Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence and Forcalquier

June 8, 2016 — ancestors, Count, France, history, Ramon Berenguer IV

Ramon Berenguer & Beatrice of Savoy

My 23rd great grandfather was a nobleman born in France in 1198.  He died Jul. 19, 1245 and is buried at Eglise Saint Jean de Malte, Aix-en-Provence, Departement des Bouches-du-Rhone, Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur, France.  I want to visit his grave someday.  I love the Cote d’Azur.

Ramon was Count of Provence and Forcalquier. He was the only son of Alfonso II de Provence, who died 1209 during an epidemic in Palermo and Gersend de Sabran, Countess of Forcalquier. He married Beatrice of Savoy in 1220 who bore him five children. Their only son Raymond died young and their four daughters Marguerite, Eleanor, Sanchia and Beatrice were all married to kings.

Ramon Berenguer IV de Provence Saint (1195 – 1245)
23rd great-grandfather
Eleanor Berenger (1223 – 1291)
daughter of Ramon Berenguer IV de Provence Saint
Edward I “the Longshanks” Plantagenet (1239 – 1307)
son of Eleanor Berenger
Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Princess of England Plantagenet (1282 – 1316)
daughter of Edward I “the Longshanks” Plantagenet
William Earl of Northampton De Bohun (1312 – 1360)
son of Elizabeth of Rhuddlan Princess of England Plantagenet
Lady Elizabeth Countess Arundel Countess DeBohun (1350 – 1385)
daughter of William Earl of Northampton De Bohun
Elizabeth Duchess Norfolk Fitzalan (1366 – 1425)
daughter of Lady Elizabeth Countess Arundel Countess DeBohun
Lady Joan De Goushill Baroness Stanley (1402 – 1459)
daughter of Elizabeth Duchess Norfolk Fitzalan
Countess Elizabeth Sefton Stanley (1429 – 1459)
daughter of Lady Joan De Goushill Baroness Stanley
Thomas Sir 8th Earl of Sefton Molyneux (1445 – 1483)
son of Countess Elizabeth Sefton Stanley
Lawrence Castellan of Liverpool Mollenaux (1490 – 1550)
son of Thomas Sir 8th Earl of Sefton Molyneux
John Mollenax (1542 – 1583)
son of Lawrence Castellan of Liverpool Mollenaux
Mary Mollenax (1559 – 1598)
daughter of John Mollenax
Gabriell Francis Holland (1596 – 1660)
son of Mary Mollenax
John Holland (1628 – 1710)
son of Gabriell Francis Holland
Mary Elizabeth Holland (1620 – 1681)
daughter of John Holland
Richard Dearden (1645 – 1747)
son of Mary Elizabeth Holland
George Dearden (1705 – 1749)
son of Richard Dearden
George Darden (1734 – 1807)
son of George Dearden
David Darden (1770 – 1820)
son of George Darden
Minerva Truly Darden (1806 – 1837)
daughter of David Darden
Sarah E Hughes (1829 – 1911)
daughter of Minerva Truly Darden
Lucinda Jane Armer (1847 – 1939)
daughter of Sarah E Hughes
George Harvey Taylor (1884 – 1941)
son of Lucinda Jane Armer
Ruby Lee Taylor (1922 – 2008)
daughter of George Harvey Taylor
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Ruby Lee Taylor

in Church Saint-Jean-de-Malte, Aix-en-Provence, France

Ramon Berenguer IV (1195 – 19 August 1245), Count of Provence and Forcalquier, was the son of Alfonso II of Provence and Garsenda of Sabran, heiress of Forcalquier. After his father’s death (1209), Ramon was imprisoned in the castle of Monzón, in Aragon until he was able to escape in 1219 and claim his inheritance. He was a powerful and energetic ruler who added Forcalquier to his domain. Giovanni Villani in his Nuova Cronica had this to say about Raymond:
Count Raymond was a lord of gentle lineage, and kin to them of the house of Aragon, and to the family of the count of Toulouse, By inheritance Provence, this side of the Rhone, was his; a wise and courteous lord was he, and of noble state and virtuous, and in his time did honourable deeds, and to his court came all gentle persons of Provence and of France and of Catalonia, by reason of his courtesy and noble estate, and he made many Provençal coblas and canzoni of great worth.
On 5 June 1219, Ramon married Beatrice of Savoy, daughter of Thomas I of Savoy. She was a shrewd and politically astute woman, whose beauty was likened by Matthew Paris to that of a second Niobe. Along with two stillborn sons (1220 & 1225), Ramon and Beatrice had four daughters, all of whom married kings.
Margaret of Provence (1221–1295), wife of Louis IX of France
Eleanor of Provence (1223–1291), wife of Henry III of England
Sanchia of Provence (1228–1261), wife of Richard of Cornwall, king of Germany
Beatrice of Provence (1234–1267), wife of Charles I of Sicily
Ramon Berenguer IV died in Aix-en-Provence. At least two planhs (Occitan funeral laments) of uncertain authorship (one possibly by Aimeric de Peguilhan and one falsely attributed to Rigaut de Berbezilh) were written in his honour.