Catalan counties

As Catalan counties , the counties are in Catalonia called after the Carolingian passed conquest. The Spanish Mark arose from them and later the core of today's Catalonia.

Origins of the Catalan Counties

Immediately after the Carolingian conquest, various political and administrative units are mentioned in the areas ruled by the Franks : Pallars, Ribagorça, Urgell, Cerdanya, Barcelona, Girona, Osona, Empúries, Rosselló (Roussillon). These are called the county . As a subdivision of these counties there was Pagi ( Pagus in the singular) , for example Berga or Vallespir.

The origins of these counties and Pagi go back to pre-Carolingian times, as evidenced by the coincidence of the borders with those of the ancient Iberian tribes. For example, there is a correspondence between the county of Osona and the land of the Ausetans . Accordingly, these territories must have formed political-administrative units as early as the Roman and Visigoth times , even if they were not counties. They were not administered by counts during the Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo either. In the hierarchy of the Gothic Kingdom, the counts were among the dukes , who had the highest authority below the king . The authority of the counts was limited to the individual cities - usually only within the city walls.

Accordingly, the Franks did not create any new administrative units for their newly conquered areas south of the Pyrenees , but took over the existing ethnically and culturally based structures.

development

Map of the regional development of the Catalan counties (8th - 12th centuries)

When the driving back of the Moors from the northeast of al-Andalus began in the 9th century , the counties gradually freed themselves from Frankish domination.

Wilfried the Hairy , who ruled over five of the largest counties and had depopulated areas repopulated , set a milestone . Taking advantage of the crisis in the Franconian monarchy , Emperor Karl the Kahlen gave him the right to bequeath titles and lands. From this point on, the titles of nobility were inherited, the Frankish king merely consented to the transfer.

During the 11th and 12th centuries , the territorial expansion began under Raimund Berengar III. of Barcelona - the first to call himself Lord of the Catalans . The expansion towards the eastern mainland, Mediterranean islands and Occitania was completed with the incorporation of New Catalonia , an area south and west of the Llobregat River to the Ebro , which was conquered and repopulated by the Moors in the 12th century .

Through the marriage contract between Ramon Berenguer IV. Barcelona and Petronella of Aragon , heir to the crown of Aragon , was born in 1137 from Aragon and in the 12th century Catalonia largely identical countries of the Count of Barcelona representing a compound monarchy when Crown Aragon is known.

List of Catalan counties

The Catalan counties were:

List of the Catalan vice-counties

literature

Francesc Xavier Hernàndez Cardona. Història militar de Catalunya, vol. I, dels íbers as carolingis, 1a. Rafael Dalmau Editor, 2001, p.158. ISBN 84-232-0639-4 .