3
The following period is pivotal in the emergence of Catalonia, socially, politically and culturally. By 1150, a defined territory will exist that shares substantial territorial extent to that of today as will a language, Catalan. The emergence of the term ‘Catalan’ will have appeared though not yet usage of the term Catalonia to describe it. These territories were more influenced by a Frankish legacy than the northern kingdoms of Spain that pushed southwards. We find here the origins of some cultural distinctiveness. Whilst full historical and national consciousness is still some way off, the contours of Catalan differentiation are being laid down. This period is important for some of the modern interpretations given to it, as was mentioned in the introduction. For those who interpret history through a nationalist prism alone, a claim is made that in already in this era we find a Catalan state and identity. It matters little, for those that make these claims, that notions such as a thousand years of Catalan independence do not stand up to scrutiny. Rather what is important here is how the past is framed. A heroic impetus is ascribed to its kings and nobles apparently acting on behalf of a ready-made Catalonia that somehow has a continuity from the ninth century to the present, with one count, Guifre, deemed the founder of Catalonia. As we have also previously noted, what happens in the case of the Catalans is also evident in most of the history narratives told within modern European nation states and their education systems. These narratives are imparted to most citizens in claims by politicians as well as television documentaries on the national history. Most history writing today is framed and written within the mental maps created by the frontiers of the present. A thousand years ago those frontiers had little real meaning beyond aristocratic or royal control. Just as there was no medieval kingdom of Spain, medieval France was formed by a series of territories, bearing only a partial resemblance to the state of today. We must also note that for most people, identity was constructed locally, with only members of the Church and aristocracy sharing broader cultural attachments. Yet even amongst these elites, identity or belonging was not framed in national terms. The most important shared component within this cohort was a sense of belonging to Christendom. This was the only thing we might call a broadly encompassing ideology.
Consolidating the Spanish March
The Frankish kingdom, which extended across today’s France, parts of Germany, Italy and Spain, was the largest monarchical entity in Europe after the collapse of Roman rule in the west. At its greatest extent, it comprised some 600 counties and 180 dioceses. As we saw, a small number of these counties were established just south of the Pyrenees, which in time attained a degree of autonomy from central French rule. These counties, together with much of northern Spain, are a small Christian bastion in a territory that is dominated by the Islamic Caliphate. These were militarised and frontier societies where warrior elites ruled over a largely civilian and rural population.1 Small urban centres appeared but they remain comparatively tiny. Apart from the coastal counties around Girona and south to Barcelona, most of the area comprising the March is mountainous and communication was extremely difficult in the ninth and tenth centuries. These zones were prone to greater levels of violence than many other areas of Europe, and territorial expansion will be forged by military means. Borderlands experienced raids and regular disruption to the normal rhythm of life. Given its frontier status with Al-Andalus, these Catalan counties held vital strategic importance as in no other dominion of the vast Frankish territory was the threat posed Islamic in nature. However, Islam was not seen as a rival religion to Christendom, rather it was framed as another form of paganism.
Between 810 and 820, a line from Barcelona moving westwards defined a fairly stable frontier between Frankish and Al-Andalus forces, though even this decade was not without armed conflict. For a period after 820, a modus vivendi between both powers emerged. The first counts, marcher lords, appointed by the Carolingian Frankish rulers, emerge here. Loyalty to the Franks was exhibited by leading nobles though they were known as and described as Goths or Hispani. Their principal concern was the recovery of their land and position. As the Carolingian monarchy stabilised, it no longer had land to parcel out to followers. This caused tension particularly on the borderlands such as the March. Lords sought to expand locally. The emergence of inheritance amongst local counts was a factor that in time would contribute to their distancing from Carolingian control.2 This process also happened in other territories on the fringes of Frankish lands, such as northern Italy and Bavaria. The main counties in territory that will become Catalonia were Barcelona, Berga, Besalú, Cerdanya, Conflent, Empúries, Girona, Osona, Rosselló, Urgell and Vallespir. Of these counties, the most important will in time be the County of Barcelona, which gradually expanded from the 820s.
