William VI of Montpellier

William VI or Guillem VI (died 1161) was the eldest son of William V and his wife Ermessende, daughter of Count Peter II of Melgueil. William succeeded his father in the lordship of Montpellier in 1121, while still a minor, under his mother's guardianship. He suppressed a revolt of the bourgeoisie in 1143 and participated in several military campaigns of the Reconquista in Spain (1134, 1146–47). He also increased the public character of the lordship in Montpellier and supported the growth of its trade.

At the beginning of William's reign, secular authority in Montpellier was shared between the Guillem dynasty, the hereditary viguiers of the town, and the Bishop of Montpellier. In 1139 William confirmed the vicarage to the heirs of the old viguier Bernard Guillem, and the surviving document shows that the viguier’s power has increased since 1103 and was probably at its height. William did secure the reaffirmation of his seigneurial rights at Castelnau (1132, 1138) and Lattes (1140). In 1139 William possessed several censives in the suburb of Villa Nova. A cens (plural censives) was a right to tax land, although earlier it had probably been a right to tax persons. By the twelfth-century it could be applied to the lands owing taxes.

In 1140 a dispute arose between William VI and the bishop over jurisdiction in Montpellieret. The bishop alleged that William was extending the walls and fortifications of the town to encompass some of the episcopal section of Montpellieret and was forcing vassals of the church of Montpellier to contribute to the local defence fund: "William had built a fortification [vallam] to wall his city in the tenancy of the bishop [and had made] the men of Montpellier, and other men of [the cathedral of] the Blessed Peter, [contribute to] the collection of the commune [communitas] of Montpellier." This may show that control of the walls and fortifications was already in the hands of the bourgeoisie, as it certainly was by 1196. It is probable that William was the first lord of Montpellier to oversee the extension of the walls to include territory judicially under the control of all three leading figures in the town.

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