William IX of Aquitaine

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 10 Feb 1127

Notes:

Also called Guilhèm de Peitieus; Guillaume de Poitiers. Duke of Aquitaine; also, as William VII, Count of Poitou. A leader of the Crusade of 1101, he is much more famous as the first troubador poet whose work has survived.

"Ab la dolcher del temps novel"
By William IX, Duke of Aquitaine

Out of the sweetness of the spring,
The branches leaf, the small birds sing,
Each one chanting in its own speech,
Forming the verse of its new song,
Then is it good a man should reach
For that for which he most does long.

From finest sweetest place I see
No messenger, no word for me,
So my heart can't laugh or rest,
And I don't dare try my hand,
Until I know, and can attest,
That all things are as I demand.

This love of ours it seems to be
Like a twig on a hawthorn tree
That on the tree trembles there
All night, in rain and frost it grieves,
Till morning, when the rays appear
Among the branches and the leaves.

So the memory of that dawn to me
When we ended our hostility,
And a most precious gift she gave,
Her loving friendship and her ring:
Let me live long enough, I pray,
Beneath her cloak my hand to bring.

I've no fear that tongues too free
Might part me from Sweet Company,
I know with words how they can stray
In gossip, yet that's a fact of life:
No matter if others boast of love,
We have the loaf, we have the knife!

Translated by A. S. Kline. © 2009; All Rights Reserved. This work may be freely reproduced, stored, and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose.

"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, The Spirit of Romance]

And Poictiers, you know, Guillaume Poictiers,
had brought the song up out of Spain
with the singers and viels...
[Ezra Pound, Canto VIII]

He is also remembered for his specularly public affair with a woman named Dangereuse, the wife of his vassal Aimery I of Châtellerault. Aside from its interest as pure medieval melodrama, he was the paternal grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Dangereuse was Eleanor's maternal grandmother.

Family/Spouse: Dangereuse. Dangereuse was born about 1079; died after 1119. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

William married Philippa of Toulouse in 1094. Philippa (daughter of William IV of Toulouse and Emma of Mortain) died on 28 Nov 1117. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William X of Aquitaine was born in 1099; died on 26 Mar 1136 in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.
2. Agnes of Aquitaine was born about 1105; died about 1159.

Notes:

As Count of Poitou, he was called William VI; as Duke of Aquitaine, William VIII. Also Duke of Gascony.

Guy-Geoffrey married Hildegarde of Burgundy in 1069. Hildegarde (daughter of Robert I and Ermengarde of Anjou) was born about 1050; died after 1104. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Count of Poitou. Duke of Aquitaine.

William married Agnes of Burgundy. Agnes (daughter of Otto-William of Burgundy and Ermentrude de Roucy) was born about 995; died on 10 Nov 1068; was buried in Abbey of St. Nicolas de Poitiers, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Agnes de Macon. Duchess of Aquitaine.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 21 May 1076

Notes:

"The Old." Duke of Burgundy.

"In 1025, with the death of his eldest brother Hugh Magnus, he and Henry rebelled against their father and defeated him, forcing him back to Paris. In 1031, after the death of his father the king, Robert participated in a rebellion against his brother, in which he was supported by his mother, Constance of Arles. Peace was only achieved when Robert was given Burgundy (1032). Throughout his reign, he was little more than a robber baron who had no control over his own vassals, whose estates he often plundered, especially those of the Church. He seized the income of the diocese of Autun and the wine of the canons of Dijon. He burgled the abbey of St-Germain at Auxerre. In 1055, he repudiated his wife, Helie of Semur, and assassinated her brother Joceran and murdered her father, his father-in-law, Lord Dalmace I of Semur, with his own hands. In that same year, the bishop of Langres, Harduoin, refused to dedicate the church of Sennecy so as not "to be exposed to the violence of the duke." [Wikipedia]

Robert married Ermengarde of Anjou about 1048. Ermengarde (daughter of Foulques III "Nerra" and Hildegarde de Lorraine) was born about 1018; died on 18 Mar 1076. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 21 Mar 1076

Notes:

Also called Ermengarde-Blanche.

Notes:

Called "Fierebras," "Iron-Arm." Count of Poitou.

