Wilfred or Wifred, called the Hairy,[1] was Count of Urgell (870–897), Cerdanya (870–897), Barcelona (878–897), Girona (878–897), Besalú (878–897), and Ausona (886–897).
He was responsible for the repopulation of the long depopulated no-man's land around Vic (the county of Ausona, a frontier between Christian and Muslim), the re-establishment of the bishopric of Vic, and the foundation of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll, where he is buried.
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Wilfred the Hairy was the Catalan Count of Barcelona (878–898) and created the tradition of hereditary passage of titles. His son, Wifred Borell, inherited the county without any interruption and held it between 898–914.
A number of primitive feudal entities developed in the Marca Hispanica, during the 9th century. They were generally self-sufficient and agrarian, but ruled by a small military elite. The pattern seen in Catalonia is similar to that found in similar border lands or marches elsewhere in Europe.
Traditionally the count of Barcelona was appointed directly by the Carolingian emperor, for example the appointment of Bera (in 801). The appointment of heirs could not be taken for granted. However, with the rise of strong Counts such as Sunifred, (fl. 844- 848) and Wilfred, and the weakening of Carolingian, then French royal power, eventually the appointment of heirs become a formality. This trend resulted in the counts becoming de facto independent of the Carolingian Crown under Borrell II in 985).
Wilfred remained obscure until drawn into the historians' net by Sir Richard Southern, in The Making of the Middle Ages, 1953.
Wilfred was of Gothic lineage from the region of Carcassonne. Tradition claims he was born near Prades in the County of Conflent, now Rià, in Roussillon, France.
According to legend, he was the son of Wilfred of Arriaount (or Wilfred of Arri), a county near Prades. His father was murdered by Salomón and Wilfred became his avenger, killing the assassin.[2] After the research done by French monks Dom De Vic and Dom Vaissete, authors of Histoire Générale de Languedoc,[3] he is identified as the son of Sunifred I of Barcelona, count of many counties under Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald. Sunifred may have been the son[4] of Belló, Count of Carcassonne during the reign of Charlemagne, or more probably, his son-in-law.[5] Thus, as a descendant of Sunifred and his brother, Sunyer I, count of Empúries and Roussillon (834-848), R. de Abadal and other historians consider him a member of a Bellonid dynasty.
In the dynastic struggles that accompanied the three years between Louis the Pious' death (840) and the Treaty of Verdun (843), the count of Barcelona (and many other margravates and counties: Septimania, Girona, Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Melgueil, Nîmes, and Toulouse) Bernard of Septimania, aligned with Pepin II of Aquitaine, while the Bellonids maintained their allegiance to Charles the Bald. In 844, after taking Toulouse and capturing Bernard, Charles had him executed. In exchange for his fealty, Charles gave the dead count's honours of Barcelona, Girona, Narbonne, Nîmes, Agde, Béziers, and Melgueil to Sunifred.
In 848, William, son of Bernard, was named count of Toulouse and Empúries by Pepin II. He quickly moved to eliminate Sunifred and Sunyer.
The Bellonid lineage was revived slightly by the appointment of Dela and Sunyer II, sons of Sunyer I, to the countship of Ampurias in 862. Next, Charles the Bald made their cousins, Wilfred the Hairy and his brother Miró (known as the Old), counts respectively of Urgell and Cerdanya, and Conflent in June, 870 at an assembly at Attigny. For in that year, the mysteriously ill-chronicled Salomon, count of Urgell, Cerdanya, and Conflent, had died.
After becoming Count of Urgell and Cerdanya in 870, Wilfred received the counties of Barcelona, Girona, and Besalú in 878 from the Carolingian king of France, Louis the Stammerer. His reign coincided with the crumbling of Carolingian authority and unity. He was thus the last count of the Hispanic March appointed by the French king and the first to pass his vast holdings as an inheritance to his sons (albeit sanctioned by the monarch).
Wilfred came into possession of Barcelona through his service to Charles the Bald against the rebel Bernard of Gothia, Count of Barcelona, Roussillon, and numerous other Septimanian counties. Wilfred, Miró, their brother Sunifred (who became the Abbot of Arles), and the Viscount of Narbonne, Lindoí, marched against Bernard on behalf of the King and his son, Louis the Stammerer. In March and April 878, they defeated the nobles loyal to Bernard, including Sigebuto, Bishop of Narbonne, and expelled all partisan priests from the church.
At the Council of Troyes in August 878, presided over by Pope John VIII and King Louis II the Stammerer, Wilfred was formally invested as Count of Urgell and Cerdanya, Miró as Count of Conflent, Sunyer as Count of Empurias, and Oliba II as Count of Carcassonne. On September 11, Bernard was dispossessed of all his titles. The Bishop of Elna, Bishop of Urgell, Bishop of Girona, and Bishop of Barcelona were confirmed in their sees. Bernard's former possessions were given to Wilfred (Barcelona, Ausona, Besalú, and Girona) and Miró (Roussillon). The counties of Narbonne, Béziers, and Agde were separated from that of Barcelona. Sunifred was made Abbot of Arles and Riculf Bishop of Elna. Wilfred immediately ceded Besalú to his brother Radulph (878-920).
