Despite Papal support for William, the bishop refused to intervene against the 
viguier, but with Genoese and Aragonese backing he succeeded in taking back the 
town after a lengthy siege in 1143, to which Genoa contributed four galleys.[16] The 
Chronique Romane highlights the role of Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona and the 
siege-induced famine in the surrender of the town:[17]


In the year one thousand, one hundred and forty-one, the men of Montpellier ejected 
lord William of Montpellier from the city, and the lord went to Lattes, and the battle 
endured two years. The count of Barcelona returned to him [William] the city through a 
siege. And at that time ten beans were woth one denarius. (En lan de M et C et XLI, 
giteron los homes de Montpellier en Guillem de Montpellier de la vila, et anet sen a 
Latas, e duret la batalla II ans: el coms de Barsalona rendet li la villa per assetge: et 
adones valian X favas 1 d.)

Immediately William set about to destroy the power of the viguier. He razed their 
castle within the town walls and revoked their judicial privileges and their separate 
court.[18] With Aragonese assistance he initiated new construction on his family's 
castle in the north of the town. This phase of improvement was not ended until 1152.
[19] These moves, and probable the conciliation of the disaffected bourgeoisie, were 
successful in removing the hereditary viguiers, the Aimons, from a place of influence.

In the aftermath, the process by which the lords of Montpellier "took on a public 
character, become something more than mere feudal lords," was accelerated. A letter 
to his Genoese allies dated 1143 begins "William of Montpellier and his burgesses".
[20] The coinciding interests of the merchant class and their feudal lords, whose 
revenues increasingly depended on taxes on commerce, sped up the process by which 
the lords became representative of the town.[21]

Reconquista[edit]

In 1134 William VI was with King Alfonso VII of León and Castile when he besieged 
and took Zaragoza.[22] There he paid homage to and became a vassal of Alfonso.[23] 
The submission of García Ramírez, the king of Navarre, as well as "many other nobles 
from Gascony and France had become his vassals" was the justification for Alfonso's 
coronation as Emperor of Spain in 1135.[24] Among the vassals from Languedoc only 
William of Montpellier is singled out by name in the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, the 
contemporary account of Alfonso's reign:


All of the nobles from Gascony and from the area up to the Rhone River, including 
William of Montpellier, came to Alfonso in a spirit of mutual accord. They received 
silver, gold, horses and many different precious gifts from him. They all became his 
vassals, and they were obedient to him in all things. . . He presented them with arms 
and other items. Hence the boundaries of the kingdom of Alfonso, ruler of León, 
extended from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, near where the city of our holy patron 
Santiago is located, all the way to the Rhone River.[25]

In 1146 Alfonso sent Arnaldo, the bishop of Astorga, as his envoy to the courts of 
Barcelona and Montpellier, requesting them to come in August 1147 for the siege of 
Almería "for the redemption of their souls".[26][27] According to the Chronica, "they 
received his invitation with joy [and] promised to be present alongside of the Genoese 
[who were providing the fleet]."[28] After participating in the capture of Almería, 
William also took part in another joint military venture: the reconquest of Tortosa. 
William and the count of Barcelona were among the soldiers awaiting the arrival of the 
Genoese fleet at the mouth of the Ebro on 12 July 1148.[29] According to the 
Genoese account, the Ystoria captionis Almarie et Turtuose of Cafarus, the lords of 
Barcelona and Montpellier camped atop "Mount Magnara", one of two hills 
overlooking Tortosa, while the other foreign troops, mostly English, French and 
Flemish knights who had participated in the siege of Lisbon the year before, camped 
on the hill called "Romelinus".[30] After the conquest of Tortosa, one of William's 
younger sons was made co-lord of the city.[8]

Marriage and alliance with Aragon[edit]

William VI's wife was named Sibylla, of Catalan origin. (According to documents 
adduced at the annulment of the marriage of Marie of Montpellier, her great-
granddaughter, she was the daughter of Boniface del Vasto and therefore the sister of 
Manfred I of Saluzzo, but this cannot be confirmed.) The marriage was less an alliance 
between William and a minor aristocratic family from Catalonia than a tightening of ties 
with the House of Barcelona, soon to rule a complex of territories north and south of 
the Pyrenees.[8] The support the count of Toulouse gave to the rebels of 1141–43 
was part of the larger rivalry between Toulouse and Aragon (Barcelona) for power in 
Occitania, a conflict in which the lords of Montpellier gradually built up an alliance 
with the Aragonese, even though their overlords, the counts of Melgueil, with whom 
they were related, were Toulousain partisans.[31]

William VI and Sibylla had five sons and all except Bernard William, who died before 
1172, played a prominent roled in Occitan politics. The eldest, William VII, succeeded 
his father; Raymond William became a monk and later a bishop; another William, who 
became co-lord of Tortosa after its conquest, married Ermessende of Castries, joined 
the Templars in 1157, vowed to go on crusade to the Holy Land for a year, and there 
died; and Gui Guerrejat later served regent for his nephews, the sons of William VII. 
William VI and Sibylla also had three daughters: Guillelme (or Guillemette), who 
married first Bernard IV of Melgueil and later Viscount Bernard Ato V; Alais (or 
Azalais), who married Eble III of Ventadorn; and Ermessende, who married Raymond 
Stephen of Servian. Guillemette's first marriage was part of an agreement 
(convenientia) of 1120 between her father and husband by which the former gained 
control of the Melgorian mint when Bernard mortgaged it to him for 7,000 sous.[32]

Parents
____ William (Guillaume) V (ABT 1065 - 1121)
DE MELGUEIL Ermensende (ABT 1065 - )

Siblings
____ William (Guillaume) VI (ABT 1100 - 1161)

Marriage To DE VASTO OF SAVONA Sybilla (ABT 1104 - BEF 1146)
    m. Aug 1129 

Notes

Parents
DEL VASTO Bonafacio I (1060 - 1130)
DE VERMANDOIS Agnes (ABT 1077 - )

Children by DE VASTO OF SAVONA Sybilla ABT 1104 - BEF 1146
____ William (Guillaume) VII (ABT 1130 - BEF 29 Nov 1172)

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