Rebellion 825
Until the 880s, little further southwards expansion into the lands of Al-Andalus occurred. For most of this early period, Arab military superiority held a clear advantage over northern Christian forces. In both frontier zones, whether Christian and Islamic borderlands, similar patterns of centre–local tensions emerged. These counties were particularly prone to instability and rebellion. In 825, an uprising against Frankish domination on the plain of Vic broke out. Internal division amongst elites was the principal cause with one side advocating war and conquest against Arab neighbours with other lords advocating a policy of accommodation. Those closer to or on the frontier tended to be the war party. This revolt led to the removal of the local ruler. This conflict was in reality an elite-dominated civil war and its consequences were profound. The countryside of the Spanish March was ravaged and some territory was lost to Muslims. Much of the area would take several decades to recover the pre-conflict demographic and economic levels. This was not the first or last revolt of this kind. Catalonia, like Bavaria, another territory on the fringe of the empire, slipped from Frankish control during a Carolingian civil war in 841–842. Three counts were executed for rebellion between 844 and 880. The second half of the ninth century saw the Spanish March not as a marginal frontier zone but as a territory where factional disputes were played out. As well as internal conflict, violence came from without. In 850, the emir of Cordoba sent a large army to the territory of Barcelona, where it devastated its surroundings and also besieged the city of Girona. Girona had previously suffered two serious incursions in 793 and 827.
Towards greater local control
In time, a local elite became increasingly dominant, a process we can call regionalisation. Guifre (Wilfred) became successively count of Urgell, Cerdanya, Osona and Barcelona in the 870s. Guifre was awarded control of his territory by the Frankish king. Significantly, he was the first count to apply the principle of hereditary, ceding his titles to his sons. This principle had begun to emerge in northern Europe and facilitated the emergence of powerful ruling families and dynasties. The later distancing of Guifre and his successors from central control formed part of a trend in many zones of the Carolingian territory where local lords sought to affirm permanent control of their territory. Achieving hereditary control enabled the growth of local consciousness and identity. This began a stop–start process over the next hundred years of distancing and re-establishing relations with the Frankish court, which ebbed and flowed depending on the capacity of the ruler to ensure control across his kingdom. One assertion of local control was through the patronage of religious centres such as the monasteries of Ripoll and Sant Joan de les Abadesses. In the case of the latter abbey, it was initially created as a monastery for nuns. Although a female religious centre, it too engaged in similar practices of acquisition of land and the subjection of local villages. Christianity was increasingly utilised by local rulers for the purposes of establishing legitimate rule. In spite of the un-Christian behaviour of Charlemagne, including an often ruthless form of conquest and subsequent repression, his court defined the alliance between court and Church that will be common throughout the middle ages.3 Whilst the local lords and counts broke with Charlemagne, Frankish influence was evident in morals, theology and political form.4 The local Church supported these efforts as it sought to break away from control of Narbonne, located across the Pyrenees. It was the recapture of Tarragona in the late eleventh century that embedded a turn to a locally inflected Catholicism. The Papacy remained a weak institution so local bishops held great influence.
Catalonia developed a hybrid of a Visigothic legal system with the form of rule adopted by the counts also heavily influenced by the Carolingian tradition. The gradual decay and disintegration of the Carolingian empire created a power vacuum, which allowed the progressive independence of the Catalan counties. This was an intermediate period with intermittent deference to Carolingian power combined with greater local assertation of power and law until the feudalisation of medieval society ended the existing order. The counts of Barcelona continued the consolidation of their authority over other counts, barons and magnates. Between the years 950 and 1050, we also see the gradual emergence of what we will come to term the feudal form. Catalan society became fully feudalised in a period of less than a hundred years. The heirs of Guifre were now in a position to act as local barons and distribute land like a monarch. Associated with this distribution was the establishment of bonds of fealty. Wealth and the capacity to wield influence was increasingly based on land. As the local county forms developed, some locations such as the city of Girona regained their prominence. However, in spite of the process of distancing from Frankish power, these local counties faced a formidable foe in terms of Al-Andalus. This would be made apparent in the events of 985.