William married Emma of Blois in 968. Emma (daughter of Thibaut I of Blois and Luitgarde de Vermandois) was born in 950; died about 1003. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

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• Buried: 21 Sep 1027, Dijon Cathedral, Dijon, Côte-d'Or, Burgundy, France

Notes:

Count of Burgundy.

Also called Othon Guillaume.

Otto-William married Ermentrude de Roucy. Ermentrude (daughter of Renaud I and Alberade de Lorraine) was born about 950; died on 5 Mar 1002. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 5 Mar 1003
• Alternate death: 5 Mar 1004
• Alternate death: 1005

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 27 Mar 971, Orléans, Loiret, France
• Alternate birth: 27 Mar 972, Orléans, Loiret, France

Notes:

Called "The Pious."

Robert married Constance of Provence, Queen Consort of France about May 1004. Constance (daughter of Guillaume I "le Liberateur" and Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou) was born between 985-990; died on 22 Jul 1034 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried in Abbey of Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 986
• Alternate death: 25 Jul 1032, Château Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France

Notes:

Also called Constance de Toulouse; Constance of Arles.

"Queen Constance was not someone to be caught with down a dark alley, or even a well-lit street -- she was a violent termagant who once poked out a priest's eye with a stick when undertaking crowd control at a heresy trial. She fomented war between her sons over the succession after Robert II's death." [Peter Stewart, SGM, 3 Jun 2022]

Notes:

"The Black." Count of Anjou.

Died while returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Foulques married Hildegarde de Lorraine after 1000. Hildegarde died on 1 Apr 1040 in Jerusalem. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1 Apr 1046, Jerusalem

Notes:

Also called William "Towhead". William III, Duke of Aquitaine; William I of Poitou.

Guillaume married Adèle of Normandy in 935. Adèle (daughter of Rollo and Poppa) died after Feb 942. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 14 Oct 962
• Alternate death: Aft 969

Notes:

Supposedly also called Geirlaug, Gerloc of Normandy. Widely said to have been a daughter of Rollo "of Normandy", by his supposed wife "Poppa", but various aspects of this are doubted by many. See the Henry Project for much measured discussion; also see Peter Stewart's comments on SGM in 2010, quoted in our entry for her (possible) (maybe) daughter Adélaïde, wife of Hugh Capet.

Notes:

Count of Blois and Chartres.

Also known as Theobald; "le Tricheur" (the Trickster, or the Cheat).

Thibaut married Luitgarde de Vermandois between 942 and 945. Luitgarde (daughter of Heribert II and (Unknown daughter of Robert I, King of France)) died after 978. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Joint king with his father. They were both deposed.

Adalberto married Gerberge. Gerberge (daughter of Lambert of Châlon and Adélaïde) died between 986 and 992. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Ragebold. Count of Roucy 948-967. Count of Reims.

Renaud married Alberade de Lorraine. Alberade (daughter of Giselbert I and Gerberga of Saxony) was born about 931; was buried in Abbey of Saint-Remi, Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Aft 939
• Alternate birth: 941

Notes:

Nicknamed le Grand or Capet. First of the Capetian kings of France.

Hugues married Adélaïde, Queen Consort of France in 968. Adélaïde (daughter of Guillaume "Tête-d'Étoupe" and Adèle of Normandy) died on 15 Jun 1003. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 15 Jun 1004
• Alternate death: 15 Jun 1005
• Alternate death: 15 Jun 1006

Notes:

Also called Alix.

Her origins are contested. At the Henry Project, Stewart Baldwin considers her a "probable" daughter of William/Guillaume III "Tête-d'Étoupe" ("Towhead"), Duke of Aquitaine, who was also William I of Poitou, "possibly" by Adèle/Gerloc, daughter of Rollo of Normandy. Regarding William III as her father, Baldwin writes "No definitive solution is possible on the known evidence, but this parentage is more likely than the alternatives." He presents a long summary of the competing arguments for and against this model. We follow the Henry project, but in this case we note some strong arguments against this ancestry for the wife of Hugh Capet.

From Peter Stewart, 22 Jun 2010, on soc.genealogy.medieval:

The evidence that Hugo Capet's wife was a daughter of Guilhem III, duke of Aquitaine (Guilhem I as count of Poitou) is late and unsatisfactory but nonetheless straightforward enough.

