County of Conflent
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....
of 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....
in the ninth century. Usually associated with the County of Cerdanya and the county of Razès
County of Razès
The County of Razès was a feudal jurisdiction in Occitania, south to Carcassonne, in what is now southern France. It was founded in 781, after the creation of the Kingdom of Aquitania, when Septimania was separated from that state.-History:...
, and was located to the west of Roussillon
County of Roussillon
The County of Roussillon was one of the Catalan counties in the Marca Hispanica during the Middle Ages. The rulers of the county were the Counts of Roussillon, whose interests lay both north and south of the Pyrenees.-Visigothic county:...
. It largely corresponded to the modern comarca
Comarca
A comarca is a traditional region or local administrative division found in parts of Spain, Portugal, Panama, Nicaragua, and Brazil. The term is derived from the term marca, meaning a "march, mark", plus the prefix co- meaning "together, jointly".The comarca is known in Aragonese as redolada and...
of 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....
.
In Roman times
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
Conflent was a pagus
Pagus
In the later Western Roman Empire, following the reorganization of Diocletian, a pagus became the smallest administrative district of a province....
(district) dependent on Ruscino
Ruscino
Ruscino is a genus of moth in the family Arctiidae.-References:*...
, the nucleus of later Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
. After the Christianisation of the fifth century, Conflent became an archdiaconate of the Diocese of Elne. Historically, the western border of Conflent has been that between the dioceses of Elne
Elne
Elne is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It lies in the former province of Roussillon, of which it was the first capital, being later replaced by Perpignan...
and Urgel in the plain of Perxa. To the west of the boundary was Cerdanya. Conflent went through a Visigothic and then a Moorish phase before it was reconstituted as a county by the Franks
Franks
The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...
. It was initially attached to the County of Razès
County of Razès
The County of Razès was a feudal jurisdiction in Occitania, south to Carcassonne, in what is now southern France. It was founded in 781, after the creation of the Kingdom of Aquitania, when Septimania was separated from that state.-History:...
and the Barcelona.
Conflent was one of the last Catalan counties to see widespread grants of aprisiones, which were not commonplace until the 890s. Serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
, though less common there than elsewhere, existed in Conflent in the late ninth century.
Until 870 Conflent was also attached to the counties of Urgell and Cerdanya, but in that year Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald
Charles the Bald , Holy Roman Emperor and King of West Francia , was the youngest son of the Emperor Louis the Pious by his second wife Judith.-Struggle against his brothers:He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder...
granted it to Miro the Elder
Miro the Elder
Miro, called the Old or the Elder was the count of Conflent from 870 and Rosselló from 878 until his death...
, who already governed the Capcir
Capcir
Capcir is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, now part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. The capital of the comarca was Formiguera, and it borders the historical comarques of Conflent and Alta Cerdanya...
and Fenouilledès. Under Miro's governance the monastery of San Andrés de Eixalada (which was destroyed in a storm in 878) was replaced by the new foundation of San Miguel de Cuixá. When Miro died Conflent passed to his brother Wilfred the Hairy
Wilfred the Hairy
Wilfred or Wifred, called the Hairy, was Count of Urgell , Cerdanya , Barcelona , Girona , Besalú , and Ausona ....
. Under Wilfred's heirs the nominal authority of the Carolingian
Carolingian
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...
monarch was disregarded and Conflent was ruled as a family possession. Already in the reign of Charles the Bald much of the royal fisc
Fisc
Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was...
in Conflent had been granted away. Throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries, Conflent was attached to Cerdagne, which was almost always more prominent.
In the mid-tenth century Conflent experienced a period of encastellation
Encastellation
Encastellation is the process whereby the feudal kingdoms of Europe became dotted with castles, from which local lords could dominate the countryside of their fiefs and their neighbours', and from which kings could command even the far-off corners of their realms...
. Two castles, Castellano and Turres Betses, appear by the 950s; castles were more common in the Spanish and Gothic marches as one approached the border with the Moors: Conflent therefore lay somewhere in the middle in terms of density of fortifications.
Under Wilfred II
Wilfred II of Cerdanya
Wifred was the Count of Cerdanya and Count of Berga . He was the eldest son of Oliba Cabreta and Ermengard of Ampurias....
, however, it achieved prominence over Cerdagne when he built a palace at Corneilla-de-Conflent
Corneilla-de-Conflent
Corneilla-de-Conflent is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France.It is home the church of St. Mary, a 11th-12th century Romanesque building.-References:*...
and resided there frequently. He also founded the new monastery of San Martín de Canigó (1000), to which he retired in 1035. About 1089 count William Raymond transferred the capital from Cornellá de Conflent to Vilafranca de Conflent, which he had founded.
