Bernat of Septimania
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Bernard or Bernat of Septimania son of William of Gellone, was a Frank and Count of Barcelona from 826 to 832 and again from 835 to 844. He was the appointed successor of the Frankish Rampó, Count of Barcelona, a leading proponent of war against the Muslims, and opposed to the interests of the local Visigothic nobility.
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[edit] Count of Barcelona
Bernat established his grip on power from the start by quelling a local revolt. A noble called Aissó, who was perhaps a Goth lieutenant of the deposed Count Berà. (Other thoughts are that the name Aissó is a corruption of an Arab (Aysun) son of Sulayman al-Arabi, formerly imprisoned in Aachen, but who escaped from captivity to the Hispanic March, and established himself in the region of Vic).
The garrisons of the castles in the area, who had been favorable to Berà, joined Aissó in a revolt against the new count, Bernat. Only the castle of Roda de Ter, in the county of Ausona, resisted and was subsequently destroyed by Aissó. From the central zone that he now occupied, Aissó attacked the county of Cerdanya and the region of the Vallés. The young count Bernat, not yet thirty years old, requested and received some help from the Emperor, as well as that of some local noble Goths or hispani (826).
To counter these reinforcements, Aissó sent his brother to request help from Abd ar-Rahman II, the Emir of Córdoba and the only available power to successfully oppose the Franks. Abd al-Rahman sent the general Ubayd Allah, known also as Abu Marwan, who arrived in Zaragoza in May 827, and then invaded the territory of the county of Barcelona. He reached Barcelona in the summer, besieging it, but without success, and ransacking its surroundings.
[edit] 827 Muslim raids
The Emperor Louis I the Pious, meanwhile, learning of the Muslim raid, ordered his son Pepin I, king in Aquitaine and the counts Hugo of Tours and Matfred of Orleans to recruit an army against the Muslims, but recruitment was slow. By the time the army arrived, Abu Marwan had already returned to Muslim territory, together with Aissó and his followers (827).
The reprieve, seen as a victory, greatly increased Bernat's prestige. Though the ravaged county of Ausona, a dependency of Barcelona, remained depopulated into the mid-9th century, its ruin was attributed to the late arrival of Hugo of Tours and Matfred of Orleans. Both counts were dispossessed of their counties in the Assembly of Aachen (828): Orléans was granted to Eudes of Orleans|and Bernat's brother Gaucelm received the fiefs of Conflent and Rasez. As the count Leibulf of Narbonne had died in the spring of 828, his vast dominions were assigned to Bernat: Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Melgueil, Nîmes and probably Uzès. Because of his possessions, he was thereafter known as Bernat, Duke of Septimania (or simply Bernat of Septimania).
In the Assembly of Ingelheim June 828, a reprisal raid into Cordoban territory was considered, but although an army was gathered in Thionville, it did not enter the lands controlled by Bernat due to the declining risk from further Muslim raids.
In August 829 the Emperor sent his son Lothar to Pavia, to take the title of King of Italy. Louis summoned Bernat of Septimania to replace his son at court, with the title of camerarius, having the custody of the kings child Charles (one day to become Charles the Bald). Bernat delegated the government of his counties to his brother Gaucelm, who thereupon was called "marquis".
[edit] 830 Abandoned
After only a few months at court, Bernat had made many enemies and was rumoured to be having an illicit relationship with Louis' Empress, Judith of Bavaria. These rumors provoked a riot in the army gathered at Rennes to fight the Bretons in April 830.
His life under threat, as the three elder children of Louis supported the opposition to him, Bernat abandoned the court and returned to his domains of Septimania and Gothia. Bernat's brother, Eribert, who remained at court was banished.
In the struggles among the Carolingian heirs, for a time Lothar triumphed over his father Louis I, but Louis recovered his power at the Assembly of Nijmegen in October 830. At the Assembly of Aachen in February 831, he proceeded to a divide the Empire giving Gothia to Charles the Bald, although the division would not be effective until the death of Louis.
Bernat attempted to regain favour with Judith and Charles, but they avoided renewing relations with the marquis after the previous events. At the Assembly of Thionville, October 831, Bernat succeeded in speaking personally with the Emperor, but could not recover his previous position at court. As a result, Bernat switched his loyalties.
[edit] 831 revolt
In November 831, Pepin of Aquitaine revolted against his father. His counsellor Berenguer, Count of Toulouse from 814 and counsellor to Pepin from 816, advised him against revolt. However Bernat of Septimania urged him to rebel.
