County of Roussillon
Encyclopedia
Catalan counties
The Catalan counties were the administrative divisions of the eastern Carolingian Marca Hispanica created after its Frankish conquest. The various counties roughly defined what came to be known as the Principality of Catalonia....
in the Marca Hispanica
Marca Hispanica
The Marca Hispanica , also known as Spanish March or March of Barcelona was a buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania, created by Charlemagne in 795 as a defensive barrier between the Umayyad Moors of Al-Andalus and the Frankish Kingdom....
during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. The rulers of the county were the Counts of Roussillon
Counts of Roussillon
This is a list of the counts of Roussillon, in Catalan Rosselló.-Carolingian counts:These counts were nominated by the Carolingian kings of France, of whom they were vassals.*Gaucelm Hereafter, also counts of Barcelona....
, whose interests lay both north and south of the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
.
Visigothic county
There was a Visigothic county around the city of RuscinoRuscino
Ruscino is a genus of moth in the family Arctiidae.-References:*...
in the 6th and 7th centuries with a jurisdiction corresponding to the Diocese of Elna. This primitive county comprising the historic comarques of Plana del Roselló, Conflent
Conflent
Conflent is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, now part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. In the Middle Ages it comprised the County of Conflent....
, and Vallespir
Vallespir
Vallespir is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. The capital of the comarca is Ceret, and it borders Conflent, Rosselló, Alt Empordà, Garrotxa and Ripollès...
was created by Liuva I
Liuva I
Liuva I was a Visigothic King of Hispania and Septimania.He was made king at Narbonne following the death of Athanagild in 568. Roger Collins notes this was the first time a Visigothic king is mentioned in the north-eastern region of the realm since 531, when Amalric was murdered...
in 571. The Visigothic legacy in Roussillon survived in its courts, where Visigothic law was applied exclusively as late as the eleventh century.
Roussillon was occupied by the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
in 721. It was probably conquered for the Frankish Empire
Frankish Empire
Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire , Frankish Kingdom , Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to the 10th century...
by Pepin the Short and his Visigothic allies in 760, immediately following his conquest of Narbonne
Narbonne
Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It lies from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Once a prosperous port, it is now located about from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea...
, though all that is certain is that it was in Frankish hands during the reign of Charlemagne
Charlemagne
Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...
. Roussillon had been nearly completely depopulated, was not widely cultivated, and land use was very inefficient, which has often been explained by Moorish razzias and Frankish reprisals over a span of forty years.
Pepin reestablished the old Gothic county with its seat at Ruscino. The new count—a Goth—built a castle at their capital: the castrum or castellum Rossilio, by which Ruscino came to be known as Castell-Rosselló. Beginning in 780, Charlemagne started granting aprisiones of desert land in Roussillon and around Narbonne to incoming spani (or hispani, that is, Christian Spaniards of Gothic, Roman, and Basque origin). These spani migrants, along with the native Gothic aristocracy, took part in the reconquest
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
of the southern slopes of the Pyrenees and the Tarraconensian littoral which formed the new Marca Hispanica.
Union with Empúries
The history of the Frankish county in the eighth and ninth centuries is not well known. In the CarolingianCarolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
age, it may have formed the westernmost extent of non-Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
settlement in the Pyrenees. It was affected by the second wave of monasticism which swept Catalonia in the first half of the ninth century and saw the foundation and imperial recognition of new monasteries, as at Saint-Genesius des Fonts, Saint-Clement de Regulla, and Saint-André de Sureda in 819 and 823 respectively. In 859–860, a fleet of Vikings under Hasting and Bjorn
Bjorn
Bjorn , Björn , Bjørn , Beorn or, rarely, Bjôrn, Biorn, or Latinized Biornus, is a Nordic male given name, or less often a surname, meaning "bear"...
plundered the abbeys of Roussillon before wintering in the Camargue
Camargue
The Camargue is the region located south of Arles, France, between the Mediterranean Sea and the two arms of the Rhône River delta. The eastern arm is called the Grand Rhône; the western one is the Petit Rhône....
.
The first count known by name, Gaucelm
Gaucelm
Gaucelm was a Frankish count and leading magnate in Gothia during the reign of Louis the Pious. He was initially the Count of Roussillon from about 800, but he received Empúries in 817 and was thenceforward the chief representative of imperial authority in that region.He was the son of William of...
