Bello of Carcassonne

Bello or Bellon ( katal Beŀló , span Belló ; † after 812) was a count of Carcassonne and ancestor of the noble family of the Bellonids .

Bello was of Gothic origin and was used by Charlemagne before the year 800 as a count in Carcassonne in the Gothic Mark ( Septimania ). It is said to have been documented between the years 778 and 812.

Three sons are ascribed to him:

Count Guisclafred of Carcassonne
Count Oliba I of Carcassonne ; Offspring to 927
Count Sunyer I of Empúries ; Descendants until 1327
? Ermesinde, ∞ with Count Sunifred I of Barcelona

House Barcelona

Especially in the older literature, Bello was also recognized as the progenitor of the House of Barcelona , as he was assigned a fourth son, Count Sunifred I of Barcelona . His descendants continued in the male line until 1410 and provided the high medieval kings of Aragón . This assumption is based on a document from the year 879, in which Miró the elder , one of Sunifred's sons, is named "in the succession of his grandfather Bello" (per successionem avi sui Bellone) .

The assumption that Bello is the agnatic progenitor of the House of Barcelona is increasingly being rejected. Rather, he is accepted as an ancestor in the cognatic, i.e. in the female line. This assumption is based on a document from Emperor Ludwig the Pious from 829, in which the fideli nostro Sunicfredo is confirmed in the possessions of his father Bosrello . The addressee of this document is recently regarded as identical to Count Sunifred I of Barcelona, who was thus a son of Count Borrell of Osona . A connection between Sunifred and Bello can only be established through his wife Ermesende, who could be the daughter of the Count of Carcassonne, through whom the grandfather relationship of Bello with Miró the elder and his brothers can be established.

Individual evidence

↑ Ramon d'Abadal i Vinyals: Els primers comtes catalans (Barcelona, 1958), p. 20.
↑ Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille: Histoire du comté et de la vicomté de Carcassonne, précédée de recherches historiques sur Carcassonne et son histoire sous les Volkes, les Romains, les Wisigoths et les Sarrazins , Volume 1 (1846), footnote on p. 131 without mentioning any evidence.
↑ Marca Hispanica sive limes Hispanicus , ed. by Petrus de Marca (1688), no. 39, col. 804–806.
↑ Diplomata Ludovici Pii Imperatoris , ed. in Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France , Vol. 6 (1879), CLIII, p. 561.
^ Miquel Coll i Alentorn: Guifré el Pelós en la Historiografia i en Llegenda (1990), p. 108. Archibald R. Lewis: The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050 (1965), cap. VI, footnote 9.

Web link

Comtes de Carcassonne at Foundation for medieval Genealogy.ac (English)

personal data
SURNAME	Bello of Carcassonne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bellon; Beŀló; Belló
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Count of Carcassonne
DATE OF BIRTH	8th century
DATE OF DEATH	after 812

[1] Ramon d'Abadal i Vinyals: Els primers comtes catalans (Barcelona, 1958), p. 20.

[2] Jean-Pierre Cros-Mayrevieille: Histoire du comté et de la vicomté de Carcassonne, précédée de recherches historiques sur Carcassonne et son histoire sous les Volkes, les Romains, les Wisigoths et les Sarrazins , Volume 1 (1846), footnote on p. 131 without mentioning any evidence.

[3] Marca Hispanica sive limes Hispanicus , ed. by Petrus de Marca (1688), no. 39, col. 804–806.

[4] Diplomata Ludovici Pii Imperatoris , ed. in Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France , Vol. 6 (1879), CLIII, p. 561.

[5] Miquel Coll i Alentorn: Guifré el Pelós en la Historiografia i en Llegenda (1990), p. 108. Archibald R. Lewis: The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718-1050 (1965), cap. VI, footnote 9.