William IX , Duke of Aquitaine William IX ( ; ) ( 22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126 ) , called the Troubador , was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou ( as William VII ) between 1086 and his death . He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101 . Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance , he is best known as the earliest troubadour — a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language — whose work survived . Ducal career . William was the son of William VIII of Aquitaine by his third wife , Hildegarde of Burgundy . His birth was a cause of great celebration at the Aquitanian court , but the Church at first considered him illegitimate because of his father ' s earlier divorces and his parents ' consanguinity . This obliged his father to make a pilgrimage to Rome soon after his birth to seek Papal approval of his third marriage and the young William ' s legitimacy . Early career , 1088 – 1102 . William inherited the duchy at the age of fifteen upon the death of his father . It has been generally believed that he was first married in 1088 , at age sixteen , to Ermengarde , daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou . Biographers have described Ermengarde as beautiful and well - educated , though suffering from severe mood swings . She was even fancifully diagnosed by one biographer as displaying " symptoms of what was possibly manic depression or schizophrenia " . However , Ruth Harvey ' s 1993 critical investigation shows the assumption of William ' s marriage to Ermengarde to be based largely on an error in a nineteenth - century secondary source and it is highly likely that Philippa of Toulouse was William ' s only wife . Further research has found the claim that William was married to " Hermingerda " , daughter of Fulk IV of Anjou is based on the very unreliable chronicle of William of Tyre , written between 1169 and 1187 , more than 70 years after the events in question would have taken place . Tyre erroneously identifies Ermengarde ' s mother as Bertrade of Montfort , the sister of Amalricus de Montfort when her mother was in fact Audearde or Hildegarde of Beaugency . Tyre ' s chronicle lacks any contemporary corroboration , no primary text ever mentions a marriage between William and Ermengarde . It is therefore not only improbable that William married Ermengarde , it is likely that Ermengarde - at least as a wife of William - never existed . In 1094 , William married Philippa , the daughter and heiress of William IV of Toulouse . By Philippa , William had two sons and five daughters , including his eventual successor , William X . His second son , Raymond , eventually became the Prince of Antioch in the Holy Land , and his daughter Agnes married firstly Aimery V of Thouars and then Ramiro II of Aragon , reestablishing dynastic ties with that ruling house . William invited Pope Urban II to spend the Christmas of 1095 at his court . The pope urged him to " take the cross " ( i . e . the First Crusade ) and leave for the Holy Land , but William was more interested in exploiting the absence on Crusade of Raymond IV of Toulouse , his wife ' s uncle , to press a claim to Toulouse . He and Philippa did capture Toulouse in 1098 , an act for which they were threatened with excommunication . Partly out of a desire to regain favor with the religious authorities and partly out of a wish to see the world , William joined the Crusade of 1101 , an expedition inspired by the success of the First Crusade in 1099 . To finance it , he had to mortgage Toulouse back to Bertrand , the son of Raymond IV . The Duchess was an admirer of Robert of Arbrissel and persuaded William to grant him land in Northern Poitou to establish a religious community dedicated to the Virgin Mary . This became Fontevraud Abbey , which would enjoy the patronage of William ' s granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and would remain important until its dissolvement during the French Revolution . William arrived in the Holy Land in 1101 and stayed there until the following year . His record as a military leader is not very impressive . He fought mostly skirmishes in Anatolia and was frequently defeated . His recklessness led to his being ambushed on several occasions , with great losses to his own forces . In September 1101 , his entire army was destroyed by the Seljuk Turks at Heraclea ; William himself barely escaped , and , according to Orderic Vitalis , he reached Antioch with only six surviving companions . Conflict with Church and wife , 1102 – 1118 . William , like his father and many magnates of the time , had a rocky relationship with the Church . He was excommunicated twice , the first time in 1114 for an alleged infringement of the Church ' s tax privileges . His response to this was to demand absolution from Peter , Bishop of Poitiers . As the bishop was at the point of pronouncing the anathema , the duke threatened him with a sword , swearing to kill him if he did not pronounce absolution . Bishop Peter , surprised , pretended to comply , but when the duke , satisfied , released him , the bishop completed reading the anathema , before calmly presenting his neck and inviting the duke to strike . According to contemporaries , William hesitated a moment before sheathing his sword and replying , " I don ' t love you enough to send you to paradise . " William was excommunicated a second time for " abducting " the Viscountess Dangerose ( " Dangerosa " ) , the wife of his vassal Aimery I de Rochefoucauld , Viscount of Châtellerault . The lady , however , appears to have been a willing party in the matter . He installed her in the Maubergeonne tower of his castle in Poitiers ( leading to her nickname " La Maubergeonne " ) , and , as related by William of Malmesbury , even painted a picture of her on his shield . Upon returning to Poitiers from Toulouse , Philippa was enraged to discover a rival woman living in her palace . She appealed to her friends at court and to the Church ; however , no noble could assist her since William was their feudal overlord , and whilst the Papal legate Giraud ( who was bald ) complained to William and told him to return Dangerose to her husband , William ' s only response was , " Curls will grow on your pate before I part with the Viscountess . " Humiliated , Philippa chose in 1116 to retire to the Abbey of Fontevrault . While in residence she may have had direct conversations or correspondence with Countess Adela of Blois , who was in constant contact with Fontevrault from Marcigney abbey . Philippa did not survive there long , however : the abbey records state that she died on 28 November 1118 . Later career , 1118 – 1126 . Relations between the Duke and his elder son William also became strained — although it is unlikely that he ever embarked upon a seven - year revolt in order to avenge his mother ' s mistreatment , as Ralph of Diceto claimed , only to be captured by his father . Other records flatly contradict such a thing . Ralph claimed that the revolt began in 1113 ; but at that time , the young William was only thirteen and his father ' s liaison with Dangerose had not yet begun . Father and son improved their relationship after the marriage of the younger William to Aenor of Châtellerault , Dangerose ' s daughter by her husband , in 1121 . William was readmitted to the Church around 1120 , after making concessions to it . However , he was after 1118 faced with the return of his first wife , Ermengarde , who had , upon the death of Philippa , stormed down from Fontevrault to the Poitevin court , demanding to be reinstated as the Duchess of Aquitaine — presumably in an attempt to avenge the mistreated Philippa . In October 1119 , she suddenly appeared at the Council of Reims being held by Pope Calixtus II and demanded that the Pope excommunicate William ( again ) , oust Dangerose from the ducal palace , and restore herself to her rightful place . The Pope " declined to accommodate her " ; however , she continued to trouble William for several years afterwards , thereby encouraging him to join the Reconquista efforts underway in Spain . Between 1120 and 1123 William joined forces with the Kingdoms of Castile and León . Aquitanian troops fought side by side with Castilians in an effort to take Cordoba . During his sojourn in Spain , William was given a rock crystal vase by a Muslim ally that he later bequeathed to his granddaughter Eleanor . The vase probably originated in Sassanid Persia in the seventh century . In 1122 , William lost control of Toulouse , Philippa ' s dower land , to Alfonso Jordan , the son and heir of Raymond IV , who had taken Toulouse after the death of William IV . He did not trouble to reclaim it . He died on 10 February 1126 , aged 55 , after suffering a short illness . Poetic career . William ' s greatest legacy to history was not as a warrior but as a troubadour — a lyric poet employing the Romance vernacular language called Provençal or Occitan . He was the earliest troubadour whose work survives . Eleven of his songs survive ( Merwin , 2002 ) . The song traditionally numbered as the eighth ( " Farai chansoneta nueva " ) is of dubious attribution , since its style and language are significantly different ( Pasero 1973 , Bond 1982 ) . Song 5 ( " Farai un vers , pos mi sonelh " ) has two significantly different versions in different manuscripts . The songs are attributed to him under his title as Count of Poitou ( " lo coms de Peitieus " ) . The topics vary , treating sex , love , women , his own sexual and literary prowess , and feudal politics . An anonymous 13th - century " vida " of William remembers him thus : It is possible , however , that at least in part it is not based on facts , but on literal interpretation of his songs , written in first person ; in Song 5 , for example , he describes how he deceived two women . His frankness , wit and vivacity caused scandal and won admiration at the same time . He is among the first Romance vernacular poets of the Middle Ages , one of the founders of a tradition that would culminate in Dante , Petrarch , and François Villon . Ezra Pound mentions him in " Canto VIII " : < poem > And Poictiers , you know , Guillaume Poictiers , had brought the song up out of Spain with the singers and viels . . . < / poem > In " Spirit of Romance " Pound also calls William IX " the most ' modern ' of the troubadours " : William was a man who loved scandal and no doubt enjoyed shocking his audiences . In fact , William granted large donations to the church , perhaps to regain the pope ' s favour . He also added to the palace of the counts of Poitou ( which had stood since the Merovingian era ) , later added to by his granddaughter Eleanor of Aquitaine and surviving in Poitiers as the Palace of Justice to this day . One of William ' s poems , possibly written at the time of his first excommunication , since it implies his son was still a minor , is partly a musing on mortality : " Pos de chantar m ' es pres talenz " ( " Since I have the desire to sing , / I ' ll write a verse for which I ' ll grieve " ) . It concludes : < poem > I have given up all I loved so much : chivalry and pride ; and since it pleases God , I accept it all , that He may keep me by Him . I enjoin my friends , upon my death , all to come and do me great honor , since I have held joy and delight far and near , and in my abode . Thus I give up joy and delight , and squirrel and grey and sable furs . < / poem > Orderic Vitalis refers to William composing songs ( c . 1102 ) upon his return from the Crusade of 1101 . These might be the first " Crusade songs " : Then the Poitevin duke many times related , with rhythmic verses and witty measures , the miseries of his captivity , before kings , magnates , and Christian assemblies .