Guillaume (Autun) de Gellone (abt. 755 - 812)

Born about 0755 in Northern France

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 28 May 0812 at about age 57 in Gellone Monastery, Aniane, Herault, Languedoc, France

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Biography

Possible Duplicate

Taylor's article, below, indicates that William of Gellone, currently shown as born 765 in Toulouse, is the son of Theuderic. Are the profiles below duplicates of the same person?

• Theuderic I Tierry IV of Autun/Autun-4 (720-782) Currently shown as born in Babylon. No father at moment; mother is Roland, born autun 710. Married to Guibour and to Alda. Children are (1) Alda, (2) Guillaume, (3) Ingeltrude, and (4) Bertha
• Thierry IV or Theoderic IV/of Toulouse-37, (730-804) or (720-782) Presumably born in the Frankish domains.
• Theuderic/Merovingian-89. Currently shown as born 712 Chelles, d. 141. Father is Dagobert, mother not shown. Married to Alde Aldane born 713, and to Alda, born 730. Father of Theodoric Thierry I of Toulouse William of Gellone is NOT the son of King Theuderic, however, King Theuderic may presently be shown married to William's mother.

False Conflations of the Makhir of Narbonne Legend

As described more fully in Space: Legend of Makhir of Narbonne, Arthur Zuckerman ^[1] proposed, with no tangible evidence, that the following persons were the same. Nathaniel Taylor ^[2]identifies the conflation, with legendary persons in italics:

First Generation Conflations

• Natronai, Babylonian exilarch
• Makhir, nasi of Narbonne (Sefer ha Kaballah gloss)
• Magnario, count of Narbonne, 791
• "Aymeri de Narbonne" (chansons de geste)
• Theuderic (in charter of 804), married Alda
• Theuderic, count in Rhineland, 782, 792

Second Generation Conflations

• 'Saint' William, son of Theuderic (in charter of 804) and Alda, count of Toulouse, 789, conquered Barcelona 801/3, founded the monastery of Gellone, 804, became a monk there, 806
• Isaac, elder of Narbonne (Gesta Karob Magni...)
• Isaac, royal ambassador to Harun al Rashid, 797-802
• "Guiloume d'Orange" (chanson de geste), supposed son of 'Aymeri' de Narbonne

Summary

"One of the most enigmatic historical figures of the Carolingian period." ^[2]

Name

In an era when surnames were not used, other appellations indicated "which William" one was addressing. Because of his proven association with the monastery at Gellone he helped found, William of Gellone appears to be the designation which works best.

Nathaniel Taylor goes one step farther, since William was subsequently canonized, and refers to him as Saint William.^[2]

He is also referred to as Saint William of Gellone in Wikipedia. ^[3]

Other names which have been used include:

William of the Desert

William /De Toulouse/ ^[4]

William I^[5]

Guillaume d'Orange, ^[3]

Guillaume d' Autun or William of Autun. ^[6]

Guillaume I^[5]

Saint Guillaume d'Orange Comte de Toulouse /de Gellone/

His Occitan name is Guilhem, and he is known in French as Guillaume d'Orange, Guillaume Fierabrace, and the Marquis au court nez. ^[3]

Saint William of Gellone is also known as William of Aquitaine, ^[7] William was born in northern France in the mid-8th century. ^[3]

Birth and Parentage

William of Gellone was born about 755 somewhere in Northern France. ^[3]

Some popular genealogies report his birth in Toulouse or Autun, but without further documentation. ^[5][4]

William names his parents as Theuderic and Alda in a charter of donation to the monastery of Gellone which survives in two corrupt versions in twelfth-century cartularies. ^[8]

He was a cousin of Charlemagne (his mother Aldana was daughter of Charles Martel) and the son of Thierry IV, Count of Autun. ^[3]

As a kinsman and trusted comes, he spent his youth in the court of Charlemagne.) ^[9]

His father Theuderic was not Theoderich IV, King of the Franks and a previous link to Theuderic as his father is unsupported and has been removed.