When the line of the counts of Cerdanya and Conflent died out in 1117, and the counties were inherited by Raymond Berengar III of Barcelona, the county of Conflent was quick to disappear from the administrative language. In 1118 Raymond Berengar "by the counsel and directive of the magnates and the knights of the whole county of Cerdanya and Conflent" and jointly with the bishop of Elne established a peace in Conflent and Cerdanya. He also stabilised the coinage of Conflent (for a tax) and took an oath of fealty from the castellan
Castellan
A castellan was the governor or captain of a castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum "castle". Also known as a constable.-Duties:...
s. By 1126 Conflent was a vegueria
Vegueria
The vegueria was the feudal administrative territorial jurisdiction of the Principality of Catalonia during the Middle Ages and into the Modern Era until the Nueva Planta decrees of 1716...
within the county of Cerdanya or, more usually, Roussillon. Capcir was a sotsvegueria (major subdivision) of the vegueria of Conflent.
Conflent remained as a recognisable feudal unit as late as c.1200, when it was one of three counties (along with Cerdanya and Roussillon) whose charters were gathered together in the great cartulary called 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...
.
Counts of Conflent
- 801 – 820 BeraBera, Count of BarcelonaBera was the first count of Barcelona from 801 until his deposition in 820.He was also the count of Girona and Besalú from 812 or 817 and count of Razès and Conflent from 790 until his deposition.-Origins:...
- 820 – 837 Oliba IOliba I of CarcassonneOliba I of Carcassonne was a count of Carcassonne in the 9th century.He was the son of Bello of Carcassonne, and brother of Sunifred I of Barcelona...
- 844 – 848 Sunifred ISunifred I, Count of BarcelonaSunifred was the count of many Catalan and Septimanian counties; including Ausona, Besalú, Girona, Narbonne, Agde, Béziers, Lodève, Melgueil, Cerdanya, Urgell, Conflent, and Nîmes; and Count of Barcelona from 844 to 848....
- 848 – 860 Oliba II
- 860 – 870 SalomonSolomon, Count of Cerdanya and UrgellSolomon was the count of Urgell and Cerdanya from 848 and of Conflent from 860 to his death.According to the historian Abadal, Solomon recognised the succession of the children of his possible relative, Sunifred I, Count of Barcelona, on the latter's death in 848, and acted as their defender...
- 870 – 895 Miro IMiro the ElderMiro, called the Old or the Elder was the count of Conflent from 870 and Rosselló from 878 until his death...
- 895 – 897 Wilfred I the HairyWilfred the HairyWilfred or Wifred, called the Hairy, was Count of Urgell , Cerdanya , Barcelona , Girona , Besalú , and Ausona ....
- 897 – 927 Miro II
- 927 – 968 Sunifred II
- 968 – 984 Miro III
- 968 – 988 Oliba III CabretaOliba CabretaOliba Cabreta was the count of Cerdanya from 965 and count of Besalú from 984 until his abdication in 988. He was the fourth son of Miró II and Ava. He inherited Cerdanya from his eldest brother Sunifred II and Besalú from his elder brother Miró III...
- 988 – 1035 Wilfred IIWilfred II of CerdanyaWifred was the Count of Cerdanya and Count of Berga . He was the eldest son of Oliba Cabreta and Ermengard of Ampurias....
- 1035 – 1068 William Raymond
- 1068 – 1095 William IWilliam I of CerdanyaWilliam I Raymond was the count of Cerdanya and Berga from the year of his birth till that of his death, giving up Berga a year earlier to his son William-Jordan....
- 1095 – 1109 William II Jordan
- 1109 – 1117 BernardBernard of CerdanyaBernard William was the Count of Berga and Count of Cerdanya .A son of William I of Cerdanya and Sancha of Barcelona, he inherited Berga from his father in 1094. On the death of his brother William-Jordan in 1109, he inherited Cerdanya...
Sources
- Lewis, Archibald Ross. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
- Bisson, Thomas N. "Mediterranean Territorial Power in the Twelfth Century." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 123, No. 2. (Apr. 27, 1979), pp 143–150.
- Bisson, Thomas N. "Celebration and Persuasion: Reflections on the Cultural Evolution of Medieval Consultation." Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 2. (May, 1982), pp 181–204.