Emma of Mortain

Notes:

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IV,_Count_of_Toulouse

She was the daughter of Robert, Count of Mortain and a niece of William of Normandy. She who gave him two legitimate sons; neither, however, survived infancy, leaving daughter their Philippa as his heiress.

Emma married William IV of Toulouse. William was born 1040, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France; died 1094, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippa,_Countess_of_Toulouse

Philippa was born in approximately 1073 to Count William IV of Toulouse, and his wife Emma of Mortain. She was his only surviving child, and thus, by the laws of Toulouse, his heir. 1088, William went on a pilgrimage to Palestine, leaving his brother Raymond of Saint-Gilles [Raymond IV] as regent. Upon the death of her father, her uncle took over as Count and Philippa was disinherited.

She married William IX of Aquitaine in 1094, whom she considered worthy due to his numerous merits: a handsome man fully capable of flattering a woman and he was not only one of the most prominent Dukes in Europe, able to give her the life she felt she deserved. His realm was also conveniently situated next to Toulouse, and consequently would easily be able to regain her homeland for her own as the Duke promised to do for her.

When Raymond IV of Toulouse set out on the First Crusade in the autumn of 1096, he left his son Bertrand to rule the County. However, in the Spring of 1098, William and Philippa marched into the city of Toulouse, and took control without a single life being lost. In the next year, she gave birth to her first child in the city: William the Toulousain.

In 1099, her husband went on crusade and he left her as regent in Poitou. She was stunned when her husband mortgaged Toulouse to her cousin Bertrand in exchange for a vast sum of money, which the Duke used to go on Crusade himself. Philippa, removed from her home, was sent to his capital of Poitiers, from where she ruled Aquitaine on behalf of her husband while he was absent.

After William's return, he and Philippa for a time lived contentedly with each other, producing a further five daughters, and a son, Raymond. She also ignored the Duke's sexual boasting in song and talk, instead concentrating on religion. She was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel and persuaded her husband to grant him land in Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1100 he founded Fontevraud Abbey there.

In the teachings of Robert of Arbrissel, he preached the superiority of women over men. Philippa's obsession with a doctrine considered offensive by many men of that time, combined with William's growing dissatisfaction with her, and his teasing of her (claiming to be founding an abbey of prostitutes), led to discord in the marriage.

Toulouse had been won back by William for his wife in 1113, following the death of Bertrand in Syria in 1112: his heir being his half-brother, the 9 year old Alphonse-Jourdain, William had been unopposed. Thus, by 1114, Philippa was spending most of her time ruling there. Accordingly, she was less than pleased when, upon her return from Toulouse to Poitiers in 1114, she discovered her husband to have moved his mistress, Viscountess Dangereuse of Châtellerault, into her palace. Philippa appealed to friends and the church for assistance in ousting her husband's mistress, but to no avail ? none could persuade the Duke to give up his mistress.

In 1116, a humiliated Philippa, devastated by her husband's repayment of her service to him for so many years, left the Court, taking refuge at the Abbey of Fontevrault. However, for all Philippa's devotion to the Abbey and its ideals, she found little peace there, both angry and resentful that her husband had cast her off in favour of a mistress. She died of unknown causes there on 28 November 1118, survived by her husband and his mistress.

Buried:
Grave location and church photo:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=85222420&ref=acom

Philippa married William IX Duke of Aquitaine. William (son of William VIII Duke of Aquitaine and Hildegarde of Burgundy) was born 22 Oct 1071, Aquitaine; died 11 Feb 1127, Poitiers Departement de la Vienne Poitou-Charentes, France; was buried , Saint-Jean l'Evangéliste de Montierneuf Poitiers Departement de la Vienne Poitou-Charentes, France. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_X,_Duke_of_Aquitaine

Called the Saint, he was Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, and Count of Poitou (as William VIII) from 1126 to 1137. He was the son of William IX by his second wife, Philippa of Toulouse.

William was born in Toulouse during the brief period when his parents ruled the capital. His birth is recorded in the Chronicle of Saint-Maixent for the year 1099: Willelmo comiti natus est filius, equivoce Guillelmus vocatus ("a son was born to Count William, named William like himself"). Later that same year, much to Philippa's ire, Duke William IX mortgaged Toulouse to Philippa's cousin, Bertrand of Toulouse, and then left on Crusade.

