William IV Talvas (1179 – 4 October 1221) was William III, Count of

Ponthieu Ponthieu (, ) was one of six feudal counties that eventually merged to become part of the Province of Picardy, in northern France.Dunbabin.France in the Making. Ch.4. The Principalities 888-987 Its chief town is Abbeville. History Ponthieu play ...

and William IV (of the house of Belleme/Montgomery). He was Count of

, ruler of a small province in northern France that fell under the

suzerainty Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is cal ...

of the dukes of Normandy (later also kings of England) since at least the mid 11th century. He was son and heir of

John I, Count of Ponthieu John I of Ponthieu ( – 1191) was the son of Guy II of Ponthieu and succeeded him as Count of Ponthieu in 1147. War with Normandy John attacked Normandy in 1166 and 1168, in response to Henry II of England, King Henry II of England's confiscatio ...

(died 1191) by his third wife Beatrice de St Pol.

Family history and background

His father Jean I, Count of Ponthieu (died 1191) was the son of

Guy II, Count of Ponthieu Guy II of Ponthieu (–25 December 1147) was the son of William III of Ponthieu and Helie of Burgundy. Life He succeeded his father as Count of Ponthieu before 1129; this was during William's lifetime. Around 1137, he founded the Cistercia ...

(who died on the Second Crusade 1147) and grandson of

William III of Ponthieu William III of Ponthieu ( – 1172) also called William (II; III) Talvas.Orderic Vitalis and Robert de Torigny both mentioned his nickname 'Talvas' but he is not known to have used it when granting or attesting his own charters, . E. Cokayne, ''T ...

, also frequently called William III Talvas, and who represented the senior line of the lords of Montgomery, once trusted vassals and allies of

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

Marriage to Alys, Countess of the Vexin

Talvas was married on August 20, 1195 to

Alys, Countess of the Vexin Alys of France, (or Alice) Countess of Vexin (4 October 1160 – c. 1220) was a French princess, the daughter of Louis VII, King of France and his second wife, Constance of Castile. Life Alys was the half-sister of Marie and Alix of France ...

, the daughter of King

Louis VII of France Louis VII (1120 – 18 September 1180), called the Younger, or the Young (french: link=no, le Jeune), was King of the Franks from 1137 to 1180. He was the son and successor of King Louis VI (hence the epithet "the Young") and married Duchess ...

. She was some eighteen years older than he, and was said by some to have been seduced by King

Henry II of England Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king ...

while betrothed to his son,

King Richard the Lionheart Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...

. Richard sent her back to her brother, King

Philip II of France Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), byname Philip Augustus (french: Philippe Auguste), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks, but from 1190 onward, Philip became the first French ...

, refusing to marry his father's mistress. Philip then arranged for Alys to marry William Talvas, with the intent that the couple would be childless, and he would thus gain control of Ponthieu, a small but strategically important county. However, Alys then gave birth to a daughter and heiress,

Marie Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tr ...

, in 1199. This daughter was the maternal grandmother of

Eleanor of Castile Eleanor of Castile (1241 – 28 November 1290) was Queen of England as the first wife of Edward I, whom she married as part of a political deal to affirm English sovereignty over Gascony. The marriage was known to be particularly close, and ...

, first wife of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

, King of England, to whom Ponthieu and the disputed Vexin inheritance would eventually pass as Eleanor's dowry. William Talvas died in 1221, his daughter Marie being his heiress.

Life

William was an important army commander in the Anglo-French War (1202–1214).
He also participated in the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown ...

, particularly in the Siege of Termes in 1210.
He was one of the commanders of the left wing of the French army in the

Battle of Bouvines The Battle of Bouvines was fought on 27 July 1214 near the town of Bouvines in the County of Flanders. It was the concluding battle of the Anglo-French War of 1213–1214. Although estimates on the number of troops vary considerably among mo ...

in 1214.

Notes

Sources

* * *Monicat, M.J. ''Recueil des Actes de Philippe Auguste Roi de France'', 1996.

External links

The First Dynasty of Ponthieu - in French

albeit with some mistakes, attributing Robert de Belleme's sister-in-law to his first wife. {{s-end 1179 births 1221 deaths Counts of Ponthieu 12th-century Normans 13th-century French people