| Alphonse I Of Toulouse |
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Alphonse I ( 1103 – 1148 ), Count Of Toulouse , son of Count Raymond IV by his third wife, Elvira Of Castile , was born in the castle of Mont-Pelerin , Tripoli , in today's Lebanon . He was born while his father was on crusade, attempting to create the County Of Tripoli on the Palestinian coast. He was surnamed ''Jourdain'' after being Baptized in the Jordan River . His father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin, Guillaume Jourdain , count of Cerdagne (d. 1109 ), until he was five. He was then taken to Europe and his brother Bertrand gave him the countship of Rouergue . In his tenth year, upon Bertrand's death ( 1112 ), he succeeded to the countship of Toulouse and marquisate of Provence , but Toulouse was taken from him by William IX , Count Of Poitiers , in 1114 , who claimed it by right of his wife Philippa of Toulouse, daughter of William IV of Toulouse. He recovered a part in 1119 , but continued to fight for his possessions until about 1123 . When at last successful, he was Excommunicated by Pope Callixtus II for having expelled the monks of Saint-Gilles , who had aided his enemies. He next fought for the sovereignty of Provence against Raymond Berenger III , and not till September 1125 did the war end in an amicable agreement. Under it Jourdain became absolute master of the regions lying between the Pyrenees and the Alps , Auvergne and the sea. His ascendancy was an unmixed good to the country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry flourished. About 1134 he seized the Viscounty Of Narbonne , only restoring it to the Viscountess Ermengarde (d. 1197 ) in 1143 . The claim of the now deceased Philippa of Toulouse was pressed again when Louis VII besieged Toulouse in 1141 , in right of his wife Eleanor Of Aquitaine , the granddaughter of Philippa, but without result. Next year Jourdain again incurred the displeasure of the church by siding with the rebels of Montpellier against their lord. A second time he was excommunicated; but in 1146 he took the cross at the meeting of Vezelay called by Louis VII, and in August , 1147 embarked for the East in the Second Crusade . He lingered on the way in Italy and probably in Constantinople . Alphonse might have met Eastern Roman Emperor Manuel I Comnenus during his visit there. But in 1148 Alphonse had finally arrived at Acre . Among his companions he had made enemies and he was destined to take no share in the crusade he had joined. He was poisoned at Caesarea , either by Eleanor Of Aquitaine , the wife of Louis, or Melisende , the mother of Baldwin III , King Of Jerusalem suggesting the draught. REFERENCES |
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