It is hardly a surprise that I chose to begin my research by typing the words "William X Aquitaine" into Google. Even less surprising is that the first record that came up on that search was the English-language Wikipedia article on William X. Much has been said about the reliability of Wikipedia, and as an academic, I would never cite or rely on the information presented there. As I am writing this as a hobbyist and not as an academic, however, I clicked the link to see what well-meaning netizens consider themselves to know about William X.
The article is pleasantly presented, and gives a brief and informative introduction to William X's life, including a significantly later painting and a photograph of a coin issued under his reign. We are provided with dates, b. 1099 and d. 1137 (9th April), and basic biographical details: son of William IX of Aquitaine and his wife Philippa of Toulouse, married to Aenor de Châtellerault, and was father of three children, Eleanor, Queen of France and later England, Petronilla who married the Duke of Vermandois, and William Aigret who is said to have died young. Possible natural (illegitimate) sons are also mentioned: William and Joscelin. So far so good. Taking a closer look at the article, however, it is highly noticeable that only two sources are mentioned, neither of which has been properly referenced in the text. The 'Talk' page, a space for Wikipedia editors and contributors to discuss the article, adds little, although a promising primary source is given for William's birth date: The Chronicle of Saint-Maxent for the year 1099 lists this event. The other sources mentioned are:
* Parsons, J. (2002) Eleanor of Aquitaine: Lord and Lady. Palgrave Macmillan.
* Chibnall, M. (1956) (trans.) John of Salisbury's Memoirs of the Papal Court. Nelson.
Should we believe the Wikipedia article? The short answer is a resounding "No": there is no convincing evidence that any of the materials presented there are accurate or that they should be included in your family history. If one feels brave, the alternative language articles may provide more information than the English version. There are articles in another 18 languages (at the time of writing), some with more detail than the English, and some only a sentence or two long. I find it interesting to note that many of them reference other books, some even in their own languages. There is also a number of references to other websites which we will approach in a later post. To the list of cited literature, we can therefore add:
* Pernaud, R. (1965) Eleanor of Aquitaine. Coward-McCann.
* Weir, A. (1999) Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life. Ballantine Books.
* Alphen, L. (1980/3) "La Francia: Luigi VI e Luigi VII (1108-1180)" in Il trionfo del papato e lo sviluppo comunale. Storia del mondo medievale, vol. 5, Garzanti, pp. 705-739.
* Paden, F. (2007) Troubadour Poems from the South of France. D. S. Brewer.
* Marchegay, P., & Mabille, É. (1869) Chroniques des églises d'Anjou. Jules Renouard.
* Santiago, C. D., (13 Jul 2010) "Un estudio revela la auténtica personalidad de Don Gaiferos" in elCorreoGallego.es, retrieved 7 November 2013.
In addition to these, a reference to a Portuguese journal published by a local genealogical society has proven too difficult to source: Raízes e Memórias, vol. 10, p. 21, Instituto Português de Genealogia.
Pernaud's 1965 volume has been cited in both Polish and Italian, Weir's in both English and a Korean translation. It is notable that the most recent of these volumes is Paden's, whose main topic is medieval poetry rather than history. This is not a bad crop, however, and it provides us with possible threads to follow to verify if the Wikipedia article is indeed correct. As with any referencing, the facts in the article ought to have citations against them, and out of the 19 different versions on Wikipeda of the William of Aquitaine article, only one, the Galego version, achieved this on four occasions.
To prove (or disprove) the data we have gathered so far, the next step will be to follow up on the leads in the cited texts. First, however, it may be possible to gather further threads from the Google search that led us to the Wikipedia article.
Here's the Wikipedia article: William X, Duke of Aquitaine
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