Spouse(s) Emma of Mortain Name William Count Mother Almodis de la Marche | Father Pons of Toulouse Noble family Rouergue | |
Died 1094, Province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain Children Philippa, Countess of Toulouse Siblings Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, Hugh VI of Lusignan Parents Pons, Count of Toulouse, Almodis de la Marche Grandchildren William X, Duke of Aquitaine, Raymond of Poitiers, Agnes of Aquitaine, Queen of Aragon Similar People Raymond IV - Count of Toulouse, Almodis de la Marche, William IX - Duke of Aquitaine, William X - Duke of Aquitaine, Ramon Berenguer I - Count o | ||
William IV of Toulouse (c. 1040 – 1094) was Count of Toulouse, Margrave of Provence, and Duke of Narbonne from 1061 to 1094. He succeeded his father Pons of Toulouse upon his death in 1061. His mother was Almodis de la Marche, but she was kidnapped by and subsequently married to Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona when William was a boy. He was married to Emma of Mortain (daughter of Robert, Count of Mortain and a niece of William of Normandy), who gave him one daughter, Philippa. He also had an illegitimate son, William-Jordan, with his half-sister Adelaide.
He married twice, and produced two legitimate sons; neither, however, survived infancy, leaving daughter Philippa as his heiress. As Toulouse had no tradition of female inheritance, this raised a question with regard to succession. In 1088, when William departed for the Holy Land, he left his brother, Raymond of Saint-Gilles, to govern in his stead (and, it was later claimed, to succeed him). Within five years, William was dead, and Raymond in a perfect position to take power – although, after Philippa married William IX of Aquitaine, they laid claim to Toulouse and fought, off and on, for years to try to reclaim it from Raymond and his children.
He was the great-grandfather of Eleanor of Aquitaine, by his daughter's marriage to William IX of Aquitaine, and Eleanor's descendants would continue to lay nominal claim to Toulouse based on descent from William IV.