Siblings

His will, written 28 January 804, names not only wives, parents and children, but also the following siblings:

1. Teudoino, brother^[10]
2. Adalelmo, brother^[10]. This may be Alda (Gellone) Rouergue, born Autun, 755^{[citation needed]}
3. Abbana, sister^[10]
4. Bertana, sister^[10] This may be Bertha (Autun) d'Autun, born Autun 775 ^{[citation needed]}
5. Another sibling also appears in some genealogies: Ingeltude Autun, born Autun, 773 ^{[citation needed]}

Marriages

Assuming his birth in about the year 755, William of Gellone would have been 21 in 776, and it would be reasonable to estimate that he married at about that time. Birth years currently shown for his children start at 771.

Taylor shows William married to Cunigunde and Wiburgis, with no indication of which are the mothers of his children. ^[2]

Since his second wife entered his life after a battle, it is reasonable to assume that Kunigunde (Carolingian) Gellone, born Aachen, 770 was his first wife.

His wife Guitburgi is said to have been the widow of the Moorish wali of Orange taken by William in his battles against the Umayyad army of Hisham I in and around the county of Narbona about 793-796. ^[3] This would appear to be the same person as Guibour (Von Hornbach) Hornbach. If so, then Guibour was probably not born in Shwaben in 770 as the unsourced record states.

Guitburgi's name before her baptism was Orable. ^[11]

It is not clear if she married William or was held in concubinage, although he calls her his wife in his will.^[3]

His son Barnardo is said to have been by Guitburgi. ^[3]

789 Count of Toulouse

"William first appears in the historical record when appointed by Charlemagne as count of Toulouse in 789, replacing the ineffective count Chorso, who had allowed himself to be taken hostage by conniving Gascons; he was able to quickly stabilize the situation." ^[12]

In 788, Chorso, Count of Toulouse, was captured by the Basque Adalric and made to swear an oath of allegiance to the Duke of Gascony, Lupus II. Upon his release, Charlemagne replaced him with his Frankish cousin William (790). William in turn successfully subdued the Gascons.^[3]

He was the second Count of Toulouse from 790 until his replacement in 811.^[3]

793 Engagement at Septimania

"William is subsequently known for two impressive military exploits. The first is his engagement in a pitched battle, on Septimanian soil (at the river Orbieu or Orbiel -- no one is sure which ) in 793 with a Muslim invading force that had ravaged the area and threatened Narbonne itself." ^[13]

In 793, Hisham I, the successor of Abd ar-Rahman I, proclaimed a holy war against the Christians to the north. He amassed an army of 100,000 men, half of which attacked the Kingdom of Asturias while the other half invaded Languedoc, penetrating as far as Narbonne.^[3]

William met this force and defeated them. He met the Muslim forces again near the river Orbieu at Villedaigne but was defeated, though his obstinate resistance exhausted the Muslim forces so much that they retreated to Spain. ^[3]

801 Seige of Barcelona

"The other known engagement was leading the force that besieged and took the city of Barcelona in 801 or 803. ^[14]

In 801, William commanded along with Louis King of Aquitaine a large expedition of Franks, Burgundians, Provençals, Aquitanians, Gascons (Basques) and Goths that captured Barcelona from the Moors.^[3]

804 Gellone

In 804, he founded the abbey in Gellone (now Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert) near Lodève in the diocese of Maguelonne. He granted property to Gellone and placed the monastery under the general control of Benedict of Aniane, whose monastery was nearby. ^[15]

It appears that William "founded and endowed two Benedictine monasteries: one at Casanova, in the diocese of Uzes, and the other at Gellone, in the diocese of Lodeve, both of which may have been originally subject to the monastery of Aniane, founded by the renowned monastic reformer Saint Benedict of Aniane. If later sources are to be believed, William then laid aside his earthly position...and became a monk -- first at Aniane, then at Gellone. ^[16]

Among his gifts to the abbey he founded was a piece of the True Cross, a present from his cousin Charlemagne. Charlemagne had received the relic from the Patriarch of Jerusalem according to the Vita of William.^[3]

