William VIII (Montpellier)

Wilhelm VIII. (French spelling Guillem VIII .; * Around 1172; † September 1203 ) was a lord of Montpellier . He was a son of William VII and Mathilde of Burgundy, a daughter of Duke Hugo II of Burgundy . Since his father died in 1173, Wilhelm's uncle, Guy le Guerroyeur, took over the guardianship for him.

Life

Wilhelm was a supporter of the trobadors at the time , and Arnaut de Mareuil belonged to his court . In 1181 he set up a free school for medicine in Montpellier , which later became the University of Montpellier . The scholastic Alanus ab Insulis dedicated a four-volume pamphlet directed against the Cathars ( De fide contra hereticos ) to him.

Around 1180 the Byzantine princess Eudokia Komnena, a niece of Emperor Manuel I , stayed in Montpellier after she had been cast out by her fiancé, King Alfonso II of Aragon . Since the emperor had died around the same time, Eudokia was forgotten in her homeland. Wilhelm used this in turn to become engaged to her. However, the marriage was unhappy, allegedly because Wilhelm felt that his wife's imperial pride had treated him unfairly. In 1187 he disowned her to marry the Catalan noblewoman Ines (Agnes), but this marriage was recognized by the Pope as illegitimate in 1194. But since his sons came from the second wife, Wilhelm asked Pope Innocent III. for their legitimation, which was refused in the decretal Per Venerabilem .

progeny

From first marriage:

• Maria (* 1182; † 1213)
  • ⚭ 1192 with Raimund Gottfried (Barral), Vice Count of Marseille
  • ⚭ 1197 with Bernard IV. , Count of Comminges
  • ⚭ 1204 with Peter II , King of Aragón

From the second morganatic marriage there were other:

• William IX. († 1212)
• Thomas of Tortosa
• Bernat Guillem I. d'Entença († 1237)
• Raimund, monk in the Grandselve monastery
• Guido, monk in the Cluny monastery
• Agnes, ⚭ 1204 with Raimund Roger Trencavel , Vice Count of Carcassonne
• Adelais, ⚭ with Jofre II. De Rocabertí

literature

• Maur-François Dantine , Charles Clémencet , Saint-Allais (Nicolas Viton) , Ursin Durand , François Clément - "  L'art de verifier les dates des faits historiques, des chartes, des chroniques et autres anciens ...  " (1770)
• Winfried Hecht : On the history of the "Empress" of Montpellier, Eudoxia Komnena . In: Revue des études byzantines , vol. 26 (1968), pp. 161-169 ( doi = 10.3406 / rebyz.1968.1403 ).
• Lucien Stiernon: Notes de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines: Sébaste et gambros . In: Revue des études byzantines , vol. 23 (1965), pp. 222–243 ( doi = 10.3406 / rebyz.1965.1349 ).

Remarks

1. ↑ Winfried Hecht: On the history of the "Empress" of Montpellier, Eudoxia Komnena . In: Revue des études byzantines , vol. 26 (1968), p. 163.
2. ↑ Lucien Stiernon: Notes de titulature et de prosopographie byzantines: Sébaste et gambros . In: Revue des études byzantines , vol. 23 (1965), p. 236.
3. ↑ The children from the second marriage are mentioned in Wilhelm VIII's will, dated November 4, 1202. Spicilegium sive collectio veterum aliquot Scriptorum qui in Galliae bibliothecis delituerant , vol. 3, ed. by Luc d'Achery (1723), p. 561.

predecessor	Office	successor
William VII	Lord of Montpellier 1173–1203	William IX.