Philippa and her infant son William X were left in Poitiers. When Duke William IX returned from his unsuccessful crusade, he took up with Dangerose, the wife of a vassal, and set aside his rightful wife, Philippa. This caused strain between father and son, until 1121 when William X married Aenor de Châtellerault, a daughter of his father's mistress Dangerose by her first husband, Aimery.

William had three children with Aenor:

Eleanor, who later became heiress to the Duchy;

Petronilla, who married Raoul I of Vermandois;

William Aigret, who died at age 4 in 1130, about the time their mother Aenor de Châtellerault died.

William administered his Aquitaine duchy as both a lover of the arts and a warrior. He became involved in conflicts with Normandy (which he raided in 1136, in alliance with Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou who claimed it in his wife's name) and for France.

Even inside his borders, William faced an alliance of the Lusignans and the Parthenays against him, an issue resolved with total destruction of the enemies.

In 1137 William joined the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, but died during the trip.[1] On his deathbed, he expressed his wish to see king Louis VI of France as protector of his fifteen-year-old daughter Eleanor, and to find her a suitable husband. Louis VI naturally accepted this guardianship and married the heiress of Aquitaine to his own son, Louis VII.


Buried:
Grave location, portrait, and cathedral photo:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=92622584

William married Aenor de Châtellerault. Aenor (daughter of Aimery I, Vicount de Châtellerault and Amauberge (Dangereuse) de L' Isle Bouchard) was born 1103, Châtellerault, Vienne, Poitou-Charentes, France; died Mar 1130, Talmont, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France; was buried , Abbaye de Nieul-sur-l'Autise Nieul-sur-l'Autise Departement de la Vendée Pays de la Loire, France. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine

Eleanor was the oldest of three children of William X, Duke of Aquitaine, whose glittering ducal court was renowned in early 12th-century Europe, and his wife, Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimery I, Viscount of Châtellerault. She was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages and a member of the Ramnulfid dynasty of rulers in southwestern France. She inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine from her father, William X, in 1137, and later became queen of France and of England.

By all accounts, Eleanor's father ensured that she had the best possible education. Eleanor came to learn arithmetic, the constellations, and history. She did learn domestic skills such as household management and the needle arts of embroidery, needlepoint, sewing, spinning, and weaving.[3] Eleanor ended up developing skills in conversation, dancing, games such as backgammon, checkers, and chess, playing the harp, and singing. Although her native tongue was Poitevin, she was taught to read and speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and schooled in riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was extroverted, lively, intelligent, and strong-willed.

Her four-year-old brother William Aigret and their mother died at the castle of Talmont, on Aquitaine's Atlantic coast. Eleanor became the heir presumptive to her father's domains. The Duchy of Aquitaine was the largest and richest province of France; Poitou (where Eleanor spent most of her childhood) and Aquitaine together were almost one-third the size of modern France.

As Duchess of Aquitaine, Eleanor was the most eligible bride in Europe. Three months after she became duchess, she married King Louis VII of France, son of her guardian, King Louis VI, the Fat. As Queen of France, she participated in the unsuccessful Second Crusade. After the birth of her second daughter Alix, Louis agreed to an annulment given that their union had not produced a son after fifteen years of marriage. Their daughters, Marie and Alix, were declared legitimate and custody was awarded to Louis, while Eleanor's lands were restored to her.

As soon as the annulment was granted, Eleanor became engaged to Henry, Duke of Normandy and Count of Anjou, who became King Henry II of England in 1154. Henry was her third cousin, and eleven years younger. They married eight weeks after the annulment of Eleanor's first marriage.

Over the next thirteen years, she bore Henry eight children: five sons, three of whom would become kings; and three daughters. However, Henry and Eleanor eventually became estranged. Henry imprisoned her in 1173 for supporting her son Henry's revolt against her husband. She was not released until 6 July 1189, when Henry died and their son ascended the English throne as Richard I.

Now queen dowager, Eleanor acted as regent while Richard went on the Third Crusade, where on his return he was captured and held prisoner. Eleanor lived well into the reign of her youngest son, John. By the time of her death, she had outlived all her children except for John and Eleanor.



Buried:
Grave location and tomb effigy:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6437&ref=acom

Eleanor married Henry II Plantagenet, King of England. Henry (son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou and Matilda of England) was born 05 Mar 1133, Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France; died 06 Jul 1189, Chinon Castle, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, France; was buried , Fontevraud Abbey Fontevraud-l'Abbaye Departement de Maine-et-Loire Pays de la Loire, France. [Group Sheet]