Alfonso of Poitiers

Before the representatives of the city of Agen, Alfons of Poitiers recognized their communal autonomy. (Miniature from the Livre des statuts et coutumes de la ville d'Agen , 13th century)

Alfons of Poitiers ( French Alphonse de Poitiers ; born November 11, 1220 in Poissy , † August 21, 1271 in Corneto near Siena ) was a royal prince of France from the Capetian dynasty . He was Count of Poitou from 1241 and Count of Toulouse from 1249 .

Life

Alfons was the third of the four sons of King Louis VIII the Lion († 1226) and his wife Blanca of Castile († 1252) to reach adulthood . The older were the king and later Saint Louis IX. (* 1214; † 1270) and Robert von Artois (* 1216; † 1250), the younger Karl von Anjou (* 1226; † 1285).

According to the Albigensian Crusade terminating Treaty of Meaux-Paris of 1229, was Alfons with Johanna engaged, the heiress of the county of Toulouse. The wedding took place in 1241 and subsequently initiated the inheritance of the French crown in the Languedoc region from 1271 . In the same year, on June 24th, Alfons was knighted by his older brother, according to the father's will, on a court day in Saumur and enfeoffed with the counties of Poitou, Saintonge and part of Auvergne ( Terre royale d'Auvergne ). This loan provoked protests from the Plantagenets , who previously owned these areas and who continue to claim them. Against Alfonso and Louis IX. an alliance was formed under King Henry III. of England and Hugo X of Lusignan , who also joined Alfonso's father-in-law, Raymond VII of Toulouse . Together with Louis IX. Alfons beat the other side on July 21, 1242 in the battle of Taillebourg . Henry III. fled to England, Lusignan submitted to Alfonso and the Count of Toulouse also laid down his arms.

Coat of arms of Prince Alfonso of Poitiers

Like all brothers, Alfonso took part in the sixth crusade into Egypt . However, he did not set sail with them on August 25, 1248 in Aigues-Mortes , because his father-in-law delayed their departure due to hesitant behavior. It was not until the autumn of 1249 that Alfons and Raimund VII agreed to leave Marseilles ; the father-in-law died on the way there. As a result, the inheritance regulation of 1229 came into force, making Alfons Count of Toulouse and Margrave of Provence. He left the takeover of these countries to his mother Blanca, as he did not want to postpone participation in the crusade any longer. He reached Damiette , which has since been conquered, on October 24, 1249, where he reinforced his brother's army. He then took part in the advance against Cairo , where the combined armies were stopped on February 8, 1250 in front of the city of al-Mansura . In a spontaneous attack on the city , Alfons' brother Robert was killed by Artois. In a subsequent battle in front of the city on February 11 against the Mameluks , Alfons commanded the right wing of the army. At times he was so distressed that he supposedly had to be defended by sutlers. Despite the victory in the battle, the siege of al-Mansura had to be broken off in April 1250. During the subsequent march back to Damiette, Alfons and his brothers were taken prisoner by the Mameluks near Fariskur on April 6th.

A seal from Alfonso de Poitiers

After his release, Alfons returned to France with his brother Karl von Anjou in 1251, where both of them reigned for Louis IX at the side of their mother. who stayed in the holy land. The mother died in 1252, after which Alfons and Karl continued the reign alone. During this time Alfons played a large part in the negotiations that led to the Treaty of Paris of 1259. In this, King Heinrich III recognized. of England the loss of large parts of its possessions in France in favor of the Crown, including Normandy , Maine , Anjou and Poitou . In return, France had to forego the Saintoge, which was given to the King of England as an act of concession.

Although Alfons stayed mainly in Paris, he performed his main services on his properties in the south of France. He had the devastation of the Albigensian Crusade removed and organized the administration of Languedoc according to a centralized, northern French model, by dividing the country into Seneschallates. The document for the city of Riom known as the "Alphonsine" became the Auvergne code . Despite his despotic character and permanent financial bottlenecks, he protected the bourgeoisie from attacks by the nobility. He supported the Inquisition in the fight against heretics, but also ordered the first regional expulsion of Jews in Poitou in 1249 . His measures prepared the orderly takeover of the south by the crown.

Despite his poor health, Alfons and his wife accompanied his brother on the seventh crusade against Tunis in 1270 , where the king died in Carthage . Alfons himself died on August 21, 1271 in Corneto near Siena on the way back home . His wife followed him a few days later. While he was buried in the Saint-Denis basilica , his wife is buried in the Notre-Dame-Gercy church (now Varennes-Jarcy ). Since the couple had no children, their land was incorporated into the crown domain as a settled fiefdom . Only the Comtat Venaissin , as part of the Margraviate of Provence, he left to the Pope , in whose possession the area remained until 1791.

ancestors

Louis VII the Younger (1120–1180)

Adele of Champagne (1140–1206)

Baldwin V of Hainaut (1150–1195)

Margaret I of Flanders (1145–1194)

Sancho III. of Castile (1133–1158)

Blanka of Navarre (? –1157)

Heinrich II. Plantagenet (1133–1189)

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204)

Philip II August (1165-1223)

Isabelle of Hainaut (1170–1190)

Alfonso VIII of Castile (1155-1214)

Eleonore Plantagenet (1161-1214)

Louis VIII the Lion (1187-1226)

Blanka of Castile (1188–1252)

Alfonso of Poitiers (1220-1271)

literature

• B. Ledain: Histoire d'Alphonse, frère de S. Louis et du comté de Poitou sous son administration (1241-1271) (Poitou, 1869)
• Edgard Boutaric : Saint Louis et Alphonse de Poitiers (Paris, 1870)
• A. Molinier: Etude sur l'administration de S. Louis et d'Alphonse de Poitiers (Toulouse, 1880)
• A. Molinier: Correspondance administrative d'Alphonse de Poitiers in Collection de documents inédits pour servir à l'histoire de France (Paris, 1894 and 1895).

Web links

Commons : Alfons von Poitiers  - collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
French crown domain	Count of Poitou 1241–1271	French crown domain
Raymond VII. (IV.)	Count of Toulouse (de iure uxoris , with Johanna ) 1249–1271	French crown domain
Raymond VII. (IV.)	Margrave of Provence (de iure uxoris , with Johanna ) 1249–1271	French crown domain