'''Alfonso Jordan''' ([[French language|French]]: ''Alphonse Jourdain''; [[1103]] – [[1148]]) was the [[Count of Tripoli]] from 1105 until 1109 and thereafter [[Counts of Toulouse|Count of Toulouse]] (as Alfonso I) until his death. He was the son of [[Raymond IV of Toulouse]] by his third wife, [[Elvira of Castile]], was born in the castle of [[Mont-Pelerin]], [[Tripoli, Lebanon|Tripoli]], in today's [[Lebanon]]. He was born while his father was on crusade, attempting to create the [[County of Tripoli]] on the Palestinian coast. He was surnamed ''Jordan'' after being [[baptised]] in the [[Jordan River]].
His father died when he was two years old and he remained under the guardianship of his cousin, [[Guillaume Jourdain]], count of [[Cerdanya|Cerdagne]] (d. [[1109]]), until he was five. He was then taken to [[Europe]] and his brother [[Bertrand of Toulouse|Bertrand]] gave him the county of [[Rouergue]]. In his tenth year, upon Bertrand's death ([[1112]]), he succeeded to the county of Toulouse and marquisate of [[Provence]], but Toulouse was taken from him by [[William IX of Aquitaine|William IX]], [[count of Poitiers]], in [[1114]], who claimed it by right of his wife Philippa of Toulouse, daughter of [[William IV of Toulouse]]. He recovered a part in [[1119]], but continued to fight for his possessions until about [[1123]]. When at last successful, he was [[excommunication|excommunicated]] by [[Pope Callixtus II]] for having expelled the monks of [[Saint-Gilles]], who had aided his enemies.
He next fought for the sovereignty of Provence against [[Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona|Raymond Berenger III]], and not till September [[1125]] did the war end in an amicable agreement. Under it Jourdain became absolute master of the regions lying between the [[Pyrenees]] and the [[Alps]], [[Auvergne (province)|Auvergne]] and the sea. His ascendancy was an unmixed good to the country, for during a period of fourteen years art and industry flourished. About [[1134]] he seized the [[Viscount of Narbonne|viscounty of Narbonne]], only restoring it to the Viscountess [[Ermengarde of Narbonne|Ermengarde]] (d. [[1197]]) in [[1143]]. The claim of the now deceased Philippa of Toulouse was pressed again when [[Louis VII of France|Louis VII]] besieged Toulouse in [[1141]], in right of his wife [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]], the granddaughter of Philippa, but without result.
Next year Jourdain again incurred the displeasure of the church by siding with the rebels of [[Montpellier]] against their lord. A second time he was excommunicated; but in [[1146]] he took the cross at the meeting of [[Vezelay]] called by Louis VII, and in August, [[1147]] embarked for the East in the [[Second Crusade]]. He lingered on the way in [[Italy]] and probably in [[Constantinople]]. Alphonse might have met [[Eastern Roman Emperor]] [[Manuel I Comnenus]] during his visit there.
But in [[1148]] Alphonse had finally arrived at [[Acre, Palestine|Acre]]. Among his companions he had made enemies and he was destined to take no share in the crusade he had joined. He was poisoned at [[Caesarea]], either by [[Eleanor of Aquitaine]], the wife of Louis, or [[Melisende of Jerusalem|Melisende]], the mother of [[Baldwin III of Jerusalem|Baldwin III]], [[Kingdom of Jerusalem|king of Jerusalem]] suggesting the draught.
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{{succession box|before=[[Raymond of Toulouse|Raymond]]|years=1105–1109<br>(regent [[William-Jordan]])|title=[[County of Tripoli|Count of Tripoli]]|after=[[Bertrand of Toulouse|Bertrand]]}}
{{succession box|before=[[Bertrand of Toulouse|Bertrand]]|years=1112–1148|title=[[Counts of Toulouse|Count of Toulouse]]|after=[[Raymond V of Toulouse|Raymond V]]}}
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==References==
*{{1911}}
[[Category:1103 births]]
[[Category:1148 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths by poisoning]]
[[Category:Counts of Tripoli]]
[[Category:Counts of Toulouse]]
[[Category:Dukes of Narbonne]]
[[Category:Occitan nobility]]
[[ca:Alfons Jordà]]
[[de:Alfons I. (Toulouse)]]
[[fr:Alphonse Jourdain]]
[[id:Alfonso Jordan]]
[[it:Alfonso Giordano di Tolosa]]
[[nl:Alfons Jordaan van Toulouse]]
[[oc:Anfós Jordan]]
[[pl:Alfons-Jordan]]