William VIII (in Occitan: Guilhem; died 1202) was Lord of Montpellier, the son of William VII and Matilda of Burgundy.
William VIII married Eudokia Komnene, grand-niece of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Komnenos.Paul Magdalino, The Empire of Manuel I Komnenos, 1143-1180, (Cambridge University Press, 1993), 102. They had one daughter, Marie of Montpellier.
Lacking a male heir, William separated from Eudokia, sending her to a monastery in Ariane.Nicole M. Schulman, Where Troubadours Were Bishops: The Occitania of Folc of Marseille (1150-1231), (Routledge, 2001), 25 note46. William then married Agnes of Castile and sired eight more children: William IX of MontpellierThe Book of Deeds of James I of Aragon, ed. Damian J. Smith and Helena Buffery, (Ashgate Publishing, 2010), 19. Aymard, d. 1199William M. Reddy, The Making of Romantic Love, (University of Chicago Press, 2012), 126. Bernat William, married Jussiana d’Entença, daughter of Ponç Hug d’Entença Tortoseta (Thomas) Bergunyo, a priest Gui, a priest Agnes, married in 1203 Raymond Roger Trencavel, viscount of Carcassonne, Béziers, Albi and Razès. Adalaïs.
The Pope ruled William's marriage to Agnes as illegitimate and Marie was given the throne.
William VIII was a patron of troubadours. Arnaut de Mareuil came to his court after fleeing from the entourage of Azalais of Toulouse, and at least one of Arnaut's poems is addressed to him.
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