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259
that remained under Muslim power through the ninth century, a new ethnic
group emerged: the “Mozarabs”, Christians who lived under Muslim rule, and
adopted Arabic language, dress and social customs.
In the power vacuum of southern France, Moorish raiding parties continued
beyond the Pyrenees and reached as far north as Poitiers in 732, where Charles
Martel, the de facto ruler of Merovingian France, dealt them a minor defeat,
which convinced them to withdraw.Martel’s son Pepin, and his famous grandson
Charlemagne
(768–814), both strove to restore order in the south and push
back the invaders, with Charlemagne’s empire including the southern slopes of
the Pyrenees and much of Catalunya. After being ambushed and defeated by
the Basques at Roncesvalles in 778, Charlemagne switched his attention to the
Mediterranean side of the Pyrenees, attempting to defend his empire against the
Muslims. He took Girona in 785 and his son Louis directed the successful siege
of Barcelona in 801. Continued Frankish military success meant that Muslim
influence in Catalunya had waned long before the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
in 1212 (see p.260) – the turning point for the reconquest of the peninsula as
a whole.
With the capture of Barcelona, the
Frankish counties
of Catalunya became
a sort of buffer zone, known as the
Spanish Marches
. Separate territories, each
ruled by a count and theoretically owing allegiance to the Frankish king (or
emperor), were primitive proto-feudal entities, almost exclusively agrarian, and
ruled by a small hereditary military elite.
From Wilfred the Hairy to Ramon Berenguer IV
As the Frankish empire of Charlemagne disintegrated in the decades following
his death, the counties of the Marches began to enjoy greater independence,
which was formalized in 878 by Guifré el Pelós – known in English as
Wilfred
the Hairy
.Wilfred was count of Urgell and the Cerdagne and, after adding
Barcelona to his holdings, named himself its first count, founding a dynastic
line that was to rule until the 1400s. He also made important territorial gains,
inheriting Girona and Besalù, and regaining control of Montserrat. In the
wake of the Muslim withdrawal from the area,
Christian outposts
had been
established throughout Catalunya, andWilfred continued the process, founding
Benedictine monasteries at Ripoll (about 880) and Sant Joan de les Abadesses
(888), where his daughter was the first abbess.
Wilfred died in 898 on an expedition against Muslim enemies and was
followed by a succession of rulers who attempted to consolidate his gains.
Early counts, like
Ramon Berenguer I
(1035–76), concentrated on establish-
ing their superiority over the other local counts, which was bitterly resisted.
Ramon Berenguer III
(1144–66) added considerable territory to his realms
Catalan roots
Conflicting loyalties in the territories of the Spanish Marches led to the building of
many local fortifications to protect and control the population, which led to the term
catlá
(“lord of the castle”) being used to refer to the people of the area – the root of
today’s “
Catalan
” (Castilian has an analogous root). Also, and as happened across
much of the former Roman Empire, spoken Latin had taken on geographical particu-
larities, and the “Romance” languages, including Catalan, had begun to develop. A
document from 839 recording the consecration of the cathedral at La Seu d’Urgell is
seen as the first Catalan-language historical document.
CONTEXTS
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A history of Barcelona and Catalunya