Borrell II

Borrell II (927-30 September 993) was Count of Barcelona, Gerona and Osona (947-992), and Count of Urgell (948-992). He is the son of Suniario I and his second wife, Riquilda de Tolosa.

Government

When his father, Count Suniario I, retired, who, in 947, took the monastic habit in the Benedictine abbey of Lagrasse, on the banks of the Orbieu river in Carcassonne, he ceded his domains to his sons Borrell and Miró, who were to govern jointly. The reign of both lasted until the death of Miró I in 966, leaving Borrell II as the only representative at the head of the counties, of Barcelona, Gerona and Osona. In 948 he inherited the county of Urgell when his uncle Sunifredo II died. Borrell II also used the title of Duke of Gotia (dux Gothiæ).

Unlike his father, he was a count more diplomatic than military. He tried to always maintain cordial relations with his two powerful neighbors: the Franks to the north and the Andalusians to the south. He exchanged embassies with Córdoba (the center of Muslim power) and signed a peace treaty with Caliph Al-Hakam II.

Among Borrell II's priorities was maintaining friendly relations with the papacy and the Caliph of Córdoba. Therefore, he sent up to four embassies (in the years 950, 966, 971 and 974, respectively) to the courts of Abd al-Rahman III and Al-Hakam II to ratify the peace agreements of 940 in exchange for obedience and fidelity to the caliph This good harmony was broken with the enthronement of Hisham II (976-1009) and the political rise of the figure of Almanzor, the Muslim leader who set out to recover the initial military splendor of al-Andalus.

He also maintained good relations with the papacy. In 970 he traveled to Rome with the purpose of reorganizing the religious administration and restoring the Archbishopric of Tarragona.

He was a protector of science and culture. He invited the monk Gerberto de Aurillac (who years later would become Pope under the name of Silvestre II) to reside in the county to further his studies.

Despite the diplomatic efforts of the Count of Barcelona, the counties of the Hispanic March were not spared from Almanzor's raids. On May 5, 985, an army left Córdoba crossing the Mediterranean coast in the direction of Campo de Tarragona. Almanzor advanced with blood and fire towards Barcelona through the current Catalan regions of Panadés, Llobregat and Vallés, while Count Borrell II desperately organized the defense of his territories. Monasteries around Barcelona such as San Cucufato, San Pablo del Campo or San Pedro de las Puellas were destroyed and their communities murdered.

Thereupon, the terrified inhabitants of the outskirts of Barcelona locked themselves behind the walls of the city of Barcelona, which was besieged on July 1st. The resistance did not last long, on Monday, July 6, Almanzor devastated Barcelona, taking with him a large booty and a large number of captives who would later be sold as slaves or ransomed in exchange for large sums of money. Count Borrell II had suffered a defeat that was difficult to forget, and the chronicles baptized this sad event as "the day Barcelona died". It was thus demonstrated that the pro-Cordoba position maintained by the count had failed.

As a result of these continuous attacks -978, 982, 984 and 985-, it was necessary to abandon the city of Tarragona, which was not definitively occupied again until 1118, by Count Ramón Berenguer III.

Indeed, the traumatic experience forced Count Borrell II to try to resume relations with the Franks. He offered King Lothair the renewal of the oath of fidelity in exchange for military aid that would guarantee the protection of the country against new Muslim attacks. But the request for help coincided with a serious crisis in the Carolingian dynasty, Lothair died in 986 and his successor Louis V of France also died prematurely in 987. The new Capetian dynasty had to defend the Frankish crown from internal insurrections and did not pay attention either. requests for help from the Count of Barcelona.

Since no one responded to Count Borrell II's request for help, it is not surprising that when King Hugh I Capet demanded to renew political ties with the Frankish crown in 987, the response was total silence, in such a way that That was the last contact demanding the subordination of the counts of the Hispanic March to the Frankish monarchs. Borrell II denied obedience to Hugh I Capet, King of France, which was followed by the other counts of the Hispanic March, thus achieving the independence of the Catalan counties from the Franks. It was the de facto independence of the Barcelona count dynasty, not legally recognized until the signing of the Treaty of Corbeil centuries later, already in 1258.

Regarding relations with the Holy See, Borrell II's intention was to create a new archbishopric in Vich that would bring together the bishoprics of the Hispanic March while Tarragona was in Muslim hands. If the Count of Barcelona achieved his goal, he would submit to his control the ecclesiastical authorities of the March and, in turn, would break ties with the Archbishopric of Narbonne, under Frankish influence. It seems that Pope John XIII welcomed the proposals made to him by Bishop Ató de Vich, the monk Gerberto de Aurillac and Borrell II himself on his trip to Rome in 970. But the assassination of the bishop on August 22, 971 frustrated a attempt that showed the clear desire for political and religious affirmation of the Count of Barcelona.

From 988 he shared the government with his sons Ramón Borrell the eldest son, who received the counties of Barcelona, Gerona and Osona, and Ermengol the youngest son, to whom he bequeathed the county of Urgell. Both began to govern alone in 992, the year in which Borrell II is supposed to have died.

Marriages and offspring

Count Borrell II married around 967 Letgarda de Tolosa, daughter of Ramón Ponce I, Count of Tolosa and Duke of Aquitaine, with whom he had two sons and two daughters:

• Ramon Borrell, succeeded his father in the counties of Barcelona, Gerona and Osona;
• Ermengol, inherited Urgel County;
• Ermengarda (m. 1030), married Geriberto, son of Guitar, Viscount of Barcelona, parents of Mir, Folc and Guisla;
• Riquilda (m. 1041/42) married his sister's husband's brother, Udalardo I, Viscount of Barcelona, Bernard I's parents who happened to his father in the vistilage and died young, and Guislabert, elected bishop of Barcelona in 1034 and regent of the viscendant during the minority of his nephew Udalardo II of Barcelona.

After Letgarda's death, shortly after becoming a widow, he married again in 988, this time to Eimeruda of Auvergne, with whom he had no children.