Islamic Catalonia 800–1000
The majority of territory that will one day form Catalonia was found within Al-Andalus in 800. The frontier of 801 remained largely unchanged for the next 300 years, with small bands of territory lost and regained. The Islamic southern zone that will be incorporated into Catalonia in the twelfth century also displayed similar patterns of tension between local rulers and central control, in this case that based in Cordoba. Islamic society was dominated by urban centres and influence extended out to rural areas. Urban sophistication permitted the emergence of an advanced artisanal system. The areas on the Muslim side of the frontier were similarly divided into Marches with the Upper March with its capital at Zaragoza including future Catalan territory. The lords of the Marches had considerable local autonomy and the power to lead defensive and offensive campaigns on their own initiative.
Islam and its practice was the principal cultural characteristic in this zone. Culture and daily life followed the rituals of Islamic practice. However, as this culture consolidated, it distanced itself from Islamic culture in the Middle East. In the ninth and tenth centuries, Arabic fully penetrated this society and literacy was widespread and encouraged. The contrast with a mostly illiterate northern Europe was notable. Under Abd ar Rahman III (912–929), Arabisation and Islamisation intensified. Arabic was extensively adopted as the language as those of higher status, education and by urban dwellers. Romance/late Latin was the language of the poor, rural, uneducated and Christians. Thus, the route for the latter into social advancement came through the adoption of their rulers’ religion and language.5 Even so, there was unlikely to be a Muslim majority before 900. The internal differences within the population meant cultural and other relations occurred between Al-Andalus and the Christian zone south of the Pyrenees. In particular, Arabic-speaking Christians and the Jewish population were key figures in this encounter.
Al-Andalus developed a more advanced economic system with harvests obtainable two or three times a year due to the sophisticated irrigation systems established in the Lleida area from the 930s. The market garden system, organised on both banks of the river Segre, was extensively farmed and highly productive.6 A distinctive characteristic of the Arab-Islamic system is that office holding is more important in Al Andalus than land. In the Islamic system, landowners were not in control as they were in Europe. In contrast to the Christian zone which had little in terms of an efficient administration, the Umayyads managed a sophisticated bureaucracy. The dynasty itself owned vast landholdings, which were often leased out in exchange for rent, whether to small holders or large landowners required to contribute a portion of their harvest. Landholding in these zones mirrored the broad structure of Al-Andalus. Military control and tax raising were urban characteristics. This urban form gave prominence to places such as Lleida and Tortosa as locations that dominated their hinterland. In the case of the latter, its role as port gave it strategic importance given its closeness to the frontier.7
As with the Christian lands to the north, this zone is a frontier zone. Intermittent southwards pressure of Christians required a network of fortifications built north of Lleida which dominated the border zone. From the perspective of Al-Andalus, the coastal lands until the Pyrenees held great value as the entry point into Frankish lands and potentially other parts of Europe. A further parallel with the northern Christian counties then is that this society was built for warfare. Both sides probed the defences and for a long period, the Islamic held zone had much greater capacity at disruption and raiding. Southern pressure on Barcelona was intermittent and at times intense and in 940 ad, an Islamic fleet was visible from Barcelona. On this occasion, a new truce was the outcome. In 985, under different leadership, a greatly different outcome took place. However, alliances also took place across the religious divide, demonstrating that disputes over control and land were not yet framed as they would later be. For example, in the late eleventh century, Barcelona allied with Moslem Lleida against Castile and Zaragoza.8
985
In the ninth and tenth centuries, Islamic Spain was still in the ascendancy. After largely breaking from the Carolingians, the counts of Barcelona established bonds of submission to the caliph in Cordoba, a clear indication that a few counties were no match to a militarily superior power. However, the events of 985–988 demonstrated their vulnerability. A new figure, Al-Mansur (the Victorious), emerged as the real power in Córdoba after the succession of al-Hisham II in 981, and from the beginning, he began a long series of campaigns against the Christians of the north. In 985, Barcelona was sacked by Al-Mansur, an event that reverberated long afterwards and survived in the popular imagination as ‘the day that Barcelona died’. When Al-Mansur captured Barcelona, its leaders were executed, slaughter was widespread and those survived were sold into slavery. A number of monasteries were burned to the ground in the area close to Barcelona. At a key moment in the conflict, count Borrell of Barcelona sought assistance from the Frankish king but once this aid was declined, the final separation of the Catalan counties was complete, though symbolic deference continued for a time.
