William of Septimania
Encyclopedia
William of Septimania was the son of Bernard and Dhuoda
. He was the Count of Toulouse from 844 and Count of Barcelona from 848.
The sources for his life are primarily the Annales Bertiniani
and the Chronica Fontanellensis, while his mother wrote an educational instruction book called the Liber Manualis for him and his brother sometime before February 842.
William was initially sent to the court of his uncle, Theodoric of Autun, who died around 830, and left the child in the charge of Louis the Pious
, then reigning Emperor
. When Louis died in June 840, custody of the youth passed to Charles the Bald
of West Francia. Throughout most of this time, William lived in Uzès
, with frequent stays with his father in Toulouse
. On 25 June 841, the same day as the Battle of Fontenoy
, William petitioned Charles the Bald for investiture of the benefices of his godfather Theodoric in Burgundy. This was granted and the young William was invited to live at the royal palace, being promised investiture with the county of Autun in the future. When, however, Guerin of Provence
was installed in Autun, dissension ripped apart the court.
William's father was dispossessed of his benefices, offices, and titles in July 842 and they were not passed to William. In May 844, his father was executed and he promptly joined the rebellion then under way in Aquitaine
led by Pepin II
. In June, he fought in the Battle of Angoumois. Pepin invested him with Toulouse, while Charles installed Fredelon
there. It has been hypothesised that William was also the same person as William I
, Count of Bordeaux
and Duke of Gascony
, who Pepin appointed in 845. At that time, the Vikings invaded Aquitaine and ravaged as far as Limoges
. In 847, they again besieged Bordeaux
and when he came to the city's relief William was captured. Finally liberated in 848 by an accord signed by Pepin, William returned to Gothia to lead the ongoing revolt there.
In that year, William entered Barcelona
and Empúries
and assumed authority there, "more by cunning and lies than by force of arms," according to the chroniclers. It has been supposed that Sunifred I of Barcelona
died a natural death and Charles the Bald nominated Aleran
to succeed him, but William, not recognising this, laid claim to the counties of Sunifred as the heir of Bernard. He asserted these rights and was recognised in the counties themselves. However, the sudden disappearance of Sunifred I of Empúries and Bera II of Conflent has led some scholars to posit an act of treachery (coup d'état
) to secure his claimed inheritance.
In summer 849, when Charles decided to attack Aquitaine, Fredelon welcomed him with open gates at Toulouse and the king reconfirmed Fredelon's investiture. Pepin fled in haste and Charles marched to Narbonne
, where he named Aleran as count in Barcelona, Empúries, and Roussillon and as Margrave of Septimania. He granted Wilfred the counties of Gerona and Besalú, and Solomon
those of Cerdagne, Urgel, and Conflent. Aleran, possibly Count of Troyes and son of William I of Blois, given that he had to guard against William of Septimania, appointed an adjunct, Isembard, son of Guerin of Provence. In the end, Charles' nominations had little trouble taking up their charges. William thus turned to Abd al-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba.
When, in February 850, Charles the Bald marched into Aquitaine and the nobles en masse switched allegiance to Pepin, Sancho II Sánchez of Gascony took control of Bordeaux, William allied himself with Abd al-Karim ben Mugith and the two laid siege to Girona
. They ravaged the surrounding countryside, but failed to take the citadel. Charles sent reinforcements and William was defeated in battle. William fled to Barcelona, where he was caught and killed by the royal partisans. In Barcelona, Sancho and his brother-in-law Emenon
were captured by Musa ibn Musa of the Banu Qasi
. In 851, the Moors
occupied Barcelona, decimating the people. In September 852, Sancho was released by a treaty.
Dhuoda
Dhuoda was the author of the Liber Manualis, a handbook written for her son. Her date of birth and death are unknown but it is circa 803-843.-Life:...
. He was the Count of Toulouse from 844 and Count of Barcelona from 848.
The sources for his life are primarily the Annales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani
Annales Bertiniani, or The Annals of St. Bertin, are late Carolingian, Frankish annals that were found in the monastery of St. Bertin, after which they are named. Their account is taken to cover the period 830-82, thus continuing the Royal Frankish Annals , from which, however, it has circulated...
and the Chronica Fontanellensis, while his mother wrote an educational instruction book called the Liber Manualis for him and his brother sometime before February 842.
William was initially sent to the court of his uncle, Theodoric of Autun, who died around 830, and left the child in the charge of Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious
Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...
, then reigning Emperor
Carolingian Empire
Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...
. When Louis died in June 840, custody of the youth passed to Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
of West Francia. Throughout most of this time, William lived in Uzès
Uzès
Uzès is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.It lies about 25 km north-northeast of Nîmes.-History:Originally Ucetia, Uzès was a small Gallo-Roman oppidum, or administrative settlement. The town lies at the source of the Eure, from where a Roman aqueduct was built in the first...
, with frequent stays with his father in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
. On 25 June 841, the same day as the Battle of Fontenoy
Battle of Fontenoy
The Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought between the forces of the Pragmatic Allies – comprising mainly Dutch, British, and Hanoverian troops under the nominal command of the Duke of Cumberland – and a French army under Maurice de...
, William petitioned Charles the Bald for investiture of the benefices of his godfather Theodoric in Burgundy. This was granted and the young William was invited to live at the royal palace, being promised investiture with the county of Autun in the future. When, however, Guerin of Provence
Guerin of Provence
Guerin, Garin, Warin, or Werner was the Count of Auvergne, Chalon, Mâcon, Autun, Arles and Duke of Provence, Burgundy, and Toulouse. Guerin stabilised the region against the Saracens from a base of Marseille and fortified Chalon-sur-Saône...
was installed in Autun, dissension ripped apart the court.
