Bernard of Septimania - Count of Barcelona

Count of Barcelona

Bernard is first attested in historical records as one of four sons in a document of his father's dating to 14 December 804 dealing with the foundation of the monastery of Gellone.

Bernard must have inherited land in the area around Toulouse from which he expanded his power to become count around 826. He first attracted the attention of higher-ups by quelling the local revolt of a nobleman named Aisso, who was perhaps a Gothic lieutenant of the deposed Bera, Count of Barcelona. The garrisons of the castles in the area, who had been favorable to Bera, joined Aisso in a revolt against the new count. Only the castle of Roda de Ter, in the county of Ausona, resisted and was subsequently destroyed by Aisso. From his newly-occupied territory, Aisso attacked the county of Cerdanya and the region of the Vallès. The young count Bernard requested and received some help from the Emperor, as well as that of some local hispani (probably Gothic noblemen). To counter these reinforcements, Aiss sent his brother to request help from Abd ar-Rahman II, Emir of Córdoba, the only potential ally powerful enough to threaten the Franks. Abd ar-Rahman sent the general Ubayd Allah Abu Marwan to Zaragoza in May 827, from whence he invaded the territory of Barcelona, reaching the city itself in the summer. He besieged it and ransacked its environs, but failed to take it.

When the Emperor learned of these raids, he ordered his second son, Pepin, then King of Aquitaine, and the counts Hugh of Tours and Matfrid of Orléans to recruite an army against the Muslims, but recruitment was slow. By the time the army arrived, Abu Marwan had already returned to Muslim territory, taking Aisso and his followers with him (late 827).

This reprieve, seen as a victory, greatly increased Bernard's prestige. Though the ravaged county of Ausona, a dependency of Barcelona, remained depopulated into the mid-ninth century, its ruin was attributed to the late arrival of Hugh and Matfird. Both counts were dispossessed of their counties at the Assembly of Aachen in 828. At that assembly, Orléans was granted to Odo and Bernard's brother Gaucelm received the fiefs of Conflent and Rasez. As Leibulf of Provence had died in the spring, his vast dominions — Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Melgueil, Nîmes, and probably Uzès — were assigned to Bernard. From this wide collection of honores in Septimania, Bernard took the title "Duke of Septimania". In another assembly, at Ingelheim in June, a reprisal raid into Cordoban territory was considered, but although an army was gathered in Thionville, it did not enter the lands controlled by Bernard as the risk of Muslim raiding seemed to have declined.