Guillén (Guillermo) II Sánchez DE GASCOIGNE Duke of Gascony (c.961-c.996)

   General Notes:

the younger illegitimate son of Sancho IV and successor of his childless elder brother, Sancho V.

Around 970, William was using only the title of count as when Dominus Willelmus Sancii comes Gasconiorum, donated land in the village of "Luco Deo" to the monastery of Saint Vincent-de-Lucq. He later carried the ducal title. He inherited the county of Bordeaux from his cousin William the Good and united it to Gascony permanently. His aunt Entregodis married one Raymond and their son was William the Good. Aimoin entitled him Burdegalensium comes et ac totius Guasconiae dux in his act of a life of Abbo of Fleury. Before 977, William also added the Agenais and the Bazadais. This expansion of the duchy was probably the cause of an increase in our information about the region and its dukes after a period of obscurity lasting from the Viking raids of the 840s. In a charter of that year, William restored the priory of La Réole with the titel of dux Wasconum and did not carry the comital title. He did have Bordeaux by 988, when he sought the advice of the council of seniores of Bordeaux for the restoration of Saint-Sever.

While Gascony had long been out of the orbit of the French kings, Bordeaux had not been. With its acquisition, William began dating his charters by the reign of the king, Hugh Capet, regnante rege Hugone. In the latter decades of the tenth century, his brother Gombald controlled all the dioceses in Gascony and then became archbishop of Bordeaux and thus William's family controlled the church hierarchy. When William went to Navarre to combat the Moors in the Reconquista, he left Gombald in charge in Gascony. He picked up a wife in Navarre and returned to Gascony when Viking raids had become increasingly serious. He defeated the Vikings at Taller in 982 and they vanished as a serious threat thereafter. Their permanent settlements along the Ardour were removed.

   Marriage Information:

Guillén married Urraca DE PAMPALONA, daughter of García I (III) Sanchez DE PAMPALONA King of Navarre and Andregoto Galíndez DE ARAGÓN Countess of Aragón. (Urraca DE PAMPALONA died on 12 Aug 1041.)