The evidence that she was related to the ducal family of Normandy is more satisfactory and also straightforward.

However, that this relationship came about through Adela/Gerloc is somewhat less satisfactory, and muddied to a degree by contradictions in the sources for this mysterious personage.

Dudo says that Guilhem III proposed his own marriage to a sister of William Longsword of Normandy in the course of a gathering to hunt mating deer near Rouen, attended amongst others by Hugo Capet's father Hugo Magnus described as duke and leading man of the kingdom—the title and position were accorded to him ca 936. William reportedly called his sister a 'girl' at the time, suggesting that she was perhaps ca. 14 and born well after the conversion of her father Rollo to Christianity. Yet William of Jumièges later gave her the pagan name Gerloc, which appears rather anomalous considering that even William (who must have been ca. 20 years older than her) never occurs with any Norse name.

I would not accept the unsupported word of Dudo for anything at all, including his own existence. He was an outstanding nincompoop, and relied for this period on the memories of people who clearly did not have the story of Rollo's life and family straight in the first place.

Dudo's contemporary Ademar of Chabannes, who certainly knew more about the ducal family in Aquitaine though not that in Normandy, says that Rollo's daughter married Ebles Manzer and was mother of Guilhem III/I ("filius Rannulfi, Eblus manzer, Arvernis et Pictavis simul comes promotus est...Acceptaque in conjugium Adala, filia Rosi [sic] Rotomagensis comitis., genuit ex ea Willelmum Caput Stupe.") The monks of Saint-Maixent, where Guilhem's younger brother Ebles was abbot from 936 (NB around the time that Dudo placed the marriage to Guilhem III/I), followed Ademar and made him also a son of Ebles Manzer and the daughter of Rollo ("Eblus filius Ramnulfi...acceptaque in conjugio Adela, filia Rolli Rothomagensis, genuit ex ea Willelmum Caput Stupæ et episcopum Ebulum".)

We don't know much about the marriages of Ebles Manzer—in the 890s he appears to have had a wife named Aremburgis and by February 911 he was married to a lady named Emillana, probably the same as the Countess Alaina who later became a nun. Guilhem III/I occurs with a wife named Adeleidis in the early 950s. There is no evidence apart from Dudo, Ademar and William of Jumièges that any of these women (or perhaps another who does not occur in charters) was a daughter of Rollo and also had the name Gerloc.

There are such wide gaps in our knowledge of these genealogies that trying to fill in a "Norman ancestry alleged for Adelaide" from the fact that her grandson was somehow related to Edward the Confessor is a stretch too far.

From Peter Stewart, 22 Dec 2020, on soc.genealogy.medieval:

The question of the family origin of Hugo Capet's wife has been raised here before, and I have given reasons for doubting her connection to the dukes of Aquitaine.

A further point has just occurred to me that as far as I know has not been brought into the discussion here or in print before:

In 1025 after Robert II (the only son of Hugo and Adelais) had declined to become king of Italy, Guilhem V of Aquitaine decided to support the candidacy of his own eldest son. To further this he asked for support from the king to prevent opposition from Germany, offering inducements to Robert (1,000 pounds and 100 mantles) and to the queen (500 pounds).

But he put forward the request indirectly, through the queen's first cousin Fulco Nerra of Anjou. A letter to the king, written by St Fulbert of Chartres for Fulco on behalf of Guilhem, sets out the terms of the proposal asking the king to reply to Fulco so that he could relay the answer to Guilhem.

This round-about procedure through a proxy related to the king's wife would seem somewhat odd if Guilhem had been a nephew of Adelais, and his alternative candidate for the Lombard crown therefore the king's first cousin once removed.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 994

Notes:

Count of Arles, 967. Marquess of Provence from before 967 to 993-94. Sometimes enumerated as Guillaume II.

