The counties of Narbonne, Béziers, and Agde were separated from that of Barcelona. Bernard's former possessions were given to Wilfred (Barcelona with Ausona, Girona, and Besalú) and Miró (Roussillon). On 11 September 878, Bernard was dispossessed of all his titles. In March and April 878, they defeated the nobles loyal to Bernard, including Sigebuto, Bishop of Narbonne, and expelled all partisan priests from the church.Īt the Council of Troyes in August 878, presided over by Pope John VIII and King Louis II the Stammerer, Wilfred was formally invested as Count of Urgell and Cerdanya, Miró as Count of Conflent, Sunyer as Count of Empúries, and Oliba II as Count of Carcassonne. Wilfred, Miró, their brother Sunifred (who became the Abbot of Arles), and Lindoí, the Viscount of Narbonne, marched against Bernard on behalf of King Charles and his son, Louis the Stammerer. Wilfred came into possession of Barcelona through his service to Charles the Bald against the rebel Bernard of Gothia, Count of Barcelona, Roussillon, and numerous other Septimanian counties. Wilfred was thus the last count of the Hispanic March appointed by the French king and the first to pass his vast holdings as an inheritance to his sons (albeit sanctioned by the monarch ). His reign coincided with the crumbling of Carolingian authority and unity. For in that year, the poorly-chronicled Solomon, count of Urgell, Cerdanya, and Conflent, had died.Īfter becoming Count of Urgell and Cerdanya in 870, Wilfred received the counties of Barcelona, Girona, and Besalú in 878 from the Carolingian king of France, Louis the Stammerer. Later, at an assembly at Attigny in June 870, Charles the Bald made their cousins, Wilfred the Hairy and his brother Miró (known as the Old), counts of Urgell and Cerdanya, and Conflent, respectively. The Bellonid lineage lost its power when Sunifred and Sunyer died in 848, but was revived slightly by the appointment of Dela and Sunyer II, sons of Sunyer I, to the countship of Empúries in 862. Thus, as a descendant of Sunifred and his brother, Sunyer I, count of Empúries and Roussillon (834-848), Wilfred is considered to be a member of a Bellonid dynasty by Ramon d'Abadal and other historians. Sunifred may have been the son of Belló, Count of Carcassonne during the reign of Charlemagne, or more probably, his son-in-law. Wilfred's mother may have been named Ermesende. After the research done by French monks Dom De Vic and Dom Vaissete, authors of Histoire Générale de Languedoc, he is identified as the son of Sunifred I of Barcelona, count of many counties under Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald. His father was murdered by Salomón and Wilfred became his avenger, killing the assassin. Īccording to legend, he was the son of Wilfred of Arriaount (or Wilfred of Arri), a county near Prades. Tradition claims he was born near Prades in the County of Conflent, now Rià, in Roussillon, France. Wilfred was of Gothic lineage from the region of Carcassonne. Wilfred remained obscure until drawn into the historians' net by Sir Richard Southern, in The Making of the Middle Ages, 1953. This trend resulted in the counts becoming de facto independent of the Carolingian crown under Borrell II in 985. 844–848) and Wilfred, and the weakening of Carolingian royal power, the appointment of heirs eventually become a formality. However, with the rise of strong counts such as Sunifred ( fl. The appointment of heirs could not be taken for granted. Traditionally the Count of Barcelona was appointed directly by the Carolingian (Frankish) emperor, for example the appointment of Bera in 801. The pattern seen in Catalonia is similar to that found in similar border lands or marches elsewhere in Europe. They were generally self-sufficient and agrarian, but ruled by a small military elite. His son, Wilfred Borrell, inherited the county without any interruption and held it from 897–911.Ī number of primitive feudal entities developed in the Marca Hispànica during the 9th century. Wilfred was the Catalan Count of Barcelona (878–897) who created the tradition of hereditary passage of titles. He was responsible for the repopulation of the long-depopulated no-man's land around Vic (the county of Ausona, a frontier between Christian and Muslim), the re-establishment of the bishopric of Vic and the foundation of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, where he is buried. On his death in 897, his son, Wilfred Borrell, inherited these Catalan counties. Wilfred or Wifred, called the Hairy (in Catalan: Guifré el Pilós), (died 11 August 897) was Count of Urgell (from 870), Cerdanya (from 870), Barcelona (from 878), Girona (from 878, as Wilfred II), Besalú (from 878) and Ausona (from 886).
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