- Alfonso Jordan
Alfonso Jordan (French: "Alphonse Jourdain"; 1103 – 1148) was the
Count of Tripoli from 1105 until 1109 and thereafter Count of Toulouse (as Alfonso I) until his death. He was the son ofRaymond IV of Toulouse by his third wife,Elvira of Castile , was born in the castle ofMont-Pelerin , Tripoli, in today'sLebanon . He was born while his father was on crusade, attempting to create theCounty of Tripoli on the Palestinian coast. He was surnamed "Jordan" after beingbaptised in theJordan River .His father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin,
Guillaume Jourdain , count of Cerdagne (d. 1109), until he was five. He was then taken toEurope and his brother Bertrand gave him the county ofRouergue . In his tenth year, upon Bertrand's death (1112), he succeeded to the county of Toulouse and marquisate ofProvence , but Toulouse was taken from him by William IX,count of Poitiers , in 1114, who claimed it by right of his wife Philippa of Toulouse, daughter ofWilliam IV of Toulouse . He recovered a part in 1119, but continued to fight for his possessions until about 1123. When at last successful, he was excommunicated byPope Callixtus II for having expelled the monks ofSaint-Gilles , who had aided his enemies.He next fought for the sovereignty of Provence against Raymond Berenger III, and not till September 1125 did the war end in an amicable agreement. Under it Jourdain became absolute master of the regions lying between the
Pyrenees and theAlps , Auvergne and the sea. His ascendancy was an unmixed good to the country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry flourished. About 1134 he seized the viscounty of Narbonne, only restoring it to the Viscountess Ermengarde (d. 1197) in 1143. The claim of the now deceased Philippa of Toulouse was pressed again when Louis VII besieged Toulouse in 1141, in right of his wifeEleanor of Aquitaine , the granddaughter of Philippa, but without result.Next year Jourdain again incurred the displeasure of the church by siding with the rebels of
Montpellier against their lord. A second time he was excommunicated; but in 1146 he took the cross at the meeting ofVezelay called by Louis VII, and in August, 1147 embarked for the East in theSecond Crusade . He lingered on the way inItaly and probably inConstantinople . Alphonse might have metEastern Roman Emperor Manuel I Comnenus during his visit there.But in 1148 Alphonse had finally arrived at Acre. Among his companions he had made enemies and he was destined to take no share in the crusade he had joined. He was poisoned at
Caesarea , either byEleanor of Aquitaine , the wife of Louis, or Melisende, the mother of Baldwin III, king of Jerusalem suggesting the draught.References
*1911
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