Sources
- Bachrach, Bernard S. (1993). Fulk Nerra, the Neo-Roman Consul, 987-1040. University of California Press.
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William VI (1004 – March 1038), called the Fat, [1] was Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou (as William IV) between 1030 and his death. He was the eldest son of William V the Great by his first wife, Adalmode of Limoges. [1]
Throughout his reign, he had to face the hostility of his stepmother, Agnes of Burgundy, the third wife of his father, who had remarried to Geoffrey Martel, then count of Vendôme. He entered into a war with Martel, who pretended to the government of the Saintonge. On 20 September 1034, he was captured in the field at Moncontour, near Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes. [2] He was freed in 1036, after nearly three years imprisonment, [3] only by ceding the cities of Saintes and Bordeaux. He immediately reopened the war, but was defeated again and had to cede the isle of Oléron.
William married Eustachie of Montreuil but had no known descendants. He reformed the administration of Poitiers by naming a provost, and died there, being succeeded by his half-brother Odo. He was buried at Maillezais.
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Charles Martel, Martel being a sobriquet in Old French for "The Hammer", was a Frankish political and military leader who, as Duke and Prince of the Franks and Mayor of the Palace, was the de facto ruler of the Franks from 718 until his death. He was a son of the Frankish statesman Pepin of Herstal and a noblewoman named Alpaida. Charles successfully asserted his claims to power as successor to his father as the power behind the throne in Frankish politics. Continuing and building on his father's work, he restored centralized government in Francia and began the series of military campaigns that re-established the Franks as the undisputed masters of all Gaul. According to a near-contemporary source, the Liber Historiae Francorum, Charles was "a warrior who was uncommonly ... effective in battle".
Hugh the Great was the duke of the Franks and count of Paris. He was the most powerful magnate in France. Son of King Robert I of France, Hugh was Margrave of Neustria. He played an active role in bringing King Louis IV of France back from England in 936. Seeking an alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Great, he married Otto's younger sister Hedwig of Saxony in 937. They were the parents of Hugh Capet. Hedwig's sister, Gerberga of Saxony, was Louis' wife. Although he often fought with Louis, he supported the accession of Louis and Gerberga's son, Lothair of France.
Septimania is a historical region in modern-day southern France. It referred to the western part of the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis that passed to the control of the Visigoths in 462, when Septimania was ceded to their king, Theodoric II. During the Early Middle Ages, the region was variously known as Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia, or Narbonensis. The territory of Septimania roughly corresponds with the modern French former administrative region of Languedoc-Roussillon that merged into the new administrative region of Occitanie. In the Visigothic Kingdom, which became centred on Toledo by the end of the reign of Leovigild, Septimania was both an administrative province of the central royal government and an ecclesiastical province whose metropolitan was the Archbishop of Narbonne. Originally, the Goths may have maintained their hold on the Albigeois, but if so it was conquered by the time of Chilperic I. There is archaeological evidence that some enclaves of Visigothic population remained in Frankish Gaul, near the Septimanian border, after 507.
William IV, called Fierebras, was the Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 963 to his retirement in 990.
William the Great was duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou from 990 until his death. Upon the death of the emperor Henry II, he was offered the kingdom of Italy but declined to contest the title against Conrad II.
Odo was Duke of Gascony from 1032 and then Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou from 1038.
William VII, called the Eagle (Aigret) or the Bold, was the duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitou between 1039 and his death, following his half-brother Odo.
William VIII, born Guy-Geoffrey (Gui-Geoffroi), was duke of Gascony (1052–1086), and then duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers between 1058 and 1086, succeeding his brother William VII (Pierre-Guillaume).
Fulk III, the Black was an early Count of Anjou celebrated as one of the first great builders of medieval castles. It is estimated Fulk constructed approximately 100 castles as well as abbeys throughout the Loire Valley in what is now France. He fought successive wars with neighbors in Brittany, Blois, Poitou and Aquitaine and made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem during the course of his life. He had two wives and three children.
Fulk II of Anjou, called le Bon, was Count of Anjou from 942 to his death.
Geoffrey I of Anjou, known as Grisegonelle, was count of Anjou from 960 to 987.
Geoffrey II, called Martel, son of Fulk the Black, was Count of Anjou from 1040 to 1060 and Count of Vendôme from 1032 to 1056. He fought battles against William VII, Duke of Aquitaine, Theobald III, Count of Blois, and William, Duke of Normandy. During his twenty-year reign Geoffrey II faced the ambitions of the Bishop of Le Mans, Gervais de Château-du-Loir, but was able to maintain his authority over the County of Maine. Martel founded the Abbey aux Dames in Saintonge and also -in collaboration with his wife Agnes- founded the Abbaye de la Trinité at Vendôme. The first mention of Geoffrey II in the Gesta Normannorum Ducum reads: "Geoffrey, count of the Angevins, nicknamed Martel, a treacherous man in every respect, frequently inflicted assaults and intolerable pressure on his neighbors."
Waiofar, also spelled Waifar, Waifer or Waiffre, was the last independent Duke of Aquitaine from 745 to 768. He peacefully succeeded his father, Hunald I, after the latter entered a monastery. He also inherited the conflict with the rising Carolingian family and its leader, Pepin the Short, who was king of the Franks after 751 and thus Waiofar's nominal suzerain.
Theobald I, called the Trickster, was Count of Blois, Tours, Chartres and Châteaudun, as well as Lord of Vierzon and Provins. He was a loyal and potent vassal of Hugh the Great, duke of the Franks.
Adelaide-Blanche of Anjou(c. 940 –1010 or 1026) was, by her successive marriages, countess of Gévaudan and Forez, of Toulouse, of Provence, and of Burgundy, and queen of Aquitaine. She was the regent of Gevaudan during the minority of her sons in the 960s, and the regent of Provence during the minority of her son from 994 until 999.
Agnes of Burgundy was Duchess of Aquitaine by marriage to Duke William V and Countess of Anjou by marriage to Count Geoffrey II. She served as regent of the Duchy of Aquitaine during the minority of her son from 1039 until 1044. She was a daughter of Otto-William, Count of Burgundy and Ermentrude de Roucy and a member of the House of Ivrea.
William Taillefer, numbered William II or William IV, was the Count of Angoulême from 987. He was the son of Count Arnald II Manzer and grandson of Count William Taillefer I. He stood at the head of the family which controlled not only the Angoumois, but also the Agenais and part of Saintonge. By the time of his death he was "the leading magnate in [the west] of Aquitaine[, but his] eminence ... proved temporary and illusory," evaporating on his death in succession squabbles, revolts and the predations of his erstwhile allies. The principal sources for William's career are Ademar of Chabannes and the anonymous Historia pontificum et comitum Engolismensium.
The Umayyad invasion of Gaul, also known as the Islamic invasion of Gaul, refers to a series of military campaigns by Muslim forces to expand their territory into the region of Gaul following the Umayyad conquest of the Iberian peninsula (711-718). The Umayyad invasion occurred in two phases, in 719 and 732 AD. Although the Umayyads secured control of Septimania, their incursions beyond this into the Loire and Rhône valleys failed. In 759, Muslim forces lost Septimania to the Christian Frankish Empire and retreated to the Iberian Peninsula which they called al-Andalus.
Emma of Blois was Duchess of Aquitaine by marriage to William IV, Duke of Aquitaine. She ruled Aquitaine as regent for her son, William V, Duke of Aquitaine, from 996 until 1004.
Geoffrey II of Thouars, was the son of Savary III. He was the viscount of Thouars from 1015 to 1043.