de Provence, WIlliam I

Male 955 - 993  (38 years)


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Generation: 1

  1. 1.  de Provence, WIlliam I was born in 955 in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France; died on 29 Aug 993 in Avignon, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France; was buried after 29 Aug 993 in Sarrians, Vaucluse, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France.

    Other Events and Attributes:

    • Appointments / Titles: Count of Arles
    • Appointments / Titles: Count of Provence
    • Nickname: The Liberator
    • FSID: L133-HLP

    Notes:

    Wikipedia -transalation of the French site

    Guillaume I er de Provence said the Liberator, born around 955 and died at Avignon in 994 , after August 29[1], was a Provencal nobleman, famous for having defeated and driven out the
    Saracens of Provence in 973.

    William I of Provence
    Title of nobility
    Count of Provence
    Biography
    Birth
    Toward 955
    Death
    After 29 Aug 993
    Avignon
    Activity
    Monarch
    Family
    Bosonids
    Father
    Boson II of Arles
    Mother
    Constance
    Siblings
    Rotboald I of Provence
    Spouses
    Adélaïde d'Anjou
    Arsinde de Comminges
    Children
    Constance d'Arles
    Odile de Provence
    Guillaume II de Provence
    Toda, countess of Besalú

    Son of Boson II , Count of Arles and Constance de Provence , he was successively Count of Avignon (962), Count of Provence (972), Marquis of Arles Provence (979) and Prince of all Provence (991) [2] . Due to an uncle also called William [3] , he is sometimes referred to as William II of Provence.

    Biography

    His early years
    Guillaume and his older brother Roubaud (aka Rotbold II), succeeded their father Boson and uncle also called Guillaume between 962 and 966 . The county of Provence belongs to them in joint possession, Guillaume becoming count of Avignon and Roubaud count of Arles following the division in the previous generation between their father and uncle. He married between 968 and April 970 [4] , Arsinde de Comminges [ 5 ] , daughter of Arnaud, count of Comminges and d'Arsinde de Carcassonne. Arsinde, his first wife, has sometimes been confused with Adelaide, his second, but that controversy is now over[6] . From this first union would be born:

    Odile de Provence known as Odile de Nice (c. 976-c. 1032)
    Arsinde
    Ermengarde

    The liberation of Provence and its consequences
    Following the removal of the Abbot Mayeul in July 972 by bands of Saracens installed in the Maures mountain range since the end of the IXth century, Count William and his brother Roubaud took the lead in reinforcing Provencal lost by the troops of Ardouin, count of Turin.

    They track down the Moors whom they crush at the battle of Tourtour in 973, then drive them out of Provence [7] . In September 983[8], Guillaume annihilated the Saracens on their return from a campaign in the Alps and his brother
    Roubaud retired from Freinet with the help of Ardouin Marquis of Turin [ 9 ] . This military campaign against the Saracens, conducted without Conrad's troops, is in fact coupled with a feudalization of Provence, of the local aristocracy and of the urban and peasant communities who had until then always refused the feudal mutation and the count's power. . This allowed William to obtain the de facto suzerainty of Provence and with the royal consent, to control the tax authorities of Provence. He distributed the reconquered lands to his vassals, such as the territory of Hyères to to the lords of Fos, arbitrated the differences of various
    individuals and created Provençal feudalism [10]. With Isarn, bishop of Grenoble , he undertook to repopulate the Dauphiné and authorized an Italian count named Ugo Blavia to settle near Fréjus in the early 970s to put the land back into cultivation.

    His government and his fame
    Like his father Boson, Guillaume was advised by a viscount who, from 977, accompanied him on all these trips [11] and he relied on a large group of judges to dispense justice [12] . Having become Marquis of Provence in 979 , he moved to Arles in the early 980s . When his first wife Arsinde de Comminges (c. 950-983) died, he married in 984 in this city, against the advice of the pope, Adelaide of Anjou who had just separated from her husband, the future king of France, Louis V. The couple had at least two children:

    William II of Provence (c.981-av.May 30, 1018) [ 13 ]
    Constance d'Arles ( 986 - 1032 ) queen of France by her marriage to Robert II around the year 1000 ,

    Adelaide
    and another Ermengarde daughter of Arles , whose parentage is more disputed [14] ; Ermengarde Arles wife later Robert I st Auvergne .

