Ebles II of Roucy Ebles II ( died May 1103 ) , also called Eble or Ebale , was the second Count of Roucy ( 1063 – 1103 ) of the House of Montdidier . He was the son and successor of Hilduin IV of Montdidier and Alice ( Alix ) , daughter of Ebles I of Roucy . He is famous for his participation in the " Reconquista " ( the war against Muslim Spain ) , as well as for being one of the unruly barons of the Île - de - France subjugated by King Louis VI while he was still a prince . His life and character are summed up by Suger in his history of the reign of Louis VI : " Ebles was a man of great military prowess — indeed he became so bold that one day he set out for Spain with an army of a size fit only for a king — his feats or arms only made him more outrageous and rapacious in pillage , rape and all over evils . " Spanish crusade of 1073 . On 30 April 1073 Pope Gregory VII authorised a new crusade against the Muslims in Spain . ( The Barbastro Crusade of a decade earlier had failed to achieve anything lasting . ) In the bull , addressed to " all the princes [ rulers ] in the land of Spain " , Gregory asserted Papal suzerainty over the Iberian peninsula — " we believe the kingdom of Spain to have been from antiquity the rightful property of Saint Peter " — and informed them that he had ceded this right to Ebles of Roucy . The negotiations between Ebles and the Holy See had been conducted by Gregory as legate before he became Pope on 22 April , and his letter makes clear there had been prior letters between Ebles and Pope Alexander II . Ebles made a pact ( " pactio " ) with the Holy See whereby the lands he conquered in Spain would be held by him as a Papal fiefdom " for the honour of Saint Peter " . Four fragments of bulls issued by Alexander granting the plenary indulgence for engaging in a holy war have been customarily dated to the campaign against Barbastro ( 1063 – 64 ) but may belong to that of Ebles . Ebles was probably a relative of Sancho Ramírez , King of Aragon , both descending from the Dukes of Aquitaine . On 25 May Sancho Garcés IV , the ruler of Navarre , and his neighbour , Ahmad al - Muqtadir , the ruler of Zaragoza , concluded an alliance by treaty against the planned crusade . For reasons unknown , the crusade never took place , or at least left no record of its accomplishments , which must in any case have been meagre . According to one historian , the crusade may have been frustrated by Gerald of Ostia , Papal legate , Cardinal and Cluniac , as part of the efforts of the Abbey of Cluny to support the Kingdom of León – Castile in its rivalry with the Kingdom of Aragon . The Papacy under Alexander and Gregory supported the Aragones , and at least some of Alfonso VI of Castile ' s actions in 1073 can be seen as a response to the projected crusade . The appointment of Gerald , a former grand prior of Cluny , and the archdeacon Raimbald as legates in Spain may have been intended originally by Alexander II to appease Alfonso VI or his predecessor , Sancho II , by assuring them that their claims on the " parias " of Zaragoza ( which , along with allied Navarre , felt threatened by the crusade ) were not in jeopardy . Upon becoming Pope , however , Gregory removed Gerald from this position and instated Hugh Candidus , a veteran of the crusade of Barbastro and a friend of the king of Aragon . In February 1074 Gregory was busy pushing Sancho , a recognised Papal vassal since 1068 , to act against the Muslims . Sancho at some point took as his second wife Felicia ( Félicie ) , perhaps the sister of Ebles . Feudal conflict in France . According to Suger , the " tyrannical , valiant and turbulent baron Ebles of Roucy and his son Guischard " frequently plundered the Archdiocese of Reims ( " the noble church of Reims and the churches dependant on it " ) , and over one hundred formal complaints against Ebles were made to the Crown during the time of Philip I ( 1060 – 1108 ) . His son , the future Louis VI , received two or three complaints and gathered an army of seven hundred knights " from the most noble and valiant of French lords " and entered the district of Reims , where he fought Ebles " vigorously " for the next two months , resting his army only on Saturdays and Sundays . Louis made war on all the barons of the region because they were allied by family ties to Ebles , who he describes as " the great men of Lotharingia " . The prince , on the advice of his counsellors , only left the region after Ebles had sworn oaths to respect the peace of the churches and given hostages . Negotiations over the possession of the castle of Neufchâtel were left off for a later date . When Thomas de Marle came into possession of the powerful fortress of Montaigu by marriage , Ebles joined with Enguerrand de Bova to expel him . While they were attempting to " surround him with a wattled stockade , and force him to capitulate through fear of slow starvation " , Thomas escaped to the court of Prince Louis and , having bought off his advisors with gifts , convinced the prince to come to his defence . Ebles , respecting his previous oaths , refused to make war on the prince . After Louis destroyed the blockade of Montaigu , the allies turned on him . The princely army and the army of Ebles and Enguerrand menaced each other with trumpets and spear - rattling across a river for two days before the prince impetuously charged ( provoked , Suger , says , by the taunts of an enemy " jongleur " who entered his camp ) . Impress by Louis ' s bravery , the rebels made their peace . Pope Gregory wrote to Ebles after the deposition of Archbishop Manasses I of Reims in 1081 asking him to resist the latter ' s claims . Around 1082 Ebles donated his section of the road at Mortcerf to the abbey of Saint - Martin at Pontoise . Anna Komnene , in the " Alexiad " , records the marriage of the youngest daughter of Robert Guiscard to a certain Eubulus , a " very illustrious count " . This daughter was Sybilla , the wife of Ebles of Roucy .