In early 832 Louis the Pious began the campaign against his rebellious son. Berenguer, loyal to the Emperor, invaded the domains of Bernat and conquered them, taking Roussillon (with Vallespir), and probably also Rasez and Conflent. By February 2, 832 Berenguer already was in Elna.
Finally in the autumn of 832, successive victories of the imperial forces compelled Pepin and Bernat to appear before the Emperor (October). Pepin was dispossessed of his kingdom and sent as prisoner to Trier, having ceded all his territories to his brother Charles. Bernat was accused of infidelity and dismissed of all his possessions in Septimania and Gothia, which were given to Berenguer of Toulouse.
Gaucelm was probably also dispossessed of his counties, but for a time he remained in possession of the County of Empúries, ignoring his dismissal. Finally in 833, after mediation by Angenís the Abbot of Fontanelle, he resigned and returned to family properties in Burgundy, together with his close lieutenant Sanila.
Gaucelm and Sanila were subsequently executed for their actions in connection with the defense of Chalon-sur-Saône against the assault of Lothar in 834 (Gerberga, sister of Gaucelm and Bernat who was a nun was also executed).
In this last war, Bernat and Gaucelm fought once again on the side of Pepin of Aquitaine, eventually defeating Lothar. Bernat of Septimania, claimed the return of his old domains in return for the high price of blood paid in the struggle. However Berenguer was in legal possession. The Emperor hesitated over his decision; in June 835 he summoned Bernat and Berenguer to an Assembly in Cremieux, near Lyon, where he would deliver his decision. On the way Berenguer died unexpectedly. Freed of obstacles, the Emperor returned Berenguer's Counties of Septimania, Gothia and Toulouse once again to Bernat. The only territories not returned were Empúries and Roussillon, which had already been passed to the Counts Sunyer I of Empúries and Alaric. In addition Urgell and Cerdanya, which had been separated from County of Toulouse by the usurper Aznar I Galíndez. Sunifred brother of the Count Oliba of Carcasonne was assigned to expel him.
Bernat returned to his domain without taking into account the desires of the Goth population that had supported Berà and then Berenguer. Ten complaints were presented against him in the Assembly of Quierzy-sur-Oise in September 838. From 841 he was often absent participating in the struggles of the Empire, and the counties were administered by their respective viscounts.
[edit] 841 Battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye
At the battle of Fontenay-en-Puisaye (June 25, 841) Charles the Bald and Louis the German defeated their brother Lothar, who retreated to the south with his army. Bernat stayed on the battlefield, awaiting its result, and on its end, sent his son Guillem to offer homage to Charles the Bald, and to promise him that his father would obtain the submission of Pepin II of Aquitania (something that he had no intention of accomplishing).
During Charles the Bald's campaign in Aquitania during 842, he decided to punish Bernat, dispossessing him of the county of Toulouse in favor of Count Acfred (July 842), but Bernat refused to accept the decision and revolted, openly allying himself to Pepin II, and expelling Acfred from Toulouse (843).
The Count (ducem) Guerín of Provence, who in 842 directed the campaign in Aquitania, invaded Septimania. Various other events (A Norman invasion and Breton revolt) compelled an end to the internal civil struggles, and in August 843 the Treaty of Verdun was signed distributing land in the Empire, leaving Septimania and Gothia in the hands of Charles the Bald, apart from the county of Uzès, where Bernat possessed estates; which was assigned to Lothar. Furthermore the county of Autun, claimed by Guillem, son of Bernat, was entrusted to Guerín, a rival of Bernat.
In 844 Charles the Bald returned to Aquitania with the objective of forcing Pippin II to submit and to conquer Toulouse. In a stroke of luck, Bernat of Septimania was captured by the imperial forces, during the assault on Toulouse. A French historian, Pierre Andoque, however maintains that Bernat was captured before the year 843 by the Duke Guerín in Uzès, and that in 844 he was brought before Charles during his journey to Aquitania. One way or the other, in May 844 Bernat was presented to Charles, who ordered his execution.
However the following month, Pepin II and Guillem, son of Bernat, dealt a severe rout to Charles in Angoumois June 14, 844; thus the allies of Bernat had not been totally eliminated.
| Preceded by: Rampó |
Count of Barcelona
826-832 |
Succeeded by: Berengar |
| Preceded by: Berengar |
Count of Barcelona
835-844 |
Succeeded by: Sunifred I |