804 Will

William mentioned both his family and monastery in his will: ^[10]

Note -- this document is referred to by Charles Cawley not as a will but as the charter by which the Gellone Monastery was established. ^[17]

His will of 28 January 804, names

• his living wives Gunegunde and Guitburgi,
• his deceased parents, Teuderico (Theodoric / Thierry IV) and Aldana van Martel (daughter of Charles Martel),
• two brothers, Teudoino and Adalelmo,
• two sisters, Abbana and Bertana,
• four sons, Barnardo, Guitcario, Gotcelmo, and Helmbruc,
• not his daughter (Rotlinde van Bobbio van Gellone),
• and one nephew, Bertrano. ^[18]

806 Retirement to Gellone

In 806, William retired to Gellone as a monk and eventually died there ^[15]on 28 May 812 (or 814). When he died, it was said the bells at Orange rang on their own accord.^[3]

812 Death

Probably dead by 815, count William began to be venerated as a saint in the late eleventh century. ^[2]

William of Gellone died 28 May 812 or 28 May 814 in Gellone^[3][5][4]

One may also find assertions that he died in 812 in Swabia (Schwaben). ^[5]

Issue

#Bernard or Bernard, Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2] Bernard (Autun) Septimania, born Autun, 795; Bernard Septimania, born place unknown, 795.

1. Gaucelm, Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2]
2. Heribert, Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2] Herbert (De Toulouse) Toulouse, born Toulouse, 771
3. Gerberga, Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2] Bertha (Toulouse) Italia, born Toulouse, 777
4. Chrodlindis, Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2]
5. Witgerius, , Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2]
6. Adalelm, , Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2]
7. Helimburgis, Named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2] Rotlinde Rolent Hellinburge de Gellone, born Vermandois, 785
8. Wialdruth (Toulouse) Orleans, born Toulouse, 793 ^{[citation needed]} Possibly one of two others , named by Taylor, Figure 3, Posterity of Saint William, count of toulouse. ^[2]

Legacy

Gellone Abbey

Gellone remained under the control of the abbots of Aniane. It became a subject of contention however as the reputation of William grew. So many pilgrims were attracted to Gellone that his corpse was exhumed from the modest site in the narthex and given a more prominent place under the choir, to the intense dissatisfaction of the Abbey of Aniane. A number of forged documents and assertions were produced on each side that leave details of actual history doubtful. The Abbey was a major stop for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela. Its late 12th century Romanesque cloister, systematically dismantled during the French revolution, found its way to The Cloisters in New York. The Sacramentary of Gellone, dating to the late 8th century, is a famous manuscript.^[3]

William in Song

William is is the hero of the Chanson de Guillaume, an early chanson de geste, and of several later sequels, which were categorized by thirteenth-century poets as the geste of Garin de Monglane. ^[3]

Another early product of oral traditions about William is a Latin Vita ("Biography"), written before the 11th century, according to Jean Mabillon, or during the 11th century according to the Bollandist Godfrey Henschen.^[3]

William in Literature

William's faithful service to Charlemagne is portrayed as an example of feudal loyalty. William's career battling Saracens is sung in epic poems in the 12th and 13th-century cycle called La Geste de Garin de Monglane, some two dozen chansons de geste that actually center around William, the great-grandson of the largely legendary Garin.^[3]

One section of the cycle, however, is devoted to the feats of his father, there named Aymeri de Narbonne, who has received Narbonne as his seigniory after his return from Spain with Charlemagne. Details of the "Aymeri" of the poem are conflated with a later historic figure who was truly the viscount of Narbonne from 1108 to 1134. In the chanson, he is awarded Ermengart, daughter of Didier, and sister of Boniface, king of the Lombards. Among his seven sons and five daughters (one of whom marries Louis the Pious) is William.^[3]

The defeat of the Moors at Orange was given legendary treatment in the 12th-century epic La Prise d'Orange. There, he was made Count of Toulouse in the stead of the disgraced Chorso, then King of Aquitaine in 778. He is difficult to separate from the legends and poems that gave him feats of arms, lineage, and titles: Guillaume Fièrebras, Guillaum au Court-Nez (broken in a battle with a giant), Guillaum de Narbonne, Guillaume d'Orange. His wife is said to have been a converted Saracen, Orable later christened Guibourc.^[3]

