Alphonse

Alphonse , 1220-71, count of Poitiers and of Toulouse, brother of King Louis IX of France. By his marriage to the daughter of Raymond VII , count of Toulouse, he inherited Raymond's lands in 1249. An able administrator, he did much to heal the wounds of the crusade against the Albigenses. During the absence of Louis in the Holy Land, Alphonse was coregent (1250-52) with his mother, Blanche of Castile, and later (1252-54) with his younger brother, Charles of Anjou (later Charles I, king of Naples and Sicily). Alphonse left no heir, and at his death his lands were incorporated into the holdings of Philip III, king of France.

Alphonse ♂ (French) form of Spanish Alfonso, which is of Germanic (Visigothic) origin. It is probably a compound of adal ‘noble’ + funs ‘ready, prompt’. Alternatively, the first element may be ala ‘all’, hadu ‘struggle’, or hild ‘battle’ forms are found to support each derivation, so it is possible that several Visigothic names that were originally distinct have fallen together. The -ph- spelling is the result of classical influences (or classical pretensions). St Alphonsus was a 9th-century bishop of Astorga, who spent the last years of his life at the abbey of St Stephen de Ribas de Sil in Galicia. Alphonse has been occasionally used in the English-speaking world, especially among West Indians and African Americans. The Latinized form Alphonsus has been used in Ireland as an equivalent of the Gaelic name Anluan.

Pet forms: Fonsie, Fonso.