William VIII of Montpellier

William VIII of Montpellier
Died1202
Noble familyGuilhem
Spouse(s)Eudokia Komnene
Agnes of Castile
FatherWilliam VII of Montpellier
MotherMatilda 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:

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.

  1. ^ Paul Magdalino, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180, (Cambridge University Press, 1993), 102.
  2. ^ Nicole M. Schulman, Where Troubadours Were Bishops: The Occitania of Folc of Marseille (1150-1231), (Routledge, 2001), 25 note46.
  3. ^ a b c d The Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon, ed. Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery, (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), 19.
  4. ^ William M. Reddy, The Making of Romantic Love, (University of Chicago Press, 2012), 126.
  5. ^ 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.