ALPHONSE, COUNT OF TOULOUSE AND OF POITIERS (1220-1271),
the son of Louis VIII., king of France, and brother of
St
Louis, was born on the 11th of November 1220. He joined the
county of Toulouse to his appanage of Poitou and Auvergne,
on the death, in September 1249, of Raymond VII., whose
daughter Jeanne he had married in 1237. He took the cross
with his brother, St Louis, in 1248 and in 1270. In 1252,
on the death of his mother, Blanche of Castile, he was joint
regent with Charles of Anjou until the return of Louis IX.,
and took a great part in the negotiations which led to the
treaties of Abbeville and of Paris (1258-1259). His main
work was on his own estates. There he repaired the evils of
the Albigensian war and made a first attempt at administrative
centralization, thus preparing the way for union with the
crown. The charter known as "Alphonsine," granted
to the town of Riom, became the code of public law for
Auvergne. Honest and moderate, protecting the middle
classes against exactions of the nobles, he exercised a happy
influence upon the south, in spite of his naturally despotic
character and his continual and pressing need of money.
He died without heirs on his return from the 8th crusade,
in Italy, probably at Savona, on the 21st of August 1271.
See B. Ledain, Histoire d'Alphonse, frere de S. Louis et du
comte de Poltou sous son administration (1241-1271) (Poitou,
1869); E. Bourarie, Saint Louis et Alphonse de Poitiers
(Paris, 1870); A. Molinier, Etude sur l'administration de S.
Louis et d'Alphonse de Poitiers (Toulouse, 1880); and also
his edition of the Correspondance administrative d'Alphonse
de Poitiers in the Collection de documents inedits
pour servir a l'histoire de France (Paris, 1894 and 1895).
This article is from the 1911 edition of an
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