William X (1099 – 9 April 1137), called
the Saint, was
Duke of AquitaineThe Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of the Frankish, The English King and later the French kings....
,
Duke of GasconyThe Duchy of Vasconia , later known as Gascony, was a Merovingian creation: a frontier duchy on the Garonne, in the border with the rebel Basque tribes...
, and Count of Poitou (as
William VIII) between 1126 and 1137. He was the son of William IX by his second wife,
Philippa of ToulousePhilippa Maude of Toulouse , also known as Philippa de Toulouse or Philippa de Rouergue, was the Duchess Consort of Aquitaine, and Countess of Toulouse...
.
William was born in
ToulouseToulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
during the brief period when his parents ruled the capital. His birth is recorded in the
Chronicle of Saint-Maixent for the year 1099:
Willelmo comiti natus est filius, equivoce Guillelmus vocatus ("a son was born to Count William, named William like himself").
William X (1099 – 9 April 1137), called
the Saint, was
Duke of AquitaineThe Duke of Aquitaine ruled the historical region of Aquitaine under the supremacy of the Frankish, The English King and later the French kings....
,
Duke of GasconyThe Duchy of Vasconia , later known as Gascony, was a Merovingian creation: a frontier duchy on the Garonne, in the border with the rebel Basque tribes...
, and Count of Poitou (as
William VIII) between 1126 and 1137. He was the son of William IX by his second wife,
Philippa of ToulousePhilippa Maude of Toulouse , also known as Philippa de Toulouse or Philippa de Rouergue, was the Duchess Consort of Aquitaine, and Countess of Toulouse...
.
William was born in
ToulouseToulouse is a city in southwest France on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. With 1,102,882 inhabitants as of Jan...
during the brief period when his parents ruled the capital. His birth is recorded in the
Chronicle of Saint-Maixent for the year 1099:
Willelmo comiti natus est filius, equivoce Guillelmus vocatus ("a son was born to Count William, named William like himself"). Later that same year, much to his wife's ire, Duke William mortgaged Toulouse to Philippa's cousin,
Bertrand of ToulouseBertrand of Toulouse or Bertrand of Tripoli was count of Toulouse, and was the first count of Tripoli to rule in Tripoli itself....
, and then left on Crusade.
Philippa and her infant son were left in Poitiers. Long after Duke William's return, he took up with Dangereuse, the wife of one of his vassals, and set aside his rightful wife, Philippa. This caused strain between father and son, until William married
Aenor de ChâtelleraultAénor of Châtellerault, duchess of Aquitaine was the mother of Eleanor of Aquitaine, arguably the most powerful woman in Europe of her generation ....
, daughter of his father's mistress, in 1121. He had from her three children:
EleanorEleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages...
, who would later become heiress to the Duchy;
PetronillaPetronilla of Aquitaine was the daughter of William X of Aquitaine and Aenor of Châtellerault. She was the sister of Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was Queen consort of England...
, who married Raoul I of Vermandois; and William Aigret, who died young.
As his father before him, William X was a patron of
troubadourA troubadour was a composer and performer of Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s,
musicMusic is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
and
literatureLiterature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" , and therefore the academic study of literature is known as Letters...
. He was an educated man and strove to give his two daughters an excellent education, in a time when
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
's rulers were hardly literate.
When Eleanor succeeded him as Duchess, she continued William's tradition and transformed the Aquitanian court into Europe's centre of knowledge.
William was both a lover of the arts and a warrior. He became involved in conflicts with
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is situated along the English Channel coast of Northern France between Brittany and Picardy and comprises territory in northern France and the Channel Islands.Normandy is divided between French and British...
(which he raided in 1136, in alliance with Geoffrey le Bel of Anjou who claimed it in his wife's name) and
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
.
Even inside his borders, William faced an alliance of the Lusignans and the Parthenays against him, an issue resolved with total destruction of the enemies. In international politics, William X initially supported
antipopeAn antipope is a person who, in opposition to a sitting Bishop of Rome, makes a widely accepted claim to be the Pope. In the past, antipopes were typically those supported by a fairly significant faction of cardinals and kingdoms...
Anacletus IIAnacletus II, born Pietro Pierleoni, was an Antipope who ruled from 1130 to his death, in a schism against the contested hasty election of Pope Innocent II....
in the
schismThe word schism , from the Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , means a split or a division, usually in an organization or a movement. A schismatic is a person who creates or incites schism in an organization or who is a member of a splinter group...
of 1130, opposite to
Pope Innocent IIPope Innocent II , born Gregorio Papareschi, was pope from 1130 to 1143, and was probably one of the clergy in personal attendance on the antipope Clement III .-Early years:...
, against the will of his own bishops. In 1134
Saint Bernard of ClairvauxBernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian monastic order. After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order...
convinced William to drop his support to Anacletus and join Innocent.
In 1137 William joined the
pilgrimageIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages...
to
Santiago de CompostelaSantiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in the north west of Spain in the Province of A Coruña, it was a "European City of Culture" for the year 2000...
, but died of suspected food poisoning during the trip. On his deathbed, he expressed his wish to see king
Louis VI of FranceLouis VI , called the Fat , was King of France from 1108 until his death . Chronicles called him "roi de Saint-Denis". The first member of the House of Capet to make a lasting contribution to the centralizing institutions of royal power, Louis was born in Paris, the son of Philip I and his first...
as protector of his fifteen-year-old daughter Eleanor, and to find her a suitable husband. Louis VI naturally accepted this guardianship and married the heiress of Aquitaine to his own son,
Louis VIILouis VII, called the Younger or the Young, , was King of France, the son and successor of Louis VI . He ruled from 1137 until his death. He was a member of the House of Capet...
.
Sources
- Parsons, John Carmi. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady, 2002