View source for Alfonso Jordan

{{Short description|Crusader nobleman (1103–1148)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Alfonso Jordan
| image        = Alphonse Jourdain-Cartulaire de la Cite (Toulouse).jpg
| caption      = Alfonso Jordan, on a [[historiated initial]] from the first cartulary of the city of Toulouse, 1205
| title        = Count of Toulouse, Rouergue and Tripoli, Margrave of Provence and Duke of Narbonne
| succession   = [[Count of Tripoli]]
| reign        = 1105 – 1109
| predecessor  = [[Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse|Raymond IV]]
| successor    = [[Bertrand of Toulouse]]
| succession1  = [[Count of Toulouse]]
| reign1       = 1112 – 1148
| predecessor1 = [[Bertrand of Toulouse]]
| successor1   = [[Raymond V, Count of Toulouse|Raymond V]]
| birth_date   = 1103
| birth_place  = [[Citadel of Raymond de Saint-Gilles]], [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]]
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1148|4|16|1103|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]], [[Kingdom of Jerusalem]]
| father       = [[Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse|Raymond IV]]
| mother       = [[Elvira of Castile, Countess of Toulouse|Elvira of Castile]]
| spouse       = Faydiva d'Uzes (m. Sep 1125)
| issue        = [[Raymond V of Toulouse|Raymond V]]<br>[[Alfonso II of Toulouse]]<br>[[Faidiva of Toulouse|Faydiva]]<br>[[Bertrand of Toulouse (son of Alfonso Jordan)|Bertrand]]
}}

'''Alfonso Jordan''', also spelled '''Alfons Jordan''' or '''Alphonse Jourdain''' (1103–1148), was the [[Count of Tripoli]] (1105–09), [[Count of Rouergue]] (1109–48) and [[Count of Toulouse]], [[Margrave of Provence]] and [[Duke of Narbonne]] (1112–48).

==Life==
Alfonso was the son of [[Raymond IV of Toulouse]] by his third wife, [[Elvira of Castile, Countess of Toulouse|Elvira of Castile]].{{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|loc=table 5}} He was born in the castle of Mont Pèlerin in [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]] while his father was on the [[First Crusade]]. He was given the name "Jourdain" after being baptised in the [[Jordan River]].{{sfn|Barton|Fletcher|2000|p=164}}
Alfonso's father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin, [[Guillaume Jourdain|William Jordan]], [[Count of Cerdagne]], until he was five. He was then taken to Europe, where his half-brother [[Bertrand of Toulouse|Bertrand]] had given him the county of Rouergue. Upon Bertrand's death in 1112, Alfonso succeeded to the county of Toulouse and marquisate of Provence.

In 1114, Duke [[William IX of Aquitaine]], who claimed Toulouse by right of his wife [[Philippa of Toulouse|Philippa]], daughter of Count [[William IV of Toulouse|William IV]], invaded the county and conquered it. Alfonso recovered a part in 1119, but he was not in full control until 1123. When at last successful, he was [[excommunicated]] by [[Pope Callixtus II]] for having damaged the abbey of Saint-Gilles and assaulting the monks.{{sfn|Selwood|1999|p=32}}

[[File:Carte provence 1125.png|thumb|upright|left|Division of Provence obtained by Alfonso Jordan in 1125. He ruled the marquisate.]]

Alfonso next had to fight for his rights in Provence against Count [[Raymond Berengar III of Barcelona]]. Not until September 1125 did their war end in "peace and concord" (''pax et concordia'').{{sfn|Kosto|2001|p=256-258}} At this stage, Alfonso was master of the regions lying between the [[Pyrenees]] and the [[Alps]], the [[Auvergne (province)|Auvergne]] and the sea. His ascendancy was, according to one commentator, an unmixed good to the country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry flourished.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} 