    For all this, he is an important character in the chronicles of Raoul Glaber who treats him as a duke and he appears in a charter of 992 with the name of pater patriae .

    The end of his life
    At the end of his life, Guillaume became very pious and returned many goods to the Church's temporal. Already in 991 [15] , at the request of the bishop of Fréjus , Riculf [16], who implored the prince to make restitution of the former domains of the bishopric, Guillaume acceded to this petition and granted him in addition the half of Fréjus and the village of Puget [17]. In 992 , he also returned important estates in the Camargue to the Saint-Jean d'Arles monastery. In 993, near the end of his life, in the city of Avignon of which he was the count, he took the habit of a monk and appealed to the Abbot Mayeul to relieve his soul. He made restitutions and offerings to the abbey of Cluny [2], and was surrounded by a multitude of his subjects when Guillaume de Provence died, shortly after the 29 Aug 993. Before dying, he expressed the wish to be buried in Sarrians, near Carpentras, in the priory under construction on the villa offered to the Burgundian abbey [ 18 ] .

    WIlliam married d'Anjou, Adélaïde in 984 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France. Adélaïde (daughter of d'Anjou, Count Fulk II and du Gatinais, Gerberge) was born in 947 in Anjou, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France; died on 29 May 1026 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France; was buried after 29 May 1026 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Children:
    1. 2. d'Arles, Constance  Descendancy chart to this point was born in 986 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France; died on 25 Jul 1032 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried after 25 Jul 1032 in Basilica of St Denis, Paris, Île-de-France, France.


Generation: 2

  1. 2.  d'Arles, Constance Descendancy chart to this point (1.WIlliam1) was born in 986 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France; died on 25 Jul 1032 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried after 25 Jul 1032 in Basilica of St Denis, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

    Other Events and Attributes:

    • FSID: LDSS-6H5

    Constance married de France, King Robert II in 1003 in France. Robert (son of Capet, Hugues and d'Aquitaine, Adélaïde) was born on 23 Mar 972 in Orléans, Loiret, Centre, France; was christened on 27 Apr 972 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; died on 20 Jul 1031 in Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried after 20 Jul 1031 in Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Children:
    1. 3. de France, King Henri I  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 4 May 1008 in Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; was christened on 4 May 1008 in Bourgogne, France; died on 4 Aug 1060 in Vitry, Loiret, Centre, France; was buried on 10 Aug 1060 in Basilica of St Denis, Paris, Île-de-France, France.


Generation: 3

  1. 3.  de France, King Henri I Descendancy chart to this point (2.Constance2, 1.WIlliam1) was born on 4 May 1008 in Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; was christened on 4 May 1008 in Bourgogne, France; died on 4 Aug 1060 in Vitry, Loiret, Centre, France; was buried on 10 Aug 1060 in Basilica of St Denis, Paris, Île-de-France, France.

    Other Events and Attributes:

    • House: Capet
    • FSID: LDW5-66P
    • Appointments / Titles: Between 14 May 1027 and 20 Jul 1081, Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; King of France

    Notes:

    Henry I (4 May 1008-4 August 1060) was King of the Franks from 1031 to his death. The royal demesne of France reached its smallest size during his reign, and for this reason he is often seen as emblematic of the weakness of the early Capetians. This is not entirely agreed upon, however, as other historians regard him as a strong but realistic king, who was forced to conduct a policy mindful of the limitations of the French monarchy.

    Reign-
    A member of the House of Capet, Henry was born in Reims, the son of King Robert II (972-1031) and Constance of Arles (986-1034). He was crowned King of France at the Cathedral of Reims on 14 May 1027, in the Capetian tradition, while his father still lived. He had little influence and power until he became sole ruler on his father's death.

