ALPHONSE I., COUNT OF TOULOUSE (1103-1148), son of Count
Raymond IV. by his third wife, Elvira of Castile, was born
in 1103, in the castle of Mont-Pelerin, Tripoli. He was
surnamed Jourdain on account of his being baptized in the river
Jordan. His father died when he was two years old and he
remained under the guardianship of his cousin, Guillaume
Jourdain, count of Cerdagne (d. 1109), until he was five.
He was then taken to Europe and his brother Bertrand gave him
the countship of Rouergue; in his tenth year, upon Bertrand's
death (1112), he succeeded to the countship of Toulouse and
marquisate of Provence, but Toulouse was taken from him by
William IX., count of Poitiers, in 1114. He recovered a part
in 1119, but continued to fight for his possessions until
about 1123. When at last successful, he was excommunicated
by Pope Calixtus II. for having expelled the monks of
Saint-Gilles, who had aided his enemies. He next fought
for the sovereignty of Provence against Raymond Berenger I.,
and not till September 1125 did the war end in an amicable
agreement. Under it Jourdain became absolute master of the
regions lying between the Pyrenees and the Alps, Auvergne
and the sea. His ascendancy was an unmixed good to the
country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry
flourished. About 1134 he seized the countship of Narbonne,
only restoring it to the Viscountess Ermengarde (d. 1197) in
1143. Louis VII., for some reason which has not appeared,
besieged Toulouse in 1141, but without result. Next year
Jourdain again incurred the displeasure of the church by
siding with the rebels of Montpellier against their lord.
A second time he was excommunicated; but in 1146 he took the
cross at the meeting of Vezelay called by Louis VII., and
in August 1147 embarked for the East. He lingered on the way
in Italy and probably in Constantinople; but in 1148 he had
arrived at Acre. Among his companions he had made enemies
and he was destined to take no share in the crusade he had
joined. He was poisoned at Caesarea, either the wife of Louis
or the mother of the king of Jerusalem suggesting the draught.
See the documentary Histoire generale de Languedoc
by De Vie and Vaissette, vol. iii. (Toulouse, 1872).
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
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