William II Sánchez of Gascony

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William II Sánchez (also William Sancho, Basque: Gilen Antso,[1] French: Guillaume Sanche, Gascon: Guilhem Sans, Latin: Willelmus Sancio, Spanish: Guillén or Guillermo Sancho), Duke of Gascony from circa 961 at least until 996, was the younger illegitimate son of Sancho IV and successor of his childless elder brother, Sancho V. Documents of his reign say that his grandfather came from Spain, lending credence to "phantasmagorical" genealogies placing the origins of García II Sánchez across the Pyrenees.[2]

Around 970, William was using only the title of count as when Dominus Willelmus Sancii comes Gasconiorum[3] donated land in the village of "Luco Deo" to the monastery of Saint Vincent-de-Lucq. He later carried the ducal title. He inherited the county of Bordeaux from his cousin William the Good and united it to Gascony permanently. His aunt Entregodis married one Raymond and their son was William the Good. Aimoin entitled him Burdegalensium comes et ac totius Guasconiae dux[4] in his act of a life of Abbo of Fleury. Before 977, William also added the Agenais and the Bazadais. This expansion of the duchy was probably the cause of an increase in our information about the region and its dukes after a period of obscurity lasting from the Viking raids of the 840s. In a charter of that year, William restored the priory of La Réole with the titel of dux Wasconum and did not carry the comital title. He did have Bordeaux by 988, when he sought the advice of the council of seniores[5] of Bordeaux for the restoration of Saint-Sever.

While Gascony had long been out of the orbit of the French kings, Bordeaux had not been. With its acquisition, William began dating his charters by the reign of the king, Hugh Capet, regnante rege Hugone. In the latter decades of the tenth century, his brother Gombald controlled all the dioceses in Gascony and then became archbishop of Bordeaux and thus William's family controlled the church hierarchy. When William went to Navarre to combat the Moors in the Reconquista, he left Gombald in charge in Gascony. He picked up a wife in Navarre and returned to Gascony when Viking raids had become increasingly serious. He defeated the Vikings at Taller in 982 and they vanished as a serious threat thereafter. Their permanent settlements along the Ardour were removed.

He was married to Urraca, daughter of García III of Pamplona and widow of Fernán González of Castile, and was succeeded by his son Bernard and his second son, Sancho, later ruled Gascony as well. His daughter Brisca married William V of Aquitaine and thus brought the Gascon claim to the House of Poitiers, which eventually inherited it in the person of Odo on Sancho's death.[6] He may be the father of Gersenda, who married Henry, Duke of Burgundy, and Toda, who married Bernard I of Besalú.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ There are many alternate spellings of his Basque surname, see the nomenclature of the dukes of Gascony for more explanation.
  2. ^ Higounet, p 44.
  3. ^ "Lord William Sancho, count of the Gascons."
  4. ^ "Count of Bordeaux and duke of all Gascony."
  5. ^ "Leading men."
  6. ^ Lewis, p 348.

[edit] Sources

[edit] Primary sources

  • Aimoin. Vita Abbonis, abbatis Floriacensis. published by J. Mabillon in Acta sanctorum ordinis sancti Benedicti. Paris, 1668–1701.

[edit] Secondary sources


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