Alphonse Jourdain was born in 1103 at Mont Pelerin, a castle in the soon-to-be County of Tripoli, where his father was crusading and founding Tripoli as a Crusader state. He was baptized in the Jordan, which is where he took his name from. After his father's death, Alphonse became nominal Count of Tripoli (1105-1109). While still a child, he returned to Europe where he received the County of Rouergue (1109) and, at the death of Bertrand (his step-brother), he inherited the County of Toulouse. In 1114, the County of Toulouse was invaded and occupied by Guillaume IX, the Duke of Aquitaine, as he claimed his wife's right. She was the daughter of Guillaume IV de Saint-Gilles/Toulouse, brother of Raymond, Alphonse's father. Guillaume IX of Aquitaine occupied the county until Alphonse Jourdain started his reconquest in 1119. By 1122 Toulouse was again in his possession. In the 1140s he was the most powerful baron in the area and by 1146 he had pledged to join the Second Crusade alongside Louis VII of France. Having made many enemies among his peers and being a competitor for the title of Count of Tripoli, he was sidelined in 1148 when his party reached Acre, and was (possibly) murdered while in Caesarea Maritima later on that same year. His toulousain coinage is a moneta decena (10/12 parts fine silver alloy) and follows the type of Guillaume IV and Guillaume IX of Aquitaine. Denier of Toulouse minted under the direct rule of Alphonse Jourdain (cca. 1122-1140), as a moneta decena. Poey d'Avant 3685 Pl. LXXX no. 17, Boudeau 719 p. 89. Obole of Toulouse minted under the direct rule of Alphonse Jourdain (cca. 1122-1140), as a moneta decena. Poey d'Avant 3686 Pl. LXXX no. 18, Boudeau 720 p. 89. This design would become the common coinage of the City and Bishopric of Toulouse in the 1120s and would also be adopted by his successors -- even though the billon title moved downwards -- from Raymond V up until 1251. By the time Alphonse de France (Capet) came to rule Toulouse in 1249, the coinage had dropped from moneta decena to moneta septena (7/12 parts fine silver alloy), a process that started around the late 1140s to 1178 (see the discussion in Barrandon, Bompaire, Teboulbi - Les monnayages d'Alphonse de Poitiers. Etudes par analyses elementaires [Comparison avec le monnayage anterieur de Toulouse] pp. 110-111). Denier of Toulouse minted under Alphonse de France (cca. 1250/1), as a moneta septena. Poey d'Avant 3694 Pl. 80, #21, Boudeau 724 p. 90. The new coinage (and the last issue to keep with the old style) is very similar in style and lettering to the deniers of Alphonse Jourdain, the legends are the same, the difference consists in the lower diameter (18mm against cca. 21/22mm) and weight (cca. 0.90g against cca. 1.15-130g mean), and also in the lower silver title. With Alphonse Capet the series stopped and Toulouse started minting the denier tournois around 1251.