In March 1126, Alfonso was at the court of King [[Alfonso VII of León]] when he acceded to the throne. According to the ''[[Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris]]'', Alfonso and [[Suero Vermúdez]] took the city of [[León, León|León]] from opposition magnates and handed it over to Alfonso VII.{{sfn|Barton|1997|pp=126–28|ps=. According to the ''Chronica'', "count Alfonso of Toulouse ... was in all things obedient to him [Alfonso VII]" (''comes Adefonsus Tolosanus ... in omnibus essent obedientes ei'').}} Among those who may have accompanied Alfonso on one of his many extended stays in Spain was the troubadour [[Marcabru]].{{sfn|Barton|1997|p=147}}{{sfn|Boissonade|1922}}

[[File:Denier Narbonne Alphonse Jourdain.jpg|thumb|A ''[[French denier|denier]]'' minted at Narbonne during the minority of Ermengard (1134–43) bearing the obverse inscription DUX ANFOS and on the reverse CIVI NARBON]]

By 1132, Alfonso was embroiled in a succession war over the county of Melgueil against Count [[Berengar Raymond of Provence]].{{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|p=94}} This brief conflict was resolved with Alfonso's defeat and Berengar marrying [[Beatrice of Melgueil|Beatrice]], heiress of Melgueil.{{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|p=94}}

Alfonso seized the [[viscounty of Narbonne]] in 1134, and ruled it during the minority of Viscountess [[Ermengarde of Narbonne|Ermengarde]], only restoring it to her in 1143. 
In 1141 King [[Louis VII of France]] pressed the claim of his wife, [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]], granddaughter of Philippa, even besieging Toulouse, but without result.{{sfn|Kelly|1978|p=15}} 
That same year Alfonso Jordan was again in Spain, making a [[Way of Saint James|pilgrimage to Saint James of Compostela]], when he proposed a peace between the king of León and [[García Ramírez of Navarre]], which became the basis for subsequent negotiations.{{sfn|Barton|1997|pp=140, 211}}

In 1144, Alfonso again incurred the displeasure of the church by siding with the citizens of [[Montpellier]] against [[Lord of Montpellier|their lord]]. 
In 1145, [[Bernard of Clairvaux]] addressed a letter to him full of concern about a heretic named Henry in the diocese of Toulouse. Bernard even went there to preach against the heresy, an early expression of [[Catharism]].{{sfn|Wakefield|Evans|1991|p=122}} A second time he was excommunicated; but in 1146 he took the cross (i.e., vowed to go on crusade) at a meeting in [[Vézelay]] called by Louis VII. In August 1147, he embarked for the near east on the [[Second Crusade]].{{sfn|Tyerman|2007|p=156}}
He lingered on the way in Italy and probably in [[Constantinople]], where he may have met Emperor [[Manuel I Comnenus|Manuel I]].

Alfonso finally arrived at [[Acre, Palestine|Acre]] in 1148. He died at [[Caesarea Maritima|Caesarea]],{{sfn|Richard|1999|p=165}} which was followed by accusations of poisoning, levelled against either Eleanor of Aquitaine or [[Melisende of Jerusalem]],{{sfn|Richard|1999|p=165}} who may have wanted to eliminate him as a rival to her brother-in-law Count [[Raymond II of Tripoli]]. 

Alfonso and Faydiva d'Uzès had: 

# [[Raymond V of Toulouse|Raymond]], who succeeded him{{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|loc=table 5}} 
# [[Alfonso II of Toulouse|Alfonso II]] 
#
# [[Faidiva of Toulouse|Faydiva]] (died 1154), married to Count [[Humbert III of Savoy]]{{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|loc=table 5}} 
# Agnes (died 1187) {{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|loc=table 5}}
# Laurentia, who married Count [[Bernard III of Comminges]]{{sfn|Graham-Leigh|2005|loc=table 5}}