1066 Saint

Saint William is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. He was canonized in 1066 by Pope Alexander II. HIs major is the Monastery of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert in Gellone, France His Feast is on May 28^[3]

William was canonized a saint in 1066 by Pope Alexander II. ^[7]

Research Notes

This profile has been edited with regard to parents in accordance with principles established by the European Aristocracy user-group. Medieval genealogy is not an exact science, and digital collaborative genealogy must therefore occasionally make choices where old-fashioned print-scholarship did not have to. The parents (or lack of parents) of the person described in this profile were decided upon in consultation with primary sources especially as collected in the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy’s Medieval Lands project.

Sources

1. ↑ Arthur Zuckerman, A Jewish Princedom in Feudal France, 768-900, published in 1972.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} Nathaniel L. Taylor. Saint William, King David, and Makhir: A Controversial Medieval Descent. Published in The American Genealogist 72 (1997) 203-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20040621062507/http://home.earthlink.net/~nathanieltaylor/pdfs/Makhir.pdf. Accessed March 20, 2017. jhd
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23} Wikipedia. William of Gellone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Gellone. Accessed March 28, 2017. Note: the sources used in the wikipedia article do not appear to be the most up to date. Since Wikipedia is constantly being improved, it may be worthwhile to refer directly to the page cited. jhd
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Ancestry.com. Database online. Records for
   • William De Toulouse
   • Bernard DeSeptimania Toulouse.
   • Thierry d'Autun.
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4} Ancestry.com. Database online. Public Member Trees Publication: Records for:
   • Bernard I Count Barcelona, Duke Septimania.
   • Dunne de Autun
   • Guillaume I de Autun
6. ↑ Ancestry Family Trees Data: https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/13078823/person/542693551/facts. Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: #NS044441
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} "William of Aquitaine, St.". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved on 2014-01-17. Cited by Wikipedia. William of Gellone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Gellone. Accessed March 28, 2017. jhd
8. ↑ Taylor notes that the charters of 14/15 December 804 are printed together in the HGL, 2, preuves, chartes, no. 16. As others have concluded, it seems wise to accept as authentic only those names which appear in both versions.
9. ↑ This observation from Wikipedia appears to be an assumption that is not otherwise sourced
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4} http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/french/g1.htm. Cited by Wikipedia. William of Gellone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Gellone. Accessed March 28, 2017. jhd
11. ↑ http://www.midi-france.info/060600_guilhem.html. Cited by Wikipedia. William of Gellone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Gellone. Accessed March 28, 2017. jhd
12. ↑ Astronomer, vita hludowici imperatoris, ed. Tremp, p. 298, cited by Nathaniel Taylor.
13. ↑ Pierre Tisset, "L'abbaye de Gelione a diocese de Lodeve des origines au XIII siecle (Paris, 1933, 11-12, cited by Nathaniel Taylor.
14. ↑ Nathaniel Taylor suggests that for modern analysis see principally Wolff, "Les evenements de Catalogne de 798-812, etc.
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1} "Catholic Encyclopedia: St. William of Gellone". newadvent.org. Cited by Wikipedia. William of Gellone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Gellone. Accessed March 28, 2017. jhd
16. ↑ Such, at least, is the tradition of the monastery, which survives in a pious Latin biography from the early twelfth century, the Vita Sancti Willeimi,, and the famous twelfth-century Pilgrim's guide to Santiago de Compostella, which recommends that pilgrims visit Willam's tomb at Gellone." Nathaniel Taylor.
17. ↑ Charles Cawley Medieval Lands, http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/FRANKISH%20NOBILITY.htm#Bernarddiedafter844B
18. ↑ "Internet History Sourcebooks Project". fordham.edu. Cited by Wikipedia. William of Gellone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_of_Gellone. Accessed March 28, 2017. jhd