Wilhelm X. (Aquitaine)

Duke Wilhelm X of Aquitaine on his death bed. Depiction from the Chroniques de Saint-Denis , 13th century.

Wilhelm X. called the Saint or the Tolosan (* 1099 in Toulouse ; † April 9, 1137 ) was the last Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from the Ramnulfiden dynasty .

He ruled from 1126 to 1137 under the name Wilhelm VIII in Poitou and as Wilhelm X in Aquitaine. He was the son and successor of Duke Wilhelm IX. the troubadour and Philippa of Toulouse , daughter of Count Wilhelm IV.

He was born during the brief period when his parents ruled the county of Toulouse; a short time later his father transferred Wilhelm IX. Toulouse to Philippa's cousin Bertrand of Toulouse and went on the First Crusade himself , while Philippa and his son stayed in Poitiers . After his return, the young William fell out with his father when he left his wife and took the wife of his vassal Amaury I, Vice Count of Châtellerault , as his lover - the dispute was only settled when William 1121 Eleonore von Châtellerault († after March 1130) married Amaury's daughter and his father's lover.

Wilhelm X. allied himself with Count Gottfried V. Plantagenet against Normandy . He used the calm he received on the northern border to fight his vassal Isembert de Châtelaillon , Lord of Aunis .

Not very happy was his support, which he gave with the papal legate Girard d'Angoulême to the antipope Anaclet II from 1130 until a meeting with Bernard of Clairvaux five years later at the castle of Parthenay . He died of food poisoning during a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela . In his last will, he asked the French King Louis VI. about agreeing to the marriage between his daughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and his eldest son Ludwig .

Like his father, Wilhelm X was also a patron of the troubadours , music and literature. He was an educated man and tried to give his two daughters an excellent education at a time when Europe's rulers could barely read and write. When Eleanor succeeded her father as Duchess, she continued her father's path and made the Aquitaine court the scientific center of Europe.

Wilhelm and Eleonore had three children:

• Wilhelm Aigret, † December 1130/37
• Eleonore (* 1122, † March 31, 1204), 1137 Duchess of Aquitaine, Countess of Poitou etc .;

1. ⚭ 22./25. July 1137, divorced March 18, 1152, Louis VII. , 1137 King of France , † September 18, 1180;
2. ⚭ May 18, 1152 Henry II , 1149 Duke of Normandy , 1151 Count of Anjou , 1154 King of England , † July 6, 1189

• Aélis (Petronilla) , † after October 24, 1153; ⚭ 1142, probably divorced in 1151, Rudolf I (Raoul I le Vaillant) Count of Vermandois , † November 14, 1152

At the end of the Middle Ages , Wilhelm X became a figure entwined with legends, sometimes confused with Wilhelm von Gellone , who was also Duke of Aquitaine, and the founder of the order, Wilhelm von Malavalle .

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• Personal data (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
William IX.	Duke of Aquitaine 1127–1137	Louis (VII) of France (de iure uxoris)