William of Tortosa

William of Tortosa

Montpellier (43.6119, 3.8772) 

1158

William was the brother of Count William VII of Montpellier. His pregnant wife, from whom he inherited Tortosa, died in 1157, and later that year Pope Adrian IV issued the crusade encyclical Quantum strenui. It seems very likely, therefore, that William of Tortosa set out to the Holy Land after the loss of his wife and prompted by a new call to crusade.

PL, clxxxviii, 1603 no. 229;

A. R. Lewis, "The Guillems of Montpellier: A Sociological Appraisal," Viator 2 (1971), 159–69; Ibid, "Seigneurial Administration in Twelfth-Century Montpellier," Speculum 22/4 (1947), 562–77; J. B. Williams, "The Making of a Crusade: The Genoese Anti-Muslim Attacks in Spain, 1146–1148," Journal of Medieval History 23/1 (1997); S. Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates in the Courts of the Kings of León-Castile: The Careers of Ponce de Cabrera and Ponce de Minerva Re-Examined," Journal of Medieval History 18 (1992); J. Doherty, "Pope Adrian IV's Call to Crusade of 1157," (forthcoming).