Philippa of Toulouse, Countess

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]

1. William X of Aquitaine was born 1099, Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France; died 09 Apr 1137, on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, Spain; was buried , Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela Provincia da La Coruña Galicia, Spain.

Notes:

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

William was Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence, and Duke of Narbonne from 1061 to 1094. He succeeded his father Pons of Toulouse upon his death in 1061. His mother was Almodis de la Marche, but she was kidnapped by and subsequently married to Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona when William was a boy. He was married to Emma of Mortain (daughter of Robert, Count of Mortain and a niece of William of Normandy), who gave him one daughter, Philippa. He also had an illegitimate son, William-Jordan, with his half-sister Adelaide.

He married twice, and produced two legitimate sons; neither, however, survived infancy, leaving daughter Philippa as his heiress. As Toulouse had no tradition of female inheritance, this raised a question with regard to succession. In 1088, when William departed for the Holy Land, he left his brother, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, to govern in his stead (and, it was later claimed, to succeed him). Within five years, William was dead, and Raymond in a perfect position to take power, although, after Philippa married William IX of Aquitaine, they laid claim to Toulouse and fought, off and on, for years to try to reclaim it from Raymond and his children.

He was the great-grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine, by his daughter's marriage to William IX of Aquitaine, and Eleanor's descendants would continue to lay nominal claim to Toulouse based on descent from William IV.

William married Emma of Mortain. [Group Sheet]

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.