William I, the Unlucky
Lived: 1173-1199
Head of the House of Burgundy: 1191-1199
Duke of Modena: 1177-1197
King of France and Aquitaine: 1191-1199
Lived: 1173-1199
Head of the House of Burgundy: 1191-1199
Duke of Modena: 1177-1197
King of France and Aquitaine: 1191-1199
William I, or Guillaume in his native Italian, for the first of the Williamine rulers who oversaw France's Golden Age of the Medieval Period. Looking at his tumultuous and short lived reign in isolation, it certainly does not appear to be a Golden Age by any stretch of the imagination. Yet in the face of intense internal opposition William, the Unlucky, maintained the centralised Monarchy forged by the first two Burgundian rulers of France and defeated the bulwark of the opposition to Dijon's authority. He also set up a series of trends that peristed throughout the Williamine period – the change of the language of court to Italian rather than the native French, the beginning of the tradition of part of every year of peace time being spent at a court in Modena, the inseperable relationship between the King of France and the Pope in Rome, and of course the taking of the name William – the name of all French Kings for the next 100 years.
Light Blue – Modena
Green – Lost 1180-1189
Yellow – Lost 1196
Orange – Held 1190-1196
William I is known to history as the Unlucky, not especially incompetent he faced harsh circumstances and was often surrounded by incompetent advisors. The loss of the entire dominion of Modena, including the Ducal title, with the exception of the eponymous city itself over the course of just two decades. When William's grandfather, Eudes, left Modena in 1178 to become King of France and Aquitaine he handed of the Regency of the powerful Duchy to a collection of city elders. These men were extremely Modenocentric, looking upon William's Duchy as an Empire subservient to the city. Attempts were made to direct commerce away from the cities under Modena's rule to the capital itself whilst the provinces were heavily taxed in order to pay for the aggrandisement of the city in building projects and the upkeep of its military forces. Unsuprisngly the wealthy Italian cities under Modena's rule deeply resented this and under the leadership of Tuscan began a revolt in 1180. Later supported by the Republic of Genoa the revolt succeeded in destroying William's inheritance. By the end of the war in 1189 only Spoleto remained tied to the Duchy, the following year a small German County was added to William's holdings through inheritance but was quickly set up as a distant vassal under a local German lord. After William left for France in 1191 the remains of the Duchy initially remained loyal before Spoleto and Nassau joined the second wave of the revolt against William in 1194 – unlike the contiguous provinces of France these Counties were allowed to go free a they were swallowed up by local Imperial magnates whilst in revolt. By the restoration of peace in William's realm in 1196 only the capital city remained of his old Duchy, the final humiliating chapter of the Burgundian Duchy of Modena was written the following year when the Emperor stripped William of the Ducal title of Modena and handed it to the Count of Parma – one of the leading figures in the revolt against William's regents in the 1180s.
When William turned up in Dijon in 1191 at the humble age of 18 he was widely loathed by the French nobility. Here had arrived a beardless, effeminate and foreign boy who had never governed in his own right and under whose rule a powerful realm had been shattered. Untested in battle or in governance he expected to fill the boots of giant in the form of his grandfather and great-grandmother. When he arrived in Dijon William brought with him a large troops of Italian favourites whom quickly moved to occupy the loftiest positions in government, shunning Frenchmen. The French nobility smelt an opportunity to roll back the powers of the Monarchy that had advanced so far under the first two Burgundian Monarchs, kick out the foreigners and reduce this apparently weak king to their puppet.
Light Blue – Royal Demesne
Blue – Loyalists
Red – Rebelled in 1191
Orange – Rebelled in 1194
Within weeks of William's coronation Civil War had broken out. The war would later become known as the 'Parlement War' due to the demands of the rebels that a council of leading magnates be formed with the power to limit royal authority, later regarded by some as an early battle in the long march towards democratisation, in reality it was a more simple clash between the centre and the provinces – a conflict within the ruling class rather than between the classes. The rebellion's most powerful backers were the Dukes of Potiou (who also held the Duchies of Auvergne and Bourbon) and the Duke of Toulouse. However there was widespread sympthay amongst wider parts of the upper nobility who seem to remain poised, waiting to see if the rebels could take the initiative.
