Also known as Guillaume VII de Poitiers, Guilhèm de Peitieus, and le Troubadour.
Count of Poitiers
Duke of Aquitaine
Guillaume participated (rather unsuccessfully) in the crusade of 1101. He also fought in Spain, helping with Reconquista efforts to take Cordoba.
He was excommunicated twice, once for “abducting” (apparently with her consent) the wife of a vassal.
Guillaume was the earliest troubadour whose work survives. He is sometimes credited with originating the tradition, reworking Arabo-Hispanic sources, but this is not certain. Ezra Pound (p. 39) considered him the most “modern” of the troubadours.
Events
Date of Birth: 22 October 1071.
Place of Birth: unknown.
The date is given by père Anselme (2:519), by Dillange (p. 157), and by Vones-Liebenstein.
Date of Death: 10 February 1126.
Place of Death: unknown.
The date is given by père Anselme (2:519) and by Vones-Liebenstein.
Place of Burial: Poitiers, l’Abbaye Saint-Jean de Montierneuf.
The place is given by père Anselme (2:519) and by Vones-Liebenstein.
Relationships
Father: Guillaume VIII d’Aquitaine.
This relationship is given by père Anselme (2:519), by Cokayne (p. 74), by Dillange (p. 157), and by Vones-Liebenstein.
Mother: Audearde (Hildegarde) de Bourgogne.
This relationship is given père Anselme (2:519), by Cokayne (p. 74), by Vones-Liebenstein, and by Cawley, who cites an Angevin genealogy from before 1109 to support it (Halphen p. 247).
Spouse: Philippa (Mathilde) de Toulouse (about 1073 - 1117). Married about 1094.
This relationship is given by père Anselme (2:520), by Cokayne (p. 74), by Turner (p. 17), and by Vones-Liebenstein.
Partner: Dangereuse ("La Maubergeonne"), wife of Aimery, vicomte of Châtellerault.
This relationship is given by père Anselme (2:520) and by Turner (p. 18).
Children (by Philippa):
Guillaume X d’Aquitaine (1099 - 9 April 1137), count of Poitou, duke of Aquitaine, married (1) Aliénor de Châtellerault; married (2) Emma de Limoges.
Agnès de Poitou married (1) Aimery de Thouars; married (2) Ramiro II, king of Aragon. (Cawley notes that there is some inconsistency in sources regarding her).
four other daughters.
Raymond (died 28 June 1149), prince of Antioch, married Constance of Antioch.
Henry.
(Cawley states that the last two were probably illegitimate.)
References
Anselme de Sainte-Marie. Histoire Généalogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France, des Pairs, Grands Officiers de la Couronne, de la Maison du Roy et des Anciens Barons du Royaume. 9 Volumes (Paris: 1726-1733).
Cawley, Charles. “GUILLAUME d'Aquitaine” in Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families.
Cokayne, G.E., and G.W. Watson. The Seize Quartiers of the Kings and Queens of England. (1896).
Dillange, Michel. Les comtes de Poitou: ducs d’Aquitaine (778-1204) (Mougon: Geste éditions, 1995).
Halphen, Louis. Chroniques de Comtes d’Anjou et des Seigneurs d”Amboise. (Paris: 1913).
Pound, Ezra. The Spirit of Romance. (New Directions: 1952).
Turner, Ralph V. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England (Yale University Press, 2009).
Vones-Liebenstein, U. “Wilhelm IX.” in Lexikon des Mittelalters. Band 9 (Stuttgart: 1998).
A website giving his surviving poems.
Commentary
Apparently Guillaume’s alleged first marriage to Ermengarde d’Anjou is no longer accepted as historical by contemporary scholarship. Père Anselme (2:520) gives Guillaume a third wife, Hildegarde. Other sources seem to identify her with Ermengarde.