Guillaume married Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou after 984. Adelaide-Blanche (daughter of Foulques II "Le Bon" and Gerberge) was born between 945 and 950; died in 1026 in Montmajour, Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Wife of four husbands, and the ancestress of important comital families through three of her marriages, Adélaïde, alias Blanche, was also briefly queen of France, and the mother of another French queen. Yet, in the early nineteenth century, scholars were still confused about her identity. Her story has to be pieced together from various records which, for example, mention an Alaiz, mother of count Pons de Gévaudan, or a Blanca, wife of Louis V, king of France, or an Adelaidis, cui prenomen erat Candida, mother of queen Constance, and only in hindsight is it clear that these records refer to the same woman. The discovery of the work of the historian Richer in the 1830's added a key piece to the puzzle by mentioning three of Adélaïde's marriages, but historians were slow to take advantage of the new information. Nevertheless, by the late nineteeth century, historians had accepted that Adélaïde, alias Blanche, daughter of Foulques II of Anjou, had been successively married to Étienne de Brioude (at the time often incorrectly called count of Gévaudan), king Louis V of France, and Guillaume I (or II) of Provence, and that she was the mother by the last of queen Constance, wife of king Robert II of France, although the marriage to Raymond of "Gothia" was still widely doubted. More recently, in the face of clear proof that Adélaïde was the mother of Guillaume "Taillefer", count of Toulouse, it has been recognized that her marriage to the obscure Raymond was genuine." [The Henry Project]

Notes:

Count of Anjou; Count of Châlon.

Also called Geoffrey Greycloak; Gaufridus; Gauzfredus Grisegonella.

Died while besieging the fortress of Marçon.

Geoffroi married Adèle of Troyes about 965. Adèle (daughter of Robert and Adelais) died after 6 Mar 974. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Adele of Vermandois; Adelaide of Vermandois; Adelaide de Chalons.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 870
• Alternate death: 934

Notes:

Also called Ebles Mancer. Duke of Aquitaine; Count of Poitou.

"We don't know much about the marriages of Ebles Manzer—in the 890s he appears to have had a wife named Aremburgis and by February 911 he was married to a lady named Emillana, probably the same as the Countess Alaina who later became a nun." [Peter Stewart on soc.genealogy.medieval, 22 Jun 2010]

Ebalus married Aremburge in 892. Aremburge died before Feb 911. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 929
• Alternate death: 931

Notes:

Also called Robert (baptized); Robert I Duke of Normandy (retrospectively); Hrolfr (Old Norse) (disputed); Rouf (his fellow Normans); Rodulf, Rodulfus, Radulf, Radulfus (Frankish); Raoul (French); Rolf Ragnvaldsson (various modern genealogists and peerage-indexers).

Rollo married Poppa. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Poppa of Bayeux.

"A wife or mistress of Rollo of Normandy, and mother of Rollo's son and successor William 'Longsword', her name is reported only by the often unreliable Dudo and by sources depending on him ... The only certain fact that is known about her comes from the contemporary (or nearly so) Planctus of her son William, which states (without naming her) that she was a Christian, and that her son William was born overseas." [The Henry Project, citation details below]

Peter Stewart, 25 Jun 2010, on soc.genealogy.medieval:

I'm inclined to believe that William's Christian mother named "Poppa" was invented by Dudo—it's very curious that this name is otherwise unexampled for a Frankish noblewoman of the time, but had recently been made famous by Widukind of Corvey as the name of the cleric who had baptised Harald I and converted the Danes (Rollo's people according to Dudo). "Poppa" was said to have been taken at the capture of Bayeux, a daughter of Count Brenger: however, the latter's son (Judical) Brenger was later one of the foresworn leaders of the Breton rebellion against William with no suggestion that he was the Norman ruler's uncle.

Further, according to Dudo the sister of William was described as a "girl" ca 936, but her father Rollo had been purportedly free to marry a Carolingian princess named Gisla as part of the settlement when the Normans were converted to Christianity, so that if Adela/Gerloc had been born after that time she and William could not have had the same mother unless she was never regarded as Rollo's canonical wife. Yet, according to Dudo, William was born to Poppa at Rouen, where the Normans were settled after the conversion, and the stain of bastardy is not in any way imputed to him.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Abt 950

Notes:

Also called Tetbald, Thibaud. Vicomte of Troyes; Count of Blois.

Theobald married Richilde of Bourges. Richilde was born in 892; died in 984. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Conjectured but unproven as a daughter of Roger, Count of Maine by his wife Rothilde, Abbess of Chelles and daughter of Charles the Bald.

