Ermengol VI, Count of Urgell

Ermengol VI. of Castile (Catalan Ermengol el de Castella; * to 1095, † June 28, 1154 ) was a Count of Urgell from the House of Barcelona. He was a son of the Count of Urgell Ermengol V. († 1102) and María Pérez.

Biography

Ermengol VI. was " that of Castile " called, not only because he spent his youth with his mother in Valladolid, but also a large part of his life at the court of leónesisch Castilian kings. After the death of his father was his maternal grandfather, the influential Castilian Count Pedro Ansúrez, assumed the regency in Urgell to 1109. This had an important role in the conquest of Balaguer by Count Ramon Berenguer III 1105. played by Barcelona. The coat of arms of his grandfather had Ermengol VI. later made his own, in 1115 he began his personal rule. Politically, he had been inspired by King Alfonso I of Aragon and after his death in 1134 paid homage to the king Alfonso VII of León - Castile in Zaragoza. Already on January 23, 1133 he had abgegtreten its sovereign rights over the valleys of Andorra to the Bishop of Urgell. The following year he was a permanent member of the Leonese court, only in 1144 he is known to Barcelona on his trip to Provence in the wake of Count Ramon Berenguer IV.

Then Ermengol was again a member of the entourage of Alfonso VII, 1135 to the " Emperor of all Spain " has be crowned. In the spring of 1146 he is called in the office of " imperial Maiers " ( maiordomus imperatoris ), apparently on behalf of his brother- Ponç II de Cabrera, and was a participant in the conquest of Córdoba. The following year he was also involved in the conquest of Calatrava and Almería. In the winter of 1149 he was back at the side of the Counts of Barcelona when taking Lleida, which was awarded to the County of Urgell. The last years of his life had spent Ermengol in Castile and after his death in the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María de Valbuena, which had been founded by his sister Estefanía, buried.

Ermengol VI. was married in first marriage with Arsenda, a daughter of his vassal Guerau II de Cabrera ( Cabrera house ). Their children were:

• Ermengol VII († August 11, 1184 ), Count of Urgell.
• Isabella Sibilla; ∞ with Viscount Ramon Folch III. Cardona (House Folch de Cardona ).

His second wife was Elvira Rodríguez, a daughter of Rodrigo González de Lara. They had one daughter:

• Maria; ∞ with Lope López de Vizcaya

In addition, he had had several illegitimate children.