William I, Viscount of Béarn

William I, called Guillem de Montcada II, was the Viscount of Béarn from 1171 to 1173 with opposition.

William was the eldest son of Guillem Ramon de Montcada II. William first appears in 1150, witnessing his father's settlement at Arles with the Baux family after Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona's invasion of Provence. William thereafter appears regularly in the documents of his father.

On 10 June 1164, a document bears the name of Guillelmi de Monte Catano as husband of Mary, though this document's authenticity has been called into question. In 1168, William was holding the castle of Pau, probably through his marriage, even though Sancho VI of Navarre laid claim to it. The king tried to ally with Alfonso II of Aragon against William, but instead found himself at war with the Aragonese. In 1171, Alfonso granted all the lands formerly held by Talesa of Aragon to William. In Jaca, in 1170, Mary, having succeeded her defnunct brother Gaston V, accepted Alfonso's grant of protection and did homage. She also agreed not to remarry without Alfonso's consent. In March 1171, William did homage for Béarn.

William I

William I may refer to:

Kings

Nobles

William I (Bishop of Utrecht)

William I was bishop of Utrecht between 1054 and 1076. He was a typical representative of the German imperial system in which bishops (who couldn't inherite their lands) were the main officials of the empire. He was a loyal follower of king Henry IV of Germany. William was appointed when a war was going on against West Frisia (later part of the county of Holland), which was resisting imperial authority. The imperial army conquered large parts of West Frisia in 1061, when Dirk V became count. King Henry gave the whole county to the bishopric of Utrecht in 1064. The whole of West Frisia was conquered in 1076 with the help of duke Godfrey III.

William took part in the Great German Pilgrimage of 1064–1065.

William supported the king during the investiture controversy. He called for disobedience towards Gregory VII at the synod of Worms in 1076. Much of West Frisia was recovered by count Dirk after the death of bishop William in the same year.

William I of Sicily

William I (1131 – May 7, 1166), called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second King of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own in 1166. He was the fourth son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile.

William's title "the Bad" seems little merited and expresses the bias of the historian Hugo Falcandus and the baronial class against the king and the official class by whom he was guided.

Early life

William was the son of King Roger II of Sicily, grandson of Roger I of Sicily and great-grandson of Tancred of Hauteville. He grew up with little expectation of ruling. The deaths of his three older brothers Roger, Tancred, and Alfonso between 1138 and 1148 changed matters, though when his father died William was still not well-prepared to take his place.

Kingship

On assuming power, William kept the administration which had guided his father's rule for his final years. Only the Englishman Thomas Brun was removed, and the chancellor Maio of Bari was promoted. The real power in the kingdom was at first exercised by Maio, a man of low birth, whose title ammiratus ammiratorum was the highest in the realm. Maio continued Roger's policy of excluding the nobles from the administration, and sought also to curtail the liberties of the towns. The barons, always chafing against the royal power, were encouraged to revolt by Pope Adrian IV, whose recognition William had not yet sought, by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I.

Béarn

Béarn (French pronunciation: ​[be.aʁn]; Gascon: Bearn or Biarn; Basque: Bearno or Biarno) is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the southwest the current département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64). The capitals of Béarn were Beneharnum (until 841), Morlaàs (from ca. 1100), Orthez (from the second half of the 13th century), then Pau (beginning in the mid-15th century).

Béarn is bordered by Basque provinces Soule and Lower Navarre to the west, by Gascony (Landes and Armagnac) to the north, by Bigorre to the east, and by Spain (Aragon) to the south.

The name Béarn comes from Beneharnum, the capital city of the Venarni people, destroyed by Vikings by 840.

Today, the mainstays of the Béarn area are the petroleum industry, the aerospace industry through the helicopter turboshaft engine manufacturer Turbomeca, tourism and agriculture (much of which involves maize (corn) grown for seed). Pau was the birthplace of Elf Aquitaine, which has now become a part of the Total S.A. petroleum company.

Béarn (disambiguation)

Béarn can refer to:

See also

Béarn AOC

Béarn is an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) for wine in South West France. It is locateted in the area of intersection of three French departments: Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hautes-Pyrénées and Gers; and two regions: Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées. Some vineyards in the area of the Jurançon AOC can also produce red Béarn wine, and some in the area of the Madiran AOC may produce a rosé Béarn. Wines made in the village of Bellocq also carry the appellation Béarn-Bellocq.

History

Pre-History and Antiquity

During the Roman colonisation, a vineyard was planted on the hillsides between Salies-de-Béarn and Bellocq village.

The Middle Ages

Gaston VII de Montcada, Viscount of Béarn, built a fortress in Bellocq. This allowed for the construction of a bastide. The new inhabitants of the bastide contributed to the development of the vineyard. Crossing the vineyard on the Way of St. James, pilgrims making their way to Galicia or returning from their pilgrimage popularised Béarn wine beyond regional borders.