Notes:

Count of Meaux, Soissons, and Vermandois and lay abbot of Saint-Crépin and Saint-Médard of Soissons. The Henry Project says it is "very probable" that his father was Heribert I.

Heribert married (Unknown daughter of Robert I, King of France). (Unknown (daughter of Robert I, King of France and (Unknown wife or mistress of Robert I, King of France)) died after 931. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Alleged by various sources to be named Adele; Liegarde; Hildebrante.

Notes:

Margrave of Ivrea abt 928-950; King of Italy 950-961.

Berengario married Willa of Arles before 936. Willa (daughter of Boso of Tuscany and Willa) died after 963 in Bamberg, Bayern, Germany. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 4 Aug 966

Notes:

Also called Willa of Tuscany. Died as a nun.

Notes:

Count of Châlon.

Lambert married Adélaïde. Adélaïde died after 999. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Duke of Lorraine, probably 928-939; Lay-abbot of Echternach, 915-939; Lay-abbot of Stavelot-Malmedyl; Lay-abbot of Saint-Maximin; Lay-abbot of Saint-Servais; Lay-abbot of Chèvremont.

Following his defeat in the Battle of Andernach, drowned in the Rhine while fleeing the forces of Otto I.

"From these two brothers [Giselbert I and Reginar II] are descended the later kings of England, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, many of the German emperors, the Dukes of Brabant, Burgundy, Warwick, Northumberland, and Lorraine, the earls of Chester, Clare, and Pembroke, the Counts of Roucy, Vermandois, Bercelona, Provence, Nevers, Poitou, Burgundy, and Savoy, and the families of Cantelou, Courtenay, Zouche, and many others." [Ancestral Roots, 8th ed., 240-18]

Giselbert married Gerberga of Saxony in 929. Gerberga (daughter of Heinrich I "The Fowler", King of Germany and St. Matilda) was born between 913 and 914; died on 5 May 969; was buried in Saint-Rémy de Reims. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 5 May 984

Notes:

Also called Gerberga of Germany; Gerberga of France.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 16 Jun 956, Deurdan, Ile-de-France, France

Notes:

Duke of the Franks. Also called Hugh Magnus (aka BEST MEDIEVAL NAME EVER, albeit one shared with his great-great grandson); Hugo Magnus; Hugh the Great.

Hugues married Hedwig of Saxony in 937. Hedwig (daughter of Heinrich I "The Fowler", King of Germany and St. Matilda) died after 958. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called William "Towhead". William III, Duke of Aquitaine; William I of Poitou.

Guillaume married Adèle of Normandy in 935. Adèle (daughter of Rollo and Poppa) died after Feb 942. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 14 Oct 962
• Alternate death: Aft 969

Notes:

Supposedly also called Geirlaug, Gerloc of Normandy. Widely said to have been a daughter of Rollo "of Normandy", by his supposed wife "Poppa", but various aspects of this are doubted by many. See the Henry Project for much measured discussion; also see Peter Stewart's comments on SGM in 2010, quoted in our entry for her (possible) (maybe) daughter Adélaïde, wife of Hugh Capet.

Notes:

Count of Arles, Provence, and Avignon.

Boso married Constance. Constance died between 961 and 965. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Constance of Viennois.

It has been speculated that she was the daughter of one Charles, son of Louis the Blind, Holy Roman Emperor. This Charles is called by many later chroniclers "Charles Constantine," but he was never called that in his lifetime. Also speculative is the idea that this Charles's mother was Anna of Constantinople, daughter of Byzantine emperor Leo VI and his wife Zoe Zaoutzaina, but the idea that the emperor Louis was ever married to this Anna is much in dispute.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Between Sep 958 and Sep 960

Notes:

Count of Anjou. Common ancestor of William the Conqueror and his wife Maud.

Foulques married Gerberge in 937. Gerberge died before Sep 958. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Between 931 and 934
• Alternate death: Aug 967

Notes:

Comte de Meaux & Troyes.

Robert married Adelais before 18 Jan 950. Adelais (daughter of Giselbert and Ermengarde) died after 19 Jun 966. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft Aug 967

Notes:

Also called Adelaide-Werra de Chalon; Adelaide de Chalon; Werra.