, received the County of Ampurias in 817 and those counties remained united until 989. They probably had separate viscount
Viscount
A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
s, however; the office of viscount appeared in Roussillon early when a Richelm is mentioned as filling it in 859. The original viscounts acted as missi dominici of the Margraves of Septimania. Throughout this period, Roussillon gradually gained de facto independence from its nominal suzerain, the King of France. As late as 878, Louis the Stammerer
Louis the Stammerer
Louis the Stammerer was the King of Aquitaine and later King of West Francia. He was the eldest son of Charles the Bald and Ermentrude of Orléans. He succeeded his younger brother in Aquitaine in 866 and his father in West Francia in 877, though he was never crowned Emperor...
could enforce his will in the selection of Roussillon's count, but by the end of the 9th century the royal writ rarely ran as far south as the Pyrenees. The counties of Roussillon and Empúries became relatively stable, hereditary possessions of the Bellonid family; Gausfred I
Gausfred I
Gausfred I was the count of Empúries and Rosselló from 931 until his death. He was the son and successor of Gausbert. He spent his whole life consolidating his authority in his counties, but he divided the realm amongst his sons...
even took the title dux (duke
Duke
A duke or duchess is a member of the nobility, historically of highest rank below the monarch, and historically controlling a duchy...
) in 975.
Late in the 10th century, Alt Rosselló, Conflent
Conflent
Conflent is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, now part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. In the Middle Ages it comprised the County of Conflent....
, and inland Vallespir
Vallespir
Vallespir is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. The capital of the comarca is Ceret, and it borders Conflent, Rosselló, Alt Empordà, Garrotxa and Ripollès...
passed to the Counts of Cerdanya and Roussillon was reduced to the coastal regions of Roussillon and Vallespir. Throughout the century, Ampurias was the centre of comital power and the counts had their seat there. It was only when Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
and Moorish pirates forced him to move from the coast to the more easily defensible inland that Gausfred I
Gausfred I
Gausfred I was the count of Empúries and Rosselló from 931 until his death. He was the son and successor of Gausbert. He spent his whole life consolidating his authority in his counties, but he divided the realm amongst his sons...
made his capital at Castellón de Ampurias
Castelló d'Empúries
Castelló d'Empúries is a town and municipality in the Alt Empordà and lies 9 km east of Figueres.In 1079, Castelló d'Empúries became the capital of the Empúries county due to the previous capital, Sant Martí d'Empúries, being too easily sacked by pirates...
. After his death, the counties were separated, with Roussillon going to his younger son, Giselbert I
Giselbert I of Roussillon
Giselbert I , count of Roussillon , was the son of Gausfred I. His father divided his lands between his sons, giving Ampurias to Hugh and Roussillon to Giselbert....
.
The division, however, was made under certain stipulations of the deceased count. First, both counts had a right to attend the synods and tribunals held in either county. Second, rights of justice were shared between the two counts. Third, the count of Roussillon had the right to make his residence in Ampurias, the ancient capital. And finally, that either count could possess lands in either county. In 1014, Hugh I of Ampurias invaded the Roussillon, but in 1019 a pact was signed making the two counties permanently separate entities.
Treuga Dei
Roussillon was the site of the first promulgation of the Truce of God (treuga Dei). In 1027, a council of ElnaElna
Elna is a Swiss company which produces sewing machines.-External links:**...
was held in the meadow of Toulouges
Toulouges
Toulouges is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.-History:Toulouges was probably grew upon a Roman villa. It was first mentioned in 904 at the same time mentioning the church called Tulogias...
, because the throng of attendees was so great: clergymen, aristocrats, and poor men and women. The council first decreed a series of canons in keeping with the Peace of God (pax Dei) movement inaugurated at Charroux Abbey
Charroux Abbey
Charroux Abbey , is a ruined monastery in Charroux, in the Vienne department of Poitou-Charentes, western France.-History:Charroux was a Benedictine abbey, founded in 785 by Roger, Count of Limoges. It had up to 213 affiliated abbeys and priories. The Council of Charroux was held at the abbey in 989...
in 989 and which had spread across Aquitaine
Aquitaine
Aquitaine , archaic Guyenne/Guienne , is one of the 27 regions of France, in the south-western part of metropolitan France, along the Atlantic Ocean and the Pyrenees mountain range on the border with Spain. It comprises the 5 departments of Dordogne, :Lot et Garonne, :Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Landes...
