William VI\VIII (Guido) of Aquitaine, Duke of Aquitaine
Founded the Priory of St. Gemma in Xaintonge. Some sources say died 1021, but
no Duke of Aquitaine died then according to Stammtafeln.
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3William VIII (1025 – 25 September 1086), born
Guy-Geoffrey (Gui-Geoffroi), was
duke of Gascony (1052–1086), and then
duke of Aquitaine and
count of Poitiers (as William VI) between 1058 and 1086, succeeding his brother
William VII (Pierre-Guillaume).
Guy-Geoffroy was the youngest son of
William V of Aquitaine by his third wife
Agnes of Burgundy. He was the brother-in-law of
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor who had married his sister,
Agnes de Poitou.
He became Duke of Gascony in 1052 during his older brother William VII's rule. Gascony had come to Aquitanian rule through William V's marriage to Prisca (a.k.a Brisce) of Gascony, the sister of Duke
Sans VI Guilhem of Gascony.
William VIII was one of the leaders of the allied army called to help
Ramiro I of Aragon in the
Siege of Barbastro (1064). This expedition was the first campaign organized by the papacy, namely
Pope Alexander II, against a Muslim city, and the precursor of the later
Crusades movement. Aragon and its allies conquered the city, killed its inhabitants and collected an important booty.
However, Aragon lost the city again in the following years. During William VIII's rule, the alliance with the southern kingdoms of modern Spain was a political priority as shown by the marriage of all his daughters to Iberian kings.
He married three times and had at least five children. After he divorced his second wife due to infertility, he remarried to a much younger woman who was also his cousin. This marriage produced a son, but William VIII had to visit Rome in the early 1070s to persuade the pope to recognize his children from his third marriage as legitimate.
▪ First wife: Garsende of
Périgord, daughter of Count
Aldabert II of Périgord (divorced November 1058), no children. She became a nun at
Saintes.
▪ Second wife: Matoeda (divorced May 1068)
1. Agnes (1052–1078), married
Alfonso VI of Castile ▪ Third wife: Hildegarde of Burgundy (daughter of duke
Robert I of Burgundy)
1. Agnes (died 1097), married
Peter I of Aragon 2. William IX of Aquitaine, his heir