Douce II (, ; 1162–1172) was

Countess of Provence The County of Provence was a largely autonomous medieval state that eventually became incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1481. For four centuries Provence was ruled by List of rulers of Provence, a series of counts that were vassals of the ...

and Viscountess of

Gévaudan Gévaudan (; ) is a historical area of France in Lozère ''département''. It took its name from the Gabali, a Gallic tribe. History After the conquest of Gaul, the Romans preserved the capital city of the Gabali, ''Anderitum'', which they ...

and Carlat for a few months in 1166, as well as Countess of Melgueil for some time in 1172. She was a member of the

House of Barcelona The House of Barcelona was a medieval dynasty that ruled the County of Barcelona continuously from 878 and the Crown of Aragon from 1137 (as kings from 1162) until 1410. They descend from the Bellonids, the descendants of Wilfred the Hairy. Th ...

, which acquired the

County of Provence The County of Provence was a largely autonomous medieval state that eventually became incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1481. For four centuries Provence was ruled by a series of counts that were vassals of the Carolingian Empire, Burg ...

through the marriage of Douce I to

Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer III ''the Great'' (11 November 1082 – 23 January or 19 July 1131) was the count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 1086 (jointly with Berenguer Ramon II and solely from 1097), Besalú from 1111, Cerdanya from 1117, and cou ...

Life

Douce was the sole child of the Provençal count Ramon Berenguer II and the Castilian

queen dowager A queen dowager or dowager queen (compare: princess dowager or dowager princess) is a title or status generally held by the widow of a king. In the case of the widow of an emperor, the title of empress dowager is used. Its full meaning is cle ...

Richeza of Poland, who married in 1162. In 1165, with the treaty signed in Beaucaire, Ramon Berenguer betrothed his infant daughter to

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

, eldest son and

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

Raymond V Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

, ruler of the neighbouring

County of Toulouse The County of Toulouse (, , ) was a territory in present-day southern France consisting of the city of Toulouse and its environs, ruled by the Count of Toulouse from the late 9th century until the late 13th century. After Pippin the Short conq ...

. When Ramon Berenguer died trying to conquer

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million County of Provence The County of Provence was a largely autonomous medieval state that eventually became incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1481. For four centuries Provence was ruled by a series of counts that were vassals of the Carolingian Empire, Burg ...

.Víctor Balaguer
''Historia de Cataluña y de la Corona de Aragon'', vol. II
(Barcelona: Salvador Manero, 1861), V, ii, 11–18. Immediately after her accession, Raymond V entered Provence to ensure that the betrothal would be honored. In order to secure his position, he attempted to arrange a marriage with Douce's mother. His efforts came to nothing due to intervention of the young

King of Aragon This is a list of the kings and queens of Aragon. The Kingdom of Aragon was created sometime between 950 and 1035 when the County of Aragon, which had been acquired by the Kingdom of Navarre in the tenth century, was separated from Navarre in ...

and

Count of Barcelona The count of Barcelona (, , , ) was the ruler of the County of Barcelona and also, by extension and according with the Usages of Barcelona, Usages and Catalan constitutions, of the Principality of Catalonia as Prince#Prince as generic for ruler, p ...

Alfonso Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula. I ...

. Alfonso was the first cousin of Douce's father and his closest

agnate Patrilineality, also known as the male line, the spear side or agnatic kinship, is a common kinship system in which an individual's family membership derives from and is recorded through their father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritanc ...

. He and his council claimed that he had the right to Provence on the basis of

Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 115 ...

's enfeoffment of 1162, and consequently he adopted the title

Margrave of Provence The County of Provence was a largely autonomous medieval state that eventually became incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1481. For four centuries Provence was ruled by List of rulers of Provence, a series of counts that were vassals of the ...

. In order to gain time, Alfonso wrote to Raymond to tell him that he consented to the planned marriages of both Douce and her mother. Conflict soon ensued, however, and despite initial setbacks, Alfonso prevailed over Raymond. He arrived in Provence by the end of 1166.

William VII of Montpellier William VII of Montpellier ( ), the eldest son of William VI and of his wife Sibylle, was as 12th century Lord of Montpellier. Aged around 15, he inherited the lordship of Montpellier from his father in 1146 under the tutelage of his grandmoth ...

was the first of Douce's vassals to declare allegiance to him, followed by the rest. In 1168, Alfonso granted Provence to his brother, Ramon Berenguer III. Douce was thus finally dispossessed of her inheritance, but retained the comital title. She moved to the court of her paternal grandmother, Beatrice, Countess of Melgueil. In April 1172, Beatrice decided that the

County of Melgueil A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

should be divided between her daughter, Ermessende of Pelet, and Douce, still betrothed to Raymond of Toulouse. Douce died the same year, however, and all of Melgueil passed to her half-aunt, who also married her fiancé.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Douce Ii, Countess Of Provence 1172 deaths Counts of Provence House of Barcelona Provence, Countess of, Douce II Year of birth unknown 12th-century countesses regnant Monarchs deposed as children Monarchs who died as children Medieval child monarchs Year of birth uncertain