William VIII of Montpellier | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Died | 1202 |
| Noble family | Guilhem |
| Spouse(s) | Eudokia Komnene Agnes of Castile |
| Father | William VII of Montpellier |
| Mother | Matilda of Burgundy |
William VIII (in Occitan: Guilhem; died 1202) was Lord of Montpellier, the son of William VII and Matilda of Burgundy.
William VIII married Eudokia Komnene, grand-niece of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos.[1] They had one daughter, Marie of Montpellier.
Lacking a male heir, William separated from Eudokia, sending her to a monastery in Ariane.[2]
William then married Agnes of Castile and sired eight more children:
- William IX of Montpellier[3]
- Aymard, d. 1199[4]
- Bernat William,[3] married Jussiana d’Entença, daughter of Ponç Hug d’Entença
- Tortoseta (Thomas)[3]
- Bergunyo,[3] a priest
- Gui, a priest
- Agnes, married in 1203 Raymond Roger Trencavel, viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers, Albi and Razès.
- Adalaïs.
The Pope ruled William's marriage to Agnes as illegitimate and Marie was given the throne.[5]
William VIII was a patron of troubadours. Arnaut de Mareuil came to his court after fleeing from the entourage of Azalais of Toulouse, and at least one of Arnaut's poems is addressed to him.
- ^ Paul Magdalino, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180, (Cambridge University Press, 1993), 102.
- ^ Nicole M. Schulman, Where Troubadours Were Bishops: The Occitania of Folc of Marseille (1150-1231), (Routledge, 2001), 25 note46.
- ^ a b c d The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon, ed. Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery, (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), 19.
- ^ William M. Reddy, The Making of Romantic Love, (University of Chicago Press, 2012), 126.
- ^ E. Jenkins (6 August 2012). The Mediterranean World of Alfonso II and Peter II of Aragon (1162-1213). Springer. pp. 113–. ISBN 978-1-137-07826-1.