Guillaume d'Orange

Guillaume d'Orange (c. 750-812), military leader under Charlemagne and the hero of a group of southern French poems called chansons de gestes. He is also known as Fierabrace, St Guillaume de Gellone, and the Marquis au court nez (“Marquis Short Nose”). An able soldier, he was in charge of educating Charlemagne's oldest son Louis, later Holy Roman Emperor Louis I, and he led Charlemagne's forces against the Saracens in 793. Although Guillaume's forces were defeated, he avenged the defeat ten years later when his army invaded Spain and captured Barcelona. In 804 he founded a monastery at Gellone (now St Guihelm-le-Désert) near Lodève, France, to which he retired in 806, and where he later died.

The chansons de geste in which Guillaume d'Orange appears as a principal character often incorporate the exploits of other historical figures in their descriptions of his feats. They include Fierabras and Aliscans, one of the finest examples of early French epic poetry. See French Literature: The Medieval Period.