Alphonse , Count of Poitiers Alphonse or Alfonso ( 11 November 1220 – 21 August 1271 ) was the Count of Poitou from 1225 and Count of Toulouse ( as Alphonse II ) from 1249 . Born at Poissy , Alphonse was a son of Louis VIII , King of France and Blanche of Castile . He was a younger brother of Louis IX of France and an older brother of Charles I of Sicily . In 1229 , his mother , who was regent of France , forced the Treaty of Paris on Raymond VII of Toulouse after his rebellion . It stipulated that a brother of King Louis was to marry Joan of Toulouse , daughter of Raymond VII of Toulouse , and so in 1237 Alphonse married her . Since she was Raymond ' s only child , they became rulers of Toulouse at Raymond ' s death in 1249 . By the terms of his father ' s will he received an " appanage " of Poitou and Auvergne . He won the battle of Taillebourg in the Saintonge War with his brother Louis IX , against a revolt allied with king Henry III of England . Alphonse took part in two crusades with his brother , St Louis , in 1248 ( the Seventh Crusade ) and in 1270 ( the Eighth Crusade ) . For the first of these , he raised a large sum and a substantial force , arriving in Damietta on 24 October 1249 , after the town had already been captured . He sailed for home on 10 August 1250 . His father - in - law had died while he was away , and he went directly to Toulouse to take possession . There was some resistance to his accession as count , which was suppressed with the help of his mother Blanche of Castile who was acting as regent in the absence of Louis IX . The county of Toulouse , since them , was joined to the Alphonse ' s " appanage " . In 1252 , on the death of his mother , Blanche of Castile , Alphonse was joint regent with Charles of Anjou until the return of Louis IX . During that time he took a great part in the campaigns and negotiations which led to the Treaty of Paris in 1259 , under which King Henry III of England recognized his loss of continental territory to France ( including Normandy , Maine , Anjou , and Poitou ) in exchange for France withdrawing support from English rebels . Aside from the crusades , Alphonse stayed primarily in Paris , governing his estates by officials , inspectors who reviewed the officials work , and a constant stream of messages . His main work was on his own estates . There he repaired the evils of the Albigensian war and made a first attempt at administrative centralization , thus preparing the way for union with the crown . The charter known as " Alphonsine , " granted to the town of Riom , became the code of public law for Auvergne . Honest and moderate , protecting the middle classes against exactions of the nobles , he exercised a happy influence upon the south , in spite of his naturally despotic character and his continual and pressing need of money . He is noted for ordering the first recorded local expulsion of Jews , when he did so in Poitou in 1249 . When Louis IX again engaged in a crusade ( the Eighth Crusade ) , Alphonse again raised a large sum of money and accompanied his brother . This time , however , he did not return to France , dying while on his way back , probably at Savona in Italy , on 21 August 1271 . He had been appointed a Knight of the Order of the Ship by his brother . Death and Legacy . Alphonse ' s death without heirs raised some questions as to the succession to his lands . One possibility was that they should revert to the crown , another that they should be redistributed to his family . The latter was claimed by Charles of Anjou , but in 1283 Parlement decided that the County of Toulouse should revert to the crown , if there were no male heirs . Alphonse ' s wife Joan ( who died five days after Alphonse ) had attempted to dispose of some of her inherited lands in her will . Joan was the only surviving child and heiress of Raymond VII , Count of Toulouse , Duke of Narbonne , and Marquis of Provence , so under Provençal and French law , the lands should have gone to her nearest male relative . But , her will was invalidated by Parlement in 1274 One specific bequest in Alphonse ' s will , giving his wife ' s lands in the Comtat Venaissin to the Holy See , was allowed , and it became a Papal territory , a status that it retained until 1791 .