Hugh I (c. 965 – 1040), Count of Empúries from 991, was the son of Gausfred I

Gausfred I

Gausfred I was the count of Empúries and Rosselló from 931 until his death. He was the son and successor of Gausbert. He spent his whole life consolidating his authority in his counties, but he divided the realm amongst his sons...

 and his first wife, Ava, daughter of Raymond II of Rouergue

Raymond II of Rouergue

Raymond II was the count of Rouergue and Quercy from 937 to his death...

.

By the testament of his father, dated 969, Hugh was to receive the county of Ampurias

Empúries

Empúries , formerly known by its Spanish name Ampurias , was a town on the Mediterranean coast of the Catalan comarca of Alt Empordà in Catalonia, Spain. It was founded in 575 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea with the name of Ἐμπόριον...

 while his brother Giselbert

Giselbert I of Roussillon

Giselbert I , count of Roussillon , was the son of Gausfred I. His father divided his lands between his sons, giving Ampurias to Hugh and Roussillon to Giselbert....

 received that of 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...

. The division took place on the death of Gausfred, but on the death of Giselbert in 1014, Hugh tried to reunify the counties and invaded the county of his nephew, Gausfred II

Gausfred II of Roussillon

Gausfred II was the count of Roussillon from 1013 or 1014 to his death. He was the son and successor of Count Giselbert I, who was also count of Empúries, and Beliarda....

. Gausfred obtained the help of Bernard I of Besalú

Bernard I of Besalú

Bernard I , called Taillefer , was the Count of Besalú in Catalonia from 988 until his death...

 and the Abbot Oliva

Abbot Oliva

Oliva was the count of Berga and Ripoll and later bishop of Vic and abbot of Sant Miquel de Cuixà. He was the son of a noble Catalan house who abdicated his secular possessions to take up the Benedictine habit in the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll...

 and the two relations arrived a peace in 1020.

Hugh made a career of harassing his neighbours. Ermesinda of Carcassonne, the widow of Ramon Borrell, Count of Barcelona

Ramon Borrell, Count of Barcelona

Raymond Borrel , was count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 992. Son of Borrell II of Barcelona and Letgarda de Rouergue. He was associated with his father from 988....

, reclaimed the allod of Ullastrell

Ullastrell

Ullastrell is a village in the province of Barcelona and autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain.-References:...

, which had been sold by Borrell and subsequently invaded by Hugh. In 1019, a judicial synod in Girona

Girona

Girona is a city in the northeast of Catalonia, Spain at the confluence of the rivers Ter, Onyar, Galligants and Güell, with an official population of 96,236 in January 2009. It is the capital of the province of the same name and of the comarca of the Gironès...

, presided over by Oliva and Bernard, devolved the allod to Ermesinda. At about this time, Hugh made enemies of the church by seizing the monastery of San Salvador de Verdera.