William's father was dispossessed of his benefices, offices, and titles in July 842 and they were not passed to William. In May 844, his father was executed and he promptly joined the rebellion then under way in Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
led by Pepin II
Pepin II of Aquitaine
Pepin II, called the Younger , was King of Aquitaine from 838 as the successor upon the death of his father, Pepin I. Pepin II was eldest son of Pepin I and Ingeltrude, daughter of Theodobert, count of Madrie...
. In June, he fought in the Battle of Angoumois. Pepin invested him with Toulouse, while Charles installed Fredelon
Fredelon of Toulouse
Fredelon, Freddon, or Fredol was the first Count of Toulouse of the dynasty of Rouergue.Son of Fulcoald of Rouergue and Senegund, daughter of Alda, sister of William of Gellone, Fredeon was related to the families of the counts of Rouergue and Toulouse.In 840, Fulcoald died, but Fredelon was not...
there. It has been hypothesised that William was also the same person as William I
William I of Gascony
William I was the Duke of Gascony, appointed in 846 following the death of Seguin II in battle with the Norse assaulting Bordeaux and Saintes. He himself had to fight the Vikings and died during an attack on Bordeaux in 848. He was the last Frankish-appointed duke...
, Count of Bordeaux
Count of Bordeaux
The Count of Bordeaux or comes Burdagalensis was the ruler of the city of Bordeaux and its environs in the Merovingian and Carolingian periods. The names of the counts are scarcely known until the ninth century, when they start to take on a larger role because of their strategic importance in the...
and Duke of Gascony
Duke of Gascony
The 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...
, who Pepin appointed in 845. At that time, the Vikings invaded Aquitaine and ravaged as far as Limoges
Limoges
Limoges |Limousin]] dialect of Occitan) is a city and commune, the capital of the Haute-Vienne department and the administrative capital of the Limousin région in west-central France....
. In 847, they again besieged Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
and when he came to the city's relief William was captured. Finally liberated in 848 by an accord signed by Pepin, William returned to Gothia to lead the ongoing revolt there.
In that year, William entered Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
and Empúries
Empúries
Empúries , formerly known by its Spanish name Ampurias , was a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Catalan comarca of Alt Empordà in Catalonia, Spain. It was founded in 575 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea with the name of Ἐμπόριον...
and assumed authority there, "more by cunning and lies than by force of arms," according to the chroniclers. It has been supposed that Sunifred I of Barcelona
Sunifred I, Count of Barcelona
Sunifred was the count of many Catalan and Septimanian counties; including Ausona, Besalú, Girona, Narbonne, Agde, Béziers, Lodève, Melgueil, Cerdanya, Urgell, Conflent, and Nîmes; and Count of Barcelona from 844 to 848....
died a natural death and Charles the Bald nominated Aleran
Aleran
Aleran was the Count of Barcelona from 848 to 852. He was also Count of Ampurias and Roussillon and Margrave of Septimania together with Isembart from 849 or 850 to 852.He was a Frankish nobleman loyal to the Emperor...
to succeed him, but William, not recognising this, laid claim to the counties of Sunifred as the heir of Bernard. He asserted these rights and was recognised in the counties themselves. However, the sudden disappearance of Sunifred I of Empúries and Bera II of Conflent has led some scholars to posit an act of treachery (coup d'état
Coup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
) to secure his claimed inheritance.
In summer 849, when Charles decided to attack Aquitaine, Fredelon welcomed him with open gates at Toulouse and the king reconfirmed Fredelon's investiture. Pepin fled in haste and Charles marched to Narbonne
Narbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
, where he named Aleran as count in Barcelona, Empúries, and Roussillon and as Margrave of Septimania. He granted Wilfred the counties of Gerona and Besalú, and Solomon
Solomon, Count of Cerdanya and Urgell
Solomon was the count of Urgell and Cerdanya from 848 and of Conflent from 860 to his death.According to the historian Abadal, Solomon recognised the succession of the children of his possible relative, Sunifred I, Count of Barcelona, on the latter's death in 848, and acted as their defender...
those of Cerdagne, Urgel, and Conflent. Aleran, possibly Count of Troyes and son of William I of Blois, given that he had to guard against William of Septimania, appointed an adjunct, Isembard, son of Guerin of Provence. In the end, Charles' nominations had little trouble taking up their charges. William thus turned to Abd al-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba.
When, in February 850, Charles the Bald marched into Aquitaine and the nobles en masse switched allegiance to Pepin, Sancho II Sánchez of Gascony took control of Bordeaux, William allied himself with Abd al-Karim ben Mugith and the two laid siege to Girona
Girona
Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...
. They ravaged the surrounding countryside, but failed to take the citadel. Charles sent reinforcements and William was defeated in battle. William fled to Barcelona, where he was caught and killed by the royal partisans. In Barcelona, Sancho and his brother-in-law Emenon
Emenon
Emenon was the Count of Poitou , Périgord , and Angoulême .It is unknown who nominated him count of Poitou, but it was probably Pepin I of Aquitaine, at whose side he had fought against the emperor Louis the Pious. During his tenure in Poitous, the Empress Judith was imprisoned in the abbey of...
were captured by Musa ibn Musa of the Banu Qasi
Banu Qasi
The Banu Qasi, Banu Kasi, Beni Casi or Banu Musa were a Basque Muladi dynasty that ruled the upper Ebro valley in the 9th century, before being displaced in the first quarter of the 10th century.-Dynastic beginnings:...
. In 851, the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
occupied Barcelona, decimating the people. In September 852, Sancho was released by a treaty.
Sources
- Lewis, Archibald R. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.