    The reign of Henry I, like those of his predecessors, was marked by territorial struggles. Initially, he joined his brother Robert, with the support of their mother, in a revolt against his father (1025). His mother, however, supported Robert as heir to the old king, on whose death Henry was left to deal with his rebel sibling. In 1032, he placated his brother by giving him the duchy of Burgundy which his father had given him in 1016.

    In an early strategic move, Henry came to the rescue of his very young nephew-in-law, the newly appointed Duke William of Normandy (who would go on to become William the Conqueror), to suppress a revolt by William's vassals. In 1047, Henry secured the dukedom for William in their decisive victory over the vassals at the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes near Caen; however, Henry would later support the barons against William until the former's death in 1060.

    In 1051, William married Matilda, the daughter of the count of Flanders, which Henry saw as a threat to his throne. In 1054, and again in 1057, Henry invaded Normandy, but on both occasions he was defeated.

    Henry had three meetings with Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor-all at Ivois. In early 1043, he met him to discuss the marriage of the emperor with Agnes of Poitou, the daughter of Henry's vassal. In October 1048, the two Henries met again and signed a treaty of friendship. The final meeting took place in May 1056 and concerned disputes over Theobald III and County of Blois. The debate over the duchy became so heated that Henry accused the emperor of breach of contract and subsequently left. In 1058, Henry was selling bishoprics and abbacies, ignoring the accusations of simony and tyranny by the Papal legate Cardinal Humbert. Despite his efforts, Henry I's twenty-nine-year reign saw feudal power in France reach its pinnacle.

    King Henry I died on 4 August 1060 in Vitry-en-Brie, France, and was interred in Basilica of St Denis. He was succeeded by his son, Philip I of France, who was 7 at the time of his death; for six years Henry's queen Anne of Kiev ruled as regent. At the time of his death, he was besieging Thimert, which had been occupied by the Normans since 1058.

    Marriages-
    Henry I was betrothed to Matilda, the daughter of Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, but she died prematurely in 1034. Henry then married Matilda of Frisia, but she died in 1044, following a Caesarean section. Casting further afield in search of a third wife, Henry married Anne of Kiev on 19 May 1051. They had four children:

    1.) Philip I (23 May 1052-30 July 1108).

    2.) Emma (1054-1109).

    3.) Robert (c. 1055-1060).

    4.) Hugh "the Great" of Vermandois (1057-1102).

    Henri married Yaroslavna, Anne on 29 Jan 1051 in Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. Anne (daughter of of Kievian Rus', Grand Prince Yaroslav I and Olafsdotter, Saint Ingrid) was born in 1030 in Kievian Rus' Empire (Historical); died on 5 Sep 1075 in La Forêt, Essonne, Île-de-France, France; was buried after 5 Sep 1075 in La Forêt, Essonne, Île-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Children:
    1. 4. de France, King Philippe I  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 23 May 1052 in Champagne, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was christened on 23 May 1052 in Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; died on 23 Jul 1108 in Château De Mun, Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried on 29 Jul 1108 in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loire, Rhône-Alpes, France.


Generation: 4

  1. 4.  de France, King Philippe I Descendancy chart to this point (3.Henri3, 2.Constance2, 1.WIlliam1) was born on 23 May 1052 in Champagne, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was christened on 23 May 1052 in Reims, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France; died on 23 Jul 1108 in Château De Mun, Melun, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France; was buried on 29 Jul 1108 in Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire, Loire, Rhône-Alpes, France.

    Other Events and Attributes:

    • House: House of Capet
    • Nickname: "The Fair"
    • FSID: L8WB-MRH
    • Appointments / Titles: 23 May 1059, Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France
    • Appointments / Titles: 1060, Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, France; Count
    • Appointments / Titles: 1060, Bourges, Cher, Centre, France; Count
    • Appointments / Titles: Between 1060 and 1108; King Of The Franks

    Notes:

    Philip I (23 May 1052-29 July 1108), called the Amorous, was King of the Franks from 1060 to his death. His reign, like that of most of the early Capetians, was extraordinarily long for the time. The monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin and Bourges.

