The county of Ausona at the start, united with the other counties of Borrel (in brown).

Osona, or Ausona (in Latin and Castilian), was one of the Catalan counties of the marca Hispanica in the Early and High Middle Ages. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Catalan counties were the administrative divisions of the eastern Carolingian Marca Hispanica created after its Frankish conquest The Marca Hispanica (or Spanish March, also March of Barcelona) was a Buffer zone beyond the province of Septimania, created by Charlemagne The Early Middle Ages is a period in the History of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire spanning roughly five centuries from AD 500 The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 It was based around the capital city of Vic (Vicus) and the corresponding diocese, whose territory was roughly the current comarca of Osona. Vic is the capital of the comarca of Osona, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. A comarca (meaning Shire or County, Spanish and Portuguese plural comarcas, Catalan plural Osona is a ''comarca'' in central Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Vic.

The ancient diocese of Ausona was conquered by the Arabs in the early eighth century. The Umayyad conquest of Hispania ( 711 – 718) began as an army of the Umayyad Caliphate consisting largely of Berbers inhabitants Its reconquest by Christian powers began in 798; in that year Louis of Aquitaine ordered a Goth Borrel to enter the abandoned region and repair the castles of Vic, Cardona, and Casserès. The Reconquista (a Spanish and Portuguese word for "Reconquest" Arabic: الاسترداد, "Recapturing" was a period Louis the Pious (778 &ndash 20 June 840) also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781 and co-Emperor The Visigoths (Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, or Wisi were one of two main branches of the Goths, an East Borrell was the first Count of Cerdanya, Urgell, and Ausona from between 797 and 799 to his death in 820 Cardona is a town ìn Catalonia, Spain, in the province of Barcelona; about 90 km northwest of the city of Barcelona, on a hill almost surrounded ^[1] Vic was in Frankish hands by 799. After the successful siege of Barcelona in 801, Borrel, already Count of Cerdagne and Urgel, received Ausona as a countship from his liege lord, King Louis. Barcelona ( Catalan bəɾsəˈlonə Spanish baɾθeˈlona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia The County of Cerdanya ( Cerdagne in French and Cerdaña in Spanish) was one of the Catalan counties formed in the last decades of This is a list of the counts of Urgell. ca 798 - 870 Counts appointed by the Carolingians 798 On Borrel's death, Ausona was granted to the Frankish Count of Barcelona, Rampo. The Franks or Frankish people (Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an Ethnic group The Count of Barcelona was the major ruler in Catalonia from the 9th until the 17th century After the rebellion of 826, during which Guillemo and Aizo succeeded in taking it with help from the Emirate of Córdoba, Ausona remained depopulated and outside of Frankish control until 879. Guillemó (died 827 also know as Guillemundus, was Count of Rasez and Conflent, son of Berà. Aissó was a Goth nobleman who led a revolt in Barcelona, Ausona, and Girona in 826 to 827 The Caliphate of Córdoba (Arabic خلافة قرطبة ruled the Iberian peninsula ( Al-Andalus) and North Africa from the city of ^[2] It was united to Barcelona throughout that period.

In 879, Wilfred the Hairy began the repopulation of the county with free minores, who cultivated the lands given them as aprisiones; they turned Ausona into a central and important part of Catalonia. Wilfred or Wifred, called the Hairy, was Count of Urgell (870&ndash897 Cerdanya (870&ndash897 Barcelona (878&ndash897 The repoblación ( Spanish for repopulation) was the ninth-century repopulating of a large region between the River Duero and the Cantabrian This article is about the medieval system "Manors" redirects here ^[3] There was a viscounty of Ausona from 900. ^[4] The viscounts controlled the region on behalf of the counts, who were usually resident in Barcelona. The viscountship later changed its name to Viscounty of Cabrera. Wilfred, who established the viscounty, also built new castles along the frontier of Ausona, at Torello (881), Montgrony (887), and Tarabaldi (892). Juan Antonio Samaranch Torelló Marquess of Samaranch (born 17 July 1920) is a Spanish sports official and was president of the International Olympic ^[5] All these fortresses were controlled either directly by the count or by a castellan who also controlled the appendici or surrounding territory on certain specific terms. ^[6] The castle, in fact, and its mandamenta (commandment) were the central organising feature of Ausona after its repopulation. Wilfred also reorganised the church in Ausona — after the bishopric, Wilfred's foundation of the convent of Saint-Joan de les Abadesses, originally under his daughter Emma, was the most important ecclesiastical institution in the county^[7] — and introduced serfdom on a limited scale.

Throughout the tenth century, Ausona remained tied to Barcelona (except for the brief rule of Ermengol from 939 to 943). In 990, the small pagus of Berga was detached from it and granted to the Cerdagne. In the later Western Roman Empire, following the reorganization of Diocletian, a pagus (compare French pays, Spanish pago Berga is the capital of the comarca (county of Berguedà, in Catalonia. In 1035, Ausona was detached from Barcelona for a second brief stint when Berengar Raymond I left it to his widow, Guisla de Lluça, on his death. Berengar Raymond I the Crooked, also called the Hunchback (in Catalan, Berenguer Ramon I el Corbat; and in Spanish, Berenguer Ramón I el She ruled it with her son William until she remarried and he renounced it. After that it was reatached to Barcelona, but was augmented by the addition of the County of Manresa, which was subsumed within Ausona and ceased to be a distinct polity in the region. The County of Manresa or Manressa is a term which refers to the western extremity of the County of Ausona, divided into the Moianès and Bages

Raymond Berengar III ceded the county as a dowry to Bernard III of Besalú, the husband of his daughter Jimena in 1107. Ramon Berenguer III the Great was the count of Barcelona, Girona, and Osona from 1082 (jointly with Berenguer Ramon II and solely When both Jimena and Bernard died without heirs, Ausona returned to Barcelona. This was to be the final straw for the nominally distinct county. The use of the term "County" or "Count of Ausona" disappeared subsequently. The title was revived for the Cabrera family in 1373 and it passed to the Montcada in 1574 and the Medinaceli in 1722, but none of these families ever controlled the feudal region. Medinaceli (/meδina'seli/ is a Municipality and town in the Province of Soria ( Spain)

List of counts

• Borrell 798–820
• Rampo 820–825
• Bernard 825–826
• Aisso 826–827
• Guillemo 826–827
• to the Counts of Barcelona 827–939
• Ermengol 939–943
• to the Counts of Barcelona 943–1035
• Gisela 1035–1054
• William 1035–1054
• to the Counts of Barcelona 1054–1107
• Ximena 1107–1149
• Bernard 1107–1111
• to the Counts of Barcelona permanently

Sources

• Lewis, Archibald Ross. Borrell was the first Count of Cerdanya, Urgell, and Ausona from between 797 and 799 to his death in 820 Bernard or Bernat of Septimania (795 &ndash 844 son of William of Gellone, was the Frankish Duke of Septimania and Count of Barcelona Aissó was a Goth nobleman who led a revolt in Barcelona, Ausona, and Girona in 826 to 827 Guillemó (died 827 also know as Guillemundus, was Count of Rasez and Conflent, son of Berà. The Count of Barcelona was the major ruler in Catalonia from the 9th until the 17th century The Count of Barcelona was the major ruler in Catalonia from the 9th until the 17th century The Count of Barcelona was the major ruler in Catalonia from the 9th until the 17th century The Count of Barcelona was the major ruler in Catalonia from the 9th until the 17th century The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.

Notes