Spanish mark
The Spanish Mark (Latin: Marca Hispanica ), sometimes also called Gothien , was the politico-military border region of the Frankish Empire on the Iberian Peninsula .
history
In 801, Emperor Charlemagne founded this border mark around Barcelona in what is now Catalonia to defend the borders against the Moors in Al-Andalus , the rest of Spain . It formed the starting point for the rest of the Reconquista . The final reconquest of all of Catalonia up to the Ebro continued until 1149.
After the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by the Arabs, this area was ruled through military bases in Barcelona, Girona and Lleida . Nevertheless, with the support of the local population, the Carolingians managed to conquer Girona (785) and Barcelona (801) at the end of the 8th century. This region became the Spanish Mark, consisting of the counties of Barcelona , Berga , Besalú , Cerdanya , Conflent , Empúries , Girona , Manresa , Osona , Pallars , Rasès , Ribagorça , Aragón , Roussillon and Urgell . These counties were all dependent on the Carolingian monarchs . In the years that followed, the county of Barcelona played the greatest role.
The rulership in the counties was initially exercised by local or Visigoth nobles . However, these strove for greater independence and the Carolingians were forced to replace them with counts of Franconian origin. Nevertheless, the counties' dependence on the Frankish Empire subsequently decreased. With the recognition of the hereditary character of the nobility, independence was finally achieved.
This striving for independence went hand in hand with a merger into larger political units. Count Wilfried the Hairy († 897) managed to unite a number of territories under his rule, which he administered from Barcelona. He founded the dynasty of the Counts of Barcelona . After his death, the unity broke up, but the core consisting of the counties Barcelona, Girona and Vic remained undivided. This was what later became Catalonia.
See also
literature
- Spanish mark . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 15, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, p. 98.
- Peer Schmidt (ed.): Small history of Spain. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-017039-7 .
- Carlos Collado Seidel: Brief history of Catalonia. CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-54787-4 , p. 18 ff. ( Limited preview in the Google book search).
- Derek William Lomax: The Reconquista. The reconquest of Spain by Christianity . Heyne, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-453-48067-8 .
- Archibald Ross Lewis: The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society 718-1050 . Ed .: The Library of Iberian Resources online. The University of Texas Press, 1965, pp. 322 ( [1] [accessed September 1, 2015] in English).