    «b»Biography«/b»
    Philip was born 23 May 1052 at Champagne-et-Fontaine, the son of Henry I and his wife Anne of Kiev. Unusual at the time for Western Europe, his name was of Greek origin, being bestowed upon him by his mother. Although he was crowned king at the age of seven, until age fourteen (1066) his mother acted as regent, the first queen of France ever to do so. Baldwin V of Flanders also acted as co-regent.

    Following the death of Baldwin VI of Flanders, Robert the Frisian seized Flanders. Baldwin's wife, Richilda requested aid from Philip, who defeated Robert at the battle of Cassel in 1071.

    Philip first married Bertha in 1072. Although the marriage produced the necessary heir, Philip fell in love with Bertrade de Montfort, the wife of Fulk IV, Count of Anjou. He repudiated Bertha (claiming she was too fat) and married Bertrade on 15 May 1092. In 1094, he was excommunicated by Hugh of Die, for the first time; after a long silence, Pope Urban II repeated the excommunication at the Council of Clermont in November 1095. Several times the ban was lifted as Philip promised to part with Bertrade, but he always returned to her, but in 1104 Philip made a public penance and must have kept his involvement with Bertrade discreet. In France, the king was opposed by Bishop Ivo of Chartres, a famous jurist.

    Philip appointed Alberic first Constable of France in 1060. A great part of his reign, like his father's, was spent putting down revolts by his power-hungry vassals. In 1077, he made peace with William the Conqueror, who gave up attempting the conquest of Brittany. In 1082, Philip I expanded his demesne with the annexation of the Vexin. Then in 1100, he took control of Bourges.

    It was at the aforementioned Council of Clermont that the First Crusade was launched. Philip at first did not personally support it because of his conflict with Urban II. Philip's brother Hugh of Vermandois, however, was a major participant.

    Philip died in the castle of Melun and was buried per request at the monastery of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire and not in St Denis among his forefathers. He was succeeded by his son, Louis VI, whose succession was, however, not uncontested. According to Abbot Suger:

    "… King Philip daily grew feebler. For after he had abducted the Countess of Anjou, he could achieve nothing worthy of the royal dignity; consumed by desire for the lady he had seized, he gave himself up entirely to the satisfaction of his passion. So he lost interest in the affairs of state and, relaxing too much, took no care for his body, well-made and handsome though it was. The only thing that maintained the strength of the state was the fear and love felt for his son and successor. When he was almost sixty, he ceased to be king, breathing his last breath at the castle of Melun-sur-Seine, in the presence of the future king Louis... They carried the body in a great procession to the noble monastery of St-Benoît-sur-Loire, where King Philip wished to be buried; there are those who say they heard from his own mouth that he deliberately chose not to be buried among his royal ancestors in the church of St. Denis because he had not treated that church as well as they had, and because among so many noble kings his own tomb would not have counted for much."

    «b»Issue«/b»
    Philip's children with Bertha were:

    1.) Constance (1078-14 September 1126), married Hugh I of Champagne before 1097 and then, after her divorce, to Bohemund I of Antioch in 1106.

    2.) Louis VI of France (1 December 1081-1 August 1137).

    3.) Henry (1083-died young).

    Philip's children with Bertrade were:

    1.) Philip, Count of Mantes (1093-1123), married Elizabeth, daughter of Guy III of Montlhéry

    2.) Fleury, Seigneur of Nangis (1095-July 1119)

    3.) Cecile (1097-1145), married Tancred, Prince of Galilee and then, after his death, to Pons of Tripoli.

    Philippe married von Holland, Queen Bertha in 1072. Bertha was born in 1055 in Vlaardingen, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands; was christened in 1054; died on 30 Jul 1093 in Montreuil-sur-Loir, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire, France; was buried after 30 Jul 1093 in Priory of Haute-Bruyère, Yvelines, Île-de-France, France. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

    Children:
    1. 5. de France, King of France Louis VI  Descendancy chart to this point was born on 1 Dec 1081 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; was christened on 7 Dec 1081 in Paris, Île-de-France, France; died on 1 Aug 1137 in Chateau de Bethisy, Bethisy-Saint-Pierre, Oise, Picardie, France; was buried on 3 Aug 1137 in Basilica of St Denis, Paris, Île-de-France, France.