William of Montferrat (early 1140s-1177), also called
William Longsword (modern
Italian Guglielmo Lungaspada, originally
Occitan Guilhem Longa-Espia), was the
Count of Jaffa and Ascalon, the eldest son of
William V, Marquess of
Montferrat and
Judith of Babenberg. He was the older brother of
Conrad,
Boniface,
Azalaïs, and
Renier, and a cousin of both
Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor and
Louis VII of France.
The earliest surviving mention of William's epithet,
Longsword, said to refer to his military abilities, and differentiating him from his father, known as "William the Elder", is in the song
En abril, quan vei verdeyar, composed in late 1176-early 1177 by the
troubadour Peire Bremon lo Tort:
Chanzos, tu.t n'iras outra mar,
e, per Deu, vai a midons dir
qu'en gran dolor et en cossir
me fai la nuoit e.l jorn estar.
di.m a'n Guilhelm Longa-Espia,
bona chanzos, qu'el li.t dia
e que i an per lieis confortar.It was rendered into Latin as "
Longaspata" by
William of Tyre in his
Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum (written in the early 1180s), whence it has been taken up by historians.
Despite his eligibility as the eldest son of one of the greatest magnates in northern Italy, with many royal and imperial connections and the fair good looks of his family, he did not marry until he was well into his thirties. In 1167, his father had tried to arrange marriages for him and Conrad to daughters of
Henry II of England or sisters of
William I of Scotland - but these failed, the English match probably because of consanguinity (the boy's mother Judith was related to
Eleanor of Aquitaine), the Scottish match because the princesses were already married.
In 1176 William was chosen by
Raymond III,
count of Tripoli, and
Baldwin IV,
king of Jerusalem, to marry Baldwin's sister
Sibylla. William also gained the
County of Jaffa and Ascalon in the marriage. William of Tyre describes him as tall, blond, and handsome; brave, frank and unpretentious, but inclined to eat and drink copiously, though not to the impairment of his judgment.
With the King's consent, William and
Reynald of Châtillon gave a grant of land to the new
Castilian military order, the
Order of Montjoie, commanded by Count Rodrigo Alvarez de Sarria. However, William's activities in Outremer were cut short. He fell ill, probably from malaria, at
Ascalon in April 1177, and died there in June, leaving Sibylla pregnant with the future king
Baldwin V. His body was taken to Jerusalem and buried at the Hospital of St John.
Sources
- (external link to downloadable text).
- Hamilton, Bernard. The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem, 2000 ISBN 0-521-64187-X
- Usseglio, Leopoldo. I Marchesi di Monferrato in Italia ed in Oriente durante i secoli XII e XIII, 1926
Category:1140s birthsCategory:1177 deathsCategory:Counts of Jaffa and AscalonCategory:House of Aleramicide:Wilhelm VII. (Montferrat)es:Guillermo de Montferrato, conde de Jaffa y Ascalonfr:Guillaume de Montferrat (1150-1177)it:Guglielmo Spadalunganl:Willem van Monferratpl:Wilhelm z Montferratu (zm. 1177)
