William V, Marquis of Montferrat

William V of Montferrat (occ./piem. Guilhem, it. Guglielmo) (c. 1115 – 1191) also known regnally as William III of Montferrat

He was described by

• William Longsword, Count of Jaffa and Ascalon,^[2] father of Baldwin V of Jerusalem
• Conrad, King of Jerusalem^[2]
• Boniface,^[3] his successor to Montferrat and founder of the Kingdom of Thessalonica
• Frederick, who entered the Church and became Bishop of Alba (dates uncertain).
• Renier,^[2] married into the Byzantine imperial family

and three daughters:

• Agnes, who married Count Guido Guerra III Guidi conte di Modigliana.^[4] The marriage was annulled on grounds of childlessness before 1180, when Guido remarried, and Agnes entered the convent of Santa Maria di Rocca delle Donne.
• Adelasia, or Azalaïs (d. 1232), who married Manfred II, Marquis of Saluzzo, c. 1182, and was regent for her grandson Manfred III.^[5]
• An unidentified daughter, who married Albert, Marquis of Malaspina.

The vida of the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras claims that there was another daughter, Beatrice, who m. Henry I del Carretto, Marquis of Savona, and that she is the Bel Cavalher (Fair Knight) of Vaqueiras's songs. However, the lyrics of Vaqueiras's songs (as opposed to the later vida) describe Beatrice as Boniface's daughter, and thus William's granddaughter.

William and Judith's powerful dynastic connections created difficulties in finding suitable wives for his sons, and too many potential spouses were related within prohibited degrees. In 1167, he unsuccessfully tried to negotiate marriages for his eldest sons to daughters of

Alliances with the Western and Eastern Empires

William took part in the Second Crusade, alongside his half-brother Amadeus of Savoy (who died during the campaign), his nephew Louis VII of France, his brother-in-law Count Guido of Biandrate, and his wife's German and Austrian relatives.

As supporters of the imperial party (later known as the

William broke with Barbarossa and formed an alliance with Manuel. His eldest surviving son, Conrad, was taken prisoner by Barbarossa's chancellor, Archbishop Christian of Mainz, but then captured the chancellor in battle at Camerino. In 1179 Manuel suggested a marriage between his daughter Maria, second in line to the throne, and one of William's sons. As Conrad and Boniface were already married, the youngest son, Renier, was married off to the princess, who was ten years his senior. Renier and Maria were later killed during the usurpation of Andronikos, and the family rebuilt ties with Barbarossa.

Crusade in Outremer

In 1183, with the accession of his grandson Baldwin V, a minor, as co-king of Jerusalem, William, then probably in his late sixties, left the government of Montferrat to Conrad and Boniface, and returned to the east. He was granted the castle of St. Elias (present-day Taybeh). He fought in the Battle of Hattin in 1187, where he was captured by Saladin's forces. In the meantime, his second son, Conrad, had arrived at Tyre from Constantinople. Conrad was given the command of the defences. During the siege of Tyre in November that year, he is said to have refused to surrender as much as a stone of its walls to liberate his father, even threatening to shoot him with a crossbow himself when Saladin had him presented as a hostage. Eventually, Saladin withdrew his army from Tyre. In 1188, William was released unharmed at Tortosa, and seems to have ended his days in Tyre, with his son. He probably died in the summer of 1191: Conrad last describes himself as "marchionis Montisferrati filius" in a charter of May that year.

Popular culture

William of Montferrat appears as an assassination target in the video game