To his credit, William moved with decisiveness and cunning to quickly secure allies with which he could defeat the rebellion and ensure his position. Firstly, the Prince-Bishop of Champagne (who ruled from Rheims) was granted the other two Counties of the Duchy that had been long held by the crown, secondly the talented Duke of Brabant, one of France's richest men, was made Chancellor (the only non-Italian in the King's innermost governmental circle) and finally he insinuated to his kinsman, the Duke of Burgundy, that some of the Royal lands within the Duchy might be passed over to the Duke after the war. With this and the strength of the Royal Demesne a solid powerbloc was forged in the North-East, whilst in the South the pre-existing regional enemies of Potiou and Toulouse ensured significant backers for the King. The rest of the nobility might swing either way depending on the outcome of the war on the field of battle.
With the two opposing sides emerging the five bloody years of the Parlement War commenced with a Royalist offensive. Although William would spend the majority of the war closer to his comfort zone, at court in Dijon, he did realise the need for a how of force from himself and initially led the Royalist army. Hoping to strike quickly before the rebel armies could unite together William led the Royalists to crush the army of Orleans before scoring a victory against Potiou that prevented the Southern rebels from relieving the city of Orleans itself. After the city fell in early 1192 and the Duke surrendered William decided to return to Dijon, leaving the rest of the war to his martials. These commanders proved quite confident and by 1193 the superior numbers of the Royalist armies had led to the end of rebel incursions beyond their own territories, the besieging of their fortresses having commenced. When the Duke of Toulouse died of dysentery at the siege of Lusignan in 1193 his pro-William brother inherited his lands and withdrew Toulouse from the war – leaving Potiou isolated and alone. The rebellion received a second wind in 1194, the Duke of Flanders had attempted a Palace coup in Dijon involving the city guard, however the King's spy master discovered the Flanders' plot forcing the Duke and his co-conspirators to flee Dijon and join the rebellion or face the dungeon. Nonetheless, whilst the new wave of rebellions did prolong the war they proved far less enthusiastic than the initial rebels and when the King offered a general amnesty in return for submission it was universally accepted by those still fighting. The Parlement War had ended.
Light Blue – Royal Demesne
Blue – France
Green – Vexin, Annexed 1197
Yellow – Duchy of Normandy
In a classic example of how to heal a fractured political body William found a common enemy by waging a short war against the Duchy of Normandy (which had recently successfully won its independence form England, although at the cost of Rouen which remained in the hands of the Duke of Somerset) for the Norman Vexin. The Vexin a long coveted province due to its proximity to the old capital in Paris.
Seeking an escape from the fractious atmosphere in France and homesick for Italy William travelled to Modena with his wife, baby son and royal council in the winter of 1197. The presence of the King of France in Northern Italy was obviously a great attraction for many of Italy's best and brightest with large numbers of Italian coming to the King's court in Modena, as William returned in 1198 and 1199 a small but noticeable flow of Italians would follow him back to Dijon creating an ever growing Italian population at the home of the French government. Whilst in Italy William was also able to build up a substantial network of contacts and supporters amongst the Italian clergy – with the two most important centres of the Catholic clergy under his influence, William was able to get his long term ally the Prince-Bishop of Champagne elected Pope in 1198. This was his crowning accomplishment as a diplomat.
In 1199 the harvest in Po Valley of Northern Italy failed dramatically. As the cities and landed nobility failed to offer support, long term antagonism between the peasantry, landowners and urban elites erupted into the largest peasant insurrection in the region through the entire Medieval era. With local leaders barely able to keep the peasants out of the cities William saw an ideal opportunity to assert a leadership role within Italy and perhaps even undermine the Emperor's position as the country's sovereign. He led an army himself into the Po Valley with the aim of crushing the revolt. Near Brescia William's forces came into contact with the largest of the peasant band and were to win an easy victory over the disorganised rabble. However, during the heat of the battle William himself killed as he was knocked from his horse and put upon by a swarm of peasants. Just as his Kingdom was returning to stability and his outward ambitions were starting to be fulfilled William I, the Unlucky, was cut down at the age of just 26 leaving his 4 year old son to take the French throne.