He also had an illegitimate son, [[Bertrand of Toulouse (son of Alfonso Jordan)|Bertrand]].{{sfn|Lewis|2017|p=152}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
{{refbegin|30em}}
*{{cite book |first=Simon |last=Barton |title=The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1997}}
*{{cite book |title=The world of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest |editor-first1=Simon |editor-last1=Barton |editor-first2=Richard |editor-last2=Fletcher |publisher=Manchester University Press  |year=2000 }}
*{{cite book |first=Eloy |last=Benito Ruano |chapter=Alfonso Jordán, Conde de Toulouse: un nieto de Alfonso VI de Castilla |title=Estudios sobre Alfonso VI y la reconquista de Toledo |location=Toledo |year=1987 |pages=83–98}}
*{{citation |first=Eloy |last=Benito Ruano |url=http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/65061/alfonso-jordan |title=Alfonso Jordán |encyclopedia=Diccionario Biográfico electrónico |publisher=Real Academia de la Historia |year=2018}}
*{{cite journal |first=Pierre |last=Boissonade |title=Les personnages et les événements de l'histoire d'Allemagne, de France et d'Espagne dans l'oeuvre de Marcabru (1129–50) |journal=Romania |volume=48 |year=1922 |pages=207–242|doi=10.3406/roma.1922.4480 }}
*{{cite book |first=Fredric L. |last=Cheyette |title=Ermengard of Narbonne and the World of the Troubadours |year=2004 |publisher=Cornell University Press}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Alphonse I.|volume=1|page=733}}
*{{cite book |title=The Southern French Nobility and the Albigensian Crusade |first=Elaine |last=Graham-Leigh |publisher=The Boydell Press |year=2005 }}
*{{cite book |title=Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse |first1=John Hugh |last1=Hill |first2=Laurita Lyttleton |last2=Hill |publisher=Syracuse University Press |year=1962}}
*{{cite book |first=Amy |last=Kelly |title=Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1978 |edition=2nd }}
*{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Kosto |title=Making Agreements in Medieval Catalonia: Power, Order, and the Written Word, 1000–1200 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 }}
*{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Kevin James |year=2017 |title=The Counts of Tripoli and Lebanon in the Twelfth Century: Sons of Saint-Gilles |publisher=Routledge }}
*{{cite book |title=Society and Government at Toulouse in the Age of the Cathars |last=Mundy |first=John Hine |publisher=Pontifical Institute for Medieval Studies |year=1997}}
*{{cite book |first=Bernard F. |last=Reilly |title=The Kingdom of León-Castilla Under King Alfonso VII, 1126–1157 |year=1998 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}
*{{cite book |title=The Crusades, c.1071-c.1291 |first=Jean |last=Richard |author-link=Jean Richard (historian) |translator-first=Jean |translator-last=Birrell |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 }}
*{{cite book |title=Knights of the Cloister: Templars and Hospitallers in Central-Southern Occitania, c. 1100-c. 1300 |first=Dominic |last=Selwood |publisher=The Boydell Press |year=1999 }}
*{{cite book |title=God's War: A New History of the Crusades |first=Christopher |last=Tyerman |publisher=Penguin Group |year=2007 }}156
*{{cite book |first1=Walter Leggett |last1=Wakefield |first2=Austin Patterson |last2=Evans |title=Heresies of the High Middle Ages |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=1991 }}
{{refend}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse|Raymond I]]}} 
{{s-ttl|title=[[Count of Tripoli]]|years=1105&ndash;1109}} 
{{s-aft|after=[[Bertrand of Toulouse|Bertrand]]}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Bertrand of Toulouse|Bertrand]]}} 
{{s-ttl|title=[[Count of Toulouse]]|years=1112&ndash;1148}} 
{{s-aft|after=[[Raymond V of Toulouse|Raymond V]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Toulouse Counts}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso Jordan}}
[[Category:1103 births]]
[[Category:1148 deaths]]
[[Category:People excommunicated by the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Counts of Tripoli]]
[[Category:Counts of Toulouse]]
[[Category:Dukes of Narbonne]]
[[Category:Margraves of Provence]]
[[Category:Occitan nobility]]
[[Category:House of Rouergue]]
[[Category:Christians of the Second Crusade]]