d. 1148 · Count of Nevers and leader in the crusade of 1101
William II of Nevers
Count William II of Nevers; on the crusade of 1101 he led his own army into Anatolia, but it was destroyed by Seljuk and Danishmendid forces between Konya and Ereğli.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
William was lord of the counties of Nevers, Auxerre and Tonnerre in Burgundy. He was one of the French nobles who joined the new wave of crusading after the First Crusade captured Jerusalem.
Role in the Crusades
In 1101 he reached Constantinople via Italy and advanced separately from the Lombard army. In Anatolia he failed to take Konya; near Ereğli his army broke up under attack by Kilij Arslan and the Danishmendids. William escaped with a few men to Antioch and returned to France in 1102 after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
Historical significance and source problems
Late in life he entered the Carthusian order and died in 1148; his date of birth is uncertain. The disaster of the 1101 crusades showed how dangerous the overland crossing of Anatolia had become after the First Crusade. Albert of Aachen and Orderic Vitalis describe the expedition in detail.
Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.