After the investiture of 878, Wilfred's lands stretched from the Pyrenees to the coast, from Urgell and Cerdanya to Barcelona and Girona. This was the first time since the reign of his father (which ended in 848) that these different areas had been united politically and the only other time within that century. The land between these regions—Ripollès, Vall de Lord, Berguedà, Lluçanès, the Plana de Vic, Moianès, Guilleries, and Bages—had long been depopulated; since the rebellion of Aissó.
Wilfred embarked on the process of repopulating these territories with immigrants from the heavily populated mountain regions—Pallars, Urgell, and Cerdanya—to which people had fled in the two centuries between the collapses of Visigothic and Carolingian authority. Wilfred's plan involved repopulating and subsequently annexing the Counties to those he already controlled. Thus, Vall de Lord became part of Urgell and Berga into Cerdanya. Wilfred created the County of Ausona from the remaining Counties made up of Ripollés, Lluçanès, the Plana de Vic, and Guilleries—centred around Ausona (the city), had a unique ethnic and cultural history whose population descended from an ancient historic Hispanic tribe. He also added Moianés and Bagés and the lands around Manresa, which were distinct in their history themselves. In 885, Wilfred designated a Viscount to control the County of Ausona in his absence as it formed the frontier with the Moslem Kingdoms to the south.
The ecclesiastic state of the region was no less isolated than its political state, the parishes largely remaining outside of the universal hierarchy. Wilfred brought the parishes of Bergueda and Vall de Lord within the control of the nearby diocese of Urgell. However, he had to re-establish the lapsed bishopric in Ausona. After consulting the Archbishop of Narbonne in 886, he was given permission to install Gotmar, a priest, as bishop of Ausona. The new bishop immediately set about restoring the repopulated city and its cathedral which had been devastated and in ruins since the last Muslim conquest and the rebellion of Aissó.
The churches in the region during this period flourished gaining much power and privilege. This included the right for monks to elect their own Abbots as espoused by Saint Benedict. Wilfred founded two new monasteries: Santa María de Ripoll (880) and Sant Joan de les Abadesses (885). The Abbey of S. Joan de les Abadesses in the diocese of Vic (Catalunya) was founded by Count Wilfred and his wife Guinedilda, to provide for their daughter Emma, who became the community's first abbess in 899 and was given immunity from lay jurisdiction by King Charles the Simple.
When Louis the Stammerer died (879), the kingdom was divided between his two young sons: Louis III received the ancient northern partitions of the Merovingian kingdom, Neustria and Austrasia (including the Lorraine). His other son Carloman received the southern partitions, Burgundy and Aquitaine (including Septimania). The problems plaguing the throne were exacerbated when both Louis (882) and Carloman (884) died soon after their succession. Not wanting to crown Louis the Stammerer's remaining son, Charles the Simple, who was only five, the nobles of France looked about for a powerful man who could defend the land from the fearsome Vikings and their vicious raids on the Channel and Atlantic coasts.
At the Assembly of Ponthion (884), the Franks chose the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fat, who was already king of Germany and Italy. Charles, son of Louis the German, therefore became the first person since the death of Louis the Pious to reign over the entire realm of his illustrious great-grandfather. He would also be the last.
Incapable of much, he was lethargic and probably suffered from epilepsy. In November, 885 he raised a grand army to fight off the Norsemen besieging Paris. However, he chose to buy the Vikings off, paying them to attack Burgundy (not a friend of his) instead. He left Paris in December. He subsequently failed to deal with revolts in Swabia, Saxony, Thuringia, Franconia, and Bavaria. The nobles of the Empire deposed him in 887. He died two months later (888).
Charles' nephew Arnulf of Carinthia, succeeded him in Germany, Berengar of Friuli succeeded him in Italy, and Odo succeeded him in France. The breakdown in royal authority and the dynastic change which accompanied it in France broke the Empire in two. The Carolingian polity which empowered the counts at the beginning of the century was nonexistent by the end, the Counts were de facto independent—especially in the outlying regions, like the Marca Hispanica.
In the great tradition of their family, Wilfred, Miró, Dela, and Sunyer II maintained their loyalty to the Carolingian monarchs until the death of Charles the Fat (deposed 887, died 888). They visited the royal court in 886 to ask for privileges and precept to be granted to Teotario, Bishop of Girona. Upon the death of Louis the Stammerer, however, this loyalty became largely nominal. When Louis's sons Louis and Carloman marched against Boso, king of Provence, the Catalan counts supported Carloman, but did not join the campaign. This was a far cry from the prompt action the family had taken against Bernard of Gothia. The Counts became more interested in issues that directly effected them and did not attend the Assembly of Ponthion dealing with the Viking problem which they regarded as meaningless to their domains.
The counts rejected Charles the Fat's successor, Odo, but they did not rise in favour of Louis the Stammerer's surviving son, Charles the Simple. Odo was too absorbed with the Norsemen and those loyal to Charles the Simple to be bothered with the far south of the realm.
