Bernard William,[a] sometimes Bernard I (died 25 December 1009), was the Duke of Gascony[b] and Count of Bordeaux from c.997 to his death. During his time, Gascony was effectively independent, its duke a sovereign and any connection to the Kingdom of France theoretical. His reign fell during a period of relative peace and prosperity: the Peace of God movement had originated in Gascony in his father's time, monastic reform was introduced during his reign and the period of Viking attacks was over. Nonetheless, it was also a period of increasing feudal fragmentation, and Bernard died a violent death.[1][2]
Descended on both sides from dynasties of Basque origin, Bernard was the eldest son of Duke William Sánchez and Urraca, daughter of King García Sánchez I of Pamplona. "Bernard" was his given name and "William" a patronymic, being the name of his father. He used both names.[3]
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- ^ Jean Dunbabin, France in the Making, 843–1180 (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 177.
- ^ Michel Zimmerman, "Western Francia: The Southern Principalities", in Timothy Reuter (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, c. 900 – c. 1024 (Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 420–55, at 439–40.
- ^ Charles Higounet, Bordeaux pendant le Haut Moyen Âge (Bordeaux: 1963), pp. 46–48, 52, 304–05. For photographs of Bernard's coin, see plates III–IV.