William I of Bures

William I of Bures (died before the spring of 1144, or around 1157) was Prince of Galilee from 1119 or 1120 to his death. He was descended from a French noble family which held estates near Paris (Bures). William and his brother, Godfrey, were listed among the chief vassals of Joscelin of Courtenay, Prince of Galilee, when their presence in the Holy Land was first recorded in 1115. After Joscelin received the County of Edessa from Baldwin II of Jerusalem in 1119, the king granted the Principality of Galilee (also known as Lordship of Tiberias) to William. He succeeded Eustace Grenier as constable and bailiff (or regent) in 1123. In his latter capacity, he administered the kingdom during the Baldwin II's captivity for more than a year, but his authority was limited.

William was the most prominent member of the embassy that Baldwin II sent to France in 1127 to start negotiations about the marriage of his eldest daughter, Melisende, and Fulk V of Anjou. William escorted Fulk from France to Jerusalem in 1129. Fulk, who succeeded Baldwin II in 1131, dismissed his father-in-law's many officials, but William retained the office of constable. Although most historians agree that he died in 1143 or 1144, Hans Eberhard Mayer says that Melisende forced William into exile after Fulk died in 1143, but he regained Galilee from her son, Baldwin III of Jerusalem in 1153.

Albert of Aix recorded that William's brother, Godfrey, was "of the land of the city of Paris". His statement is evidence that William and Godfrey of Bures came from Bures-sur-Yvette. Jonathan Riley-Smith identifies William as a son of Hugh of Crécy, and thus a great-grandson of Guy I of Montlhéry. The descendants of Guy of Montlhéry and his wife, Hodierna of Gometz, played a preeminent role in the history of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Both Baldwin of Le Bourcq (who was the second king of Jerusalem) and Joscelin of Courtenay (who was William's predecessor in Galilee) were their grandsons. Historian Hans Eberhard Mayer emphasizes that William's ancestry has not been convincingly verified and his relationship to the Montlhéry clan is only an assumption.

Mayer associates William with a William of Buris who was listed among the patrons of the confraternity that Hugh, abbot of St. Mary of the Valley of Jehosaphat, established around 1104. If the identification is valid, William must have spent some time in Southern Italy before coming to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, because the list mentioned the benefactors who had come from Southern Italy. The list, continues Mayer, also evidences that William was born before 1090, because he must have been of age when he joined the confraternity. Riley-Smith writes that William settled in the Holy Land only in 1114, "presumably to expiate some act of violence perpetrated during the unsuccessful rebellion of a league of castellans against the king of France".

The Gesta episcoporum Cennomannensium ("Deeds of the Bishops of Le Mans") recorded that William had come to the Holy Land "as an act of penance". His presence in the kingdom was first documented in 1115, when he was listed among the principal vassals of Joscelin of Courteney, Prince of Galilee. Joscelin made a plundering raid against a Bedouin tribe in the spring of 1119. William and his brother accompanied him. Joscelin divided his army to encircle the tribe's camp on the river Yarmouk, making the Bures brothers the commander of one of the corps. When they were approaching the Bedouins' camp, they were ambushed by the Bedouins. William could escape, but Godfrey died fighting most of their retainers were captured.

Baldwin II of Jerusalem gave the County of Edessa to Joscelin in August or September 1119. Before 15 January 1120, the king granted Joscelin's former principality to William, who thus seized one of the largest fiefs in the kingdom. William was one of the four or five secular lords to attend the Council of Nablus on 16 January 1120. The council confirmed the right of the clergy to control the collection of the tithes and ordered the persecution of sexual misdemeneanours. William donated estates in Lajjun and near Tiberias to the hospital of the Abbey of St. Mary of the Valley of Jehosaphat on 1 February 1121.

Balak ibn Bahram, the Artuqid ruler of Suruç and Mardin, captured Baldwin II on 18 April 1123. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Warmund of Picquigny, convoked an assembly which elected Eustace Grenier constable and bailiff to administer the kingdom, but Grenier died on 15 May or June. The council again assembled and appointed William to both offices. Meanwhile, a Venetian fleet had landed at the Holy Land, carrying 15,000 soldiers. The patriarch, William and Pagan, the chancellor of Jerusalem, concluded a treaty with the Doge of Venice, Domenico Michiel on behalf of the king. In accordance with Baldwin's previous promises to the Venetians, the treaty—the so-called Pactum Warmundi—granted privileges to them in both the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Principality of Antioch in exchange for their assistance to besiege either Tyre or Ascalon. The barons of the realm could not decide which town should be attacked, thus their debate was settled by lot in favor of Tyre.

The crusaders and the Venetians laid siege to Tyre on 16 February 1124. Patriarch Warmund was acknowledged as the supreme commander of the army. The defenders of the town urged Toghtekin, Atabeg of Damascus, to attack the crusaders, but he only marched as far as Banyas. The patriarch appointed William and Pons, Count of Tripoli, to launch a military expedition against Toghtekin, but he avoided any engagements and returned to Damascus. The crusaders captured Tyre on 7 or 8 July.