In 886, a presbyter named Esclua, taking advantage of the absence of Teotardo, Archbishop of Narbonne, was consecrated Bishop of Urgell and expelled the titular Bishop Ingoberto with the tacit permission of Raymond I, Count of Pallars-Ribagorza, and Wilfred. He complicated the situation further by declaring himself metropolitan of Tarraconensis, separating his diocese from Narbonne. Now acting as metropolitan, Esclua promptly removed Servus Dei from the Bishopric of Girona.
Servus who was rejected by Dela, Sunyer, and Wilfred but who had been consecrated by Teotardo; took refuge in the monastery of Bañolas. Esclua, with the help of the Bishops of Barcelona and Vic, consecrated as the new Eremir Bishop of Girona. In 888, he resurrected the sees of Pallars and Empurias to repay Raymond, Sunyer, and Dela for their support.
If at first Wilfred tolerated the dethronement of Ingoberto — there had been little love between them — however he could not allow the metropolitan pretensions of Esclua because of his friendship with Teotardo. The independent dioceses were a method of securing political independence and Wilfred opposed this. He could not allow the lands under his control to be effected by Nobles or Church.
However external pressures hampered him taking action.
By 883 or 884, the Muslims became increasingly uneasy by the expansion of the Christian Counties to the north. Wilfred had established defensive positions or castles in Ausona at Cardona, Bergueda, and Vall de Lord; some were even in the Vall de Cervelló south of the River Llobregat. The frontier of the County of Barcelona passed north of Solsona, past Besora, Tantallatge, and Correà; that of Berga, past Sorba, Gargalla, and Serrateix; and that of the County of Ausona past Cardona, Manresa, and Montserrat.
The Muslim ruler Ismail ibn Musa ibn Qasi fortified Lleida in response. Provoked by this, Wilfred attacked Lleida and Ismail. The attack however was a disaster. The historian Ibn al Athir describes the massacre of the attackers by the city's defenders. Buoyed by this success Ismail's successor, Lubb ibn Muhammed ibn Qasi attacked Barcelona in 897. Wilfred died in battle on 11 August 897. He was buried in the monastery at Ripoll.
The weakening of Frankish royal authority in the Hispanic March is principally the result of the establishment of heredity in the succession of the counties rather than by choice of the monarch. In 895, Miró the Old died and his county of Roussillon passed, without interference from King Odo, to Sunyer II of Ampurias. In the same way, Wilfred was never confirmed by the monarch as Count of Ausona. The kings had lost control of the Counts. The importance of this custom in the Middle Ages cannot be overstated. As hereditary succession became the custom, it became accepted as law and there was nothing the kings could do. The Counts had become sovereigns in their own dominions.
The lack, however, of a legal basis for heredity caused the early experiments in hereditary succession to be problematic. When Wilfred died in 897, his sons Wilfred Borrel, Miró, Sunifred and Sunyer governed his realm jointly, recognising the eldest Wilfred Borrel, as primus inter pares, or "first among equals".
However, when the succession came to their sons, this ideal broke down and the counts promptly transmitted their regions of governance to their descendants. Wilfred Borrel and the youngest son jointly ruled over Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona; Sunifred over Urgell; and Miró, over Cerdanya, Conflent, and Berga.
Wilfred the Hairy has become a figure of importance for contemporary Catalan nationalists. Nineteenth century European Romanticism looked to the medieval world for references and links to modern national and cultural identities, and in the context of Catalan nationalism and its search for its historical foundations in a distant and idealised past, Wilfred soon arose as a figure of independence, the de facto founder of the House of Barcelona, and, by purported extension, one of the forefathers of the latter Catalonia.
One of the legends that has arisen around his person is that of the creation of the coat of arms from which the Catalan flag (the Senyera) derives today. After being wounded in battle (some versions say against the Moors; others, the Normans), the Frankish king Charles the Bald rewarded his bravery by giving him a coat of arms. The king slid Wilfred's blood-stained fingers over the Count's copper shield, and thus was the Senyera first born, with its four pallets in Gules on Or. As much as this legend is popular and extended, there is no historical evidence to support it.
Wilfred's actions as a Frankish vassal towards carving out his own domain from several counties and moving out of the sphere of influence of the Carolingian crown — coupled with his creation of the County of Osona and the restoration of the bishopric of Vic — laid out the territorial and patrimonial base for the House of Barcelona, and hence has been posteriorly identified with the creation of Catalonia, even though a written reference to such a territorial entity would not appear historically until more than two centuries later in the Liber maiolichinus de gestis Pisanorum illustribus, a 12th century Pisan manuscript describing the raids of 1114 by Pisans and Catalans on the island of Majorca.
| Preceded by Solomon I |
Count of Urgell 870–897 |
Succeeded by Sunifred II |
| Count of Cerdanya 870–897 |
Succeeded by Miro II |
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| Preceded by Bernard of Gothia |
Count of Barcelona 878–897 |
Succeeded by Wilfred II Borrel I |