COUNT OF

See also:

• TOULOUSE
• TOULOUSE, LOUIS ALEXANDRE DE BOURBON, COUNT OF (1678-1737)

TOULOUSE AND OF

See also:

• POITIERS

POITIERS

See also:

• COUNT OF TOULOUSE AND OF POITIERS ALPHONSE (I220-1271)

ALPHONSE (I220-1271)  , 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, Ilistoire d'Alphonse, fare de S . Louis et du coolie de Poitou sous son administration (1241—1271) (Poitou, 1869); E .

Boutaric,

Saint Louis et Alphonse de Poitiers (Paris, 1870) ; A . Molinier, Etude sur l'administration de S . Louis et d'Alphonse de Poitiers (Toulouse, 188o) ; and also his edition of the Correspondance administrative d'Alphonse de Poitiers in the Collection de documents inedits pour servir d l'Itistoire de France (Paris, 1894 and 1895) .