, Gascony
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
, the Languedoc
Languedoc
Languedoc is a former province of France, now continued in the modern-day régions of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées in the south of France, and whose capital city was Toulouse, now in Midi-Pyrénées. It had an area of approximately 42,700 km² .-Geographical Extent:The traditional...
, and Catalonia like wildfire. The Elna council, however, went a step further than previous local councils. It also declared a truce effective from Saturday evening until Monday morning each week: "No one dwelling in the aforesaid county and diocese [of Roussillon] should assail any enemy of his from the ninth hour on Saturday to the first hour on Monday, so that everyone may render the honour owed to the Lord's day." The truce spread rapidly through Languedoc and was soon extended so that it was generally understood that fighting was prohibited between Wednesday evening and dawn Monday.
Independent Roussillon
Giselbert moved the capital of Roussillon from Castellrosellón to a village named PerpignanPerpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
, which was destined to be the first city of Roussillon, in preference to the episcopal seat of Elna. Giselbert II
Giselbert II of Roussillon
Giselbert II was the count of Roussillon from the death of his father, Gausfred II, in 1074 until his own death. His mother was Adelaide.In 1040, he participated in his father's sack of Ampurias...
made a pact with Ampurias concerning military and ecclesiastical possessions. During this period, Roussillon fell more under the influence of the Count of Toulouse to its north than the Count of Barcelona to its south, contrary to the path of most of the Catalan counties. It also suffered under a series of coastal raids by the navy of the taifa
Taifa
In the history of the Iberian Peninsula, a taifa was an independent Muslim-ruled principality, usually an emirate or petty kingdom, though there was one oligarchy, of which a number formed in the Al-Andalus after the final collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031.-Rise:The origins of...
kingdom of Denia
Dénia
Dénia is a city in the province of Alicante, Spain, on the Costa Blanca halfway between Alicante and Valencia, the judicial seat of the comarca of Marina Alta...
.
In the mid-12th century, under Gausfred III
Gausfred III of Roussillon
Gausfred III was the count of Roussillon from 1113 until his death. He was the son and successor of Girard I, who was assassinated prematurely, leaving Gausfred a child. Arnold Gausfred, the young count's uncle, acted as regent until 1121....
, Roussillon experienced an epoch of turbulence with increased attacks from both Ampurias and Moorish pirates. Gausfred's eldest son also rebelled. In order to quell his son's revolt, he made him Lord of Perpignan and heir apparent.
On the death of Gerard II without heirs in 1172, Roussillon passed, as per prior agreement of the nobles with the count, to Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II or Alfons I ; Huesca, 1-25 March 1157 – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was...
. It was thought that the Crown of Aragon
Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon Corona d'Aragón Corona d'Aragó Corona Aragonum controlling a large portion of the present-day eastern Spain and southeastern France, as well as some of the major islands and mainland possessions stretching across the Mediterranean as far as Greece...
could protect Roussillon from the pretensions of Ampurias, which still possessed certain communal rights in Roussillon. In 1173, Alfonso called an assembly at Perpignan, where he declared a peace for all Roussillon and the diocese of Elna.
Roussillon in the Crown of Aragon
Roussillon was, along with Cerdagne and Conflent, the subject of a major cartulary under Alfonso II or perhaps Peter IIPeter II of Aragon
Peter II the Catholic was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1196 to 1213.He was the son of Alfonso II of Aragon and Sancha of Castile...
: the Liber feudorum Ceritaniae
Liber feudorum Ceritaniae
The Liber feudorum Ceritaniae is, as its Latin title indicates, a book registering the fiefs within the counties of County of Cerdagne , which at the time included the old counties of Roussillon and Conflent, and the feudal obligations of the count and his vassals...
. It is a record of charters, usually related to castle- and land-holding the three counties, from the archive of the counts of Barcelona.
Sources
- Bisson, Thomas N. "Une paix peu connue pour le Roussillon (A.D. 1173)." Droit Privé et Institutions Régionales. Études Historiques Offertes à Jean Yver (Paris, 1976), pp. 69–76. Reprinted in Medieval France and her Pyrenean Neighbours: Studies in Early Institutional History (London: Hambledon, 1989), pp. 179–86.
- Lewis, Archibald Ross. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
- Jordan, William ChesterWilliam Chester JordanWilliam Chester Jordan is an American medievalist, in which field he is a Haskins Medal winner. He is currently the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History and Chairman of the History Department at Princeton University. He is also a former Director of the Program in Medieval Studies at Princeton...
. Europe in the High Middle Ages. London: Viking, 2003.