Borrell II, Count of Barcelona
Borrel II (c. 920, † 992 ) was from 947 count of Barcelona, Girona and Osona, and from 948 of Urgell.
Life
His parents were Sunyer I. Count of Barcelona and Richilde of Rouergue. After his father had 947 retired to the monastery, he inherited jointly with his younger brother Miro († 968 ), the counties of Barcelona, Gerona and Ausona, the following year, after the death of his uncle Sunifred II, the County of Urgell. Since the power of the West Frankish kings in the Spanish Mark was on the wane, Borrell sought to protect themselves by contracts with the Caliph of Cordoba, 985 but this did not prevent the destruction of Barcelona by al - Mansur.
Counter the threat posed by the Moors Borrell had the military help of his lords, King Lothar called in the year 985, which, although for a campaign in the Spanish Mark declared himself willing, but died before the preparations for it in the spring of 986. His successor, Ludwig V. remained inactive in this matter. Apparently Borrell had sent a request for help also to the 987 elected king Hugh Capet, who wrote at least in a written reply from the autumn of 987, the Archbishop Gerbert of Reims, had promised a campaign in the south, where it Borrell up to Easter 988 an embassy to will send his court, the summon him his fealty. From an embassy or a declaration of loyalty to the new king Borrells nothing is known, just as he had never started a campaign in the Spanish market. This was the last time that a Catalan Count had called the support of a Frankish king. Borrell and his successors had henceforth divorced from the royal authority ruled in their territories that could ever be hardly brought by the young Kapetingerdynastie over the Loire addition to the South to bear. This is often considered the date recognized the de facto independence of Catalonia from the (west ) Frankish kingdom particularly from the national point of view in the year 986, which remained, however, for almost 300 years, only a one-sided affair. The Frankish kings of France had made their renunciation of all imperious authority over Catalonia until the Treaty of Corbeil of 1258.
967 Borrel II visited the monastery of St. Gerald of Aurillac, and the abbot asked him Gerbert d' Aurillac ( the future Pope Sylvester II ) to take with him, so the young man could study mathematics in Spain. In the following years Gerbert studied in Barcelona held by Christians and perhaps in the Muslim cities of Cordoba and Seville. 969 Borrel made a pilgrimage to Rome and took Gerbert with. Gerbert met Pope John XIII. and Emperor Otto I. The Pope persuaded Otto, Gerbert as a tutor for his young son to use the future Emperor Otto II.
After his death, his eldest son Raimund followed Borrell in Barcelona, the County of Urgell fell to the second son Ermengol.
Family
He married before 968 Leodgard ( † after 980 ), the couple had five children
- Daughter ( † before June 6 969 )
- Raymond Borrell, Count of Barcelona ( * 971/72; † 1017 ) ∞ Ermesinde of Carcasonne († 1058 )
- Ermengol I, Count of Urgell (* 973/77; † 1010) ∞ Gerberga
- Ermengarde ( † after 1029 ) ∞ Geribert, Vice Count of Barcelona ( † after 1019)
- Richilde ( † after 1041 ) ∞ Udalard, Vice Count of Barcelona ( † after 1030)
His second wife was Heimerud.