William III

     William III was born in 975; There was a discovery of a 992 charter of William III and his wife Emma which explicitly named William's mother as the still-living 'Adelaix'. While this document shows that William was not son of Raymond Pons and Garsenda, it does little to illuminate the true relationships, and several scholars have proposed alternative solutions. These are in agreement with regard to the identity of William's mother. She is identified with Adelaide of Anjou, as widow of the deceased Raymond, Duke of Gothia, she married to Louis V, King of France, divorcing him two years later and remarrying William III of Provence. Her husband, the 'Prince of Gothia', had previously gone unrecognized or had been dismissed as inaccurate, but given the historical association of this title with the County of Toulouse, the identification is now accepted. This means that William's father was a previously unrecognized Count Raymond of Toulouse, but his relationship to the previous documented count, Raymond Pons, remains a matter of debate, with several competing theories being proposed.^1,2 He was the son of Raymond Duke of Gothia and Adelaide of Anjou.² William III married Emma of Provence before 992.¹ William III died in September 1037.¹