William III was known as Tête d’étoupe (‘tow head’) because of his fair hair.

He is my 27 x great-grandfather.

The coat of arms of the House of Poitiers, including for William III. By Ipankonin - Modified from and, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2969219
The coat of arms of the House of Poitiers

William, or Guillaume, was born in Poitiers, France in 900, son of Ebalus Manzer and Emilienne1.

Titles

In 942, he was appointed lay abbot of Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers1.

He later succeeded his father as Count of Poitiers1 but I don’t know when this happened1. Poitiers, at the time, was sparsely populated due to recent wars, and the Viking invasions2.

In 955 he became Count of Auvergne and Limoges1. King Lothair extended William’s authority over the whole of Aquitaine, but it took till 959 for him to succeed as William III, Duke of Aquitaine1.

Family

In 935, he married Adele, or Adela (also known as Gerloc), daughter of Rollo the Viking1 3 4.

By marrying Adele, William married the daughter of the person his father had gone to war with at the Battle of Chartres.

They had two children1:

  1. William, who became William IV.
  2. Adelais

Notable events

William appointed two Viscounts to help protect his eastern borders. His viscount at Châtellerault protected the frontier towards Touraine in the north2. The viscount at Brosse served as a check on the counts of La Marche2 in the East.

In 941 or 942, William donated land to Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers. Records describe it as the “vicarage of Poitou in the village of Poitiers.”1. It is unclear if they made him a lay abbot before or after this donation. The King of France, Louis IV, confirmed this donation in a charter dated 5 January 9421.

In 962, William abdicated and became a monk at Saint-Cyprien-de-Poitiers1.

Death

William III died in Aquitaine, France, on 3 April 963. I don’t know how he died but they buried him in Saint-Cyprien-de-Poitiers1.

Lineage

He is my 27 x great-grandfather.

  1. Medieval Lands; Charles Crawley; “Aquitaine, Dukes”[↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
  2. Castellans of the Plain of Poitou in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries; Sidney Painter; Speculum Vol 31, No 2; 1956-04; USA[↩][↩][↩]
  3. History of Normandy and England, The; Volume I; Sir Francis Palgrave; 1851-01[↩]
  4. Royalty for Commoners (4th edition); Roderick W Stuart; Genealogical Publishing Ltd; 2002[↩]