Impact of 985
The devastation wrought by Al-Mansur revealed the defensive weakness of the counties. Yet 985 can also be now seen as a high point in the military superiority of the Arabs over the Catalan region. Tensions within Islamic society saw internal conflict, revolts and rebellions which would culminate in the rupture of Al-Andalus into smaller kingdoms, known as taifas. In 1010, a Christian force sacked the city of Cordoba, though at a high cost in terms of troops lost. Muslim rule began a slow decline and an increasing position of advantage to the northern zone. However, this took time as the county of Barcelona was severely disrupted by the destruction and loss of population. It is unlikely that the population within the city walls numbered more than 1,500 in the year 1000. The first priority was the rebuilding of a defence system and the city walls of Barcelona. This began the process of expansion of the city into the surrounding areas. As this process developed, Barcelona came to be the dominant city in the territory in both political and economic terms. Financial pressures saw the leading aristocrats pressure the peasantry and we can discern the shift towards feudal relations.9 This incipient feudalism was already appearing in many areas of Christian Europe. The adoption of the feudal approach to the organisation of the land also lead to the other counties of the zone recognising the authority of Barcelona. The counts of Barcelona emerged as the most powerful rulers in the region and expanded their territory by acquiring control of neighbouring counties, often through strategic marriages.
The Wars of the Counts
However, as occurred in many European territories in the mid-eleventh century, including the German lands, Hungary and Poland, many nobles were not yet ready to submit to a greater lord or king. As the Catalan lands sought to rebuild following 985, financial pressure led to a series of local rebellions, at times at the level of civil war in terms of intensity. Local elites rebelled against the Count and made use of their castles to assert local control. New obligations were imposed on the peasantry, cementing the feudal process. These pressures were caused by the opportunity provided by self-enrichment for the aristocracy as central control was resisted.10 Yet what occurred in the Catalan lands was in keeping with the patterns elsewhere, as feudal relations were closely aligned with a militarised culture.11 All attempts to stop the spiral of violence failed. At times the Church sought mediation, at others it aligned itself with the count or rebellious lords. These conflicts intensified in the second half of the eleventh century and have become known to history as the Wars of the Counts. These were centred in three zones: Pallars, Cerdanya and Barcelona. Yet few were able to remain outside of the conflict as noble power increased. Many of the noble houses that, in the future, would be the most influential in Catalonia, rose to the forefront of politics.12 These revolts and conflicts delayed a push south, in spite of the fact that the taifas were particularly vulnerable to being defeated due to their fragmentation. A substantial area of unoccupied land existed on the frontier between the taifas and the Christian zone, a territory that became greatly desired.13 By 1080, the count of Barcelona had re-asserted control and subsequently feudal relations between count and the local aristocracy were re-established. The capture of the city of Tarragona in 1099 symbolised a new unity. Whilst a shadow of its former self, being somewhat abandoned and unrepaired, it still held resonance as a historic city in the collective imagination.
One consequence of the end of the Wars of the Counts was the normalisation of violence to resolve disputes. Again, this was part of a common pattern in other European territories. This also saw the emergence of a warrior ethic based on bravery and loyalty.14 We have previously noted how future Catalan territory, whether in Christian or Islamic hands, was disproportionately prone to the experience of war and conflict. Violence was assimilated as a natural state of society and filtered down from the counts of Barcelona who used it to assert their dominance. At the same time, local counts and lords used violent means to resist central control or assert their local dominance. By these means, the basic norms of early medieval society such as bonds of loyalty and fealty were imposed. For a period, the priority of unity over the Islamic enemy prevailed, as did the distribution of vast spoils, but we will later see the devastating impact of violent civil war in Catalan society in the later middle ages. Feudalism as a social system was also built on a concept of honour. The Church-led system of moral values required the adoption of the vow of marriage, bringing with it norms of subordination and obedience. As a further indication of territorial assertion, the surnames of nobles became territorial and were often used, once a castle in the family name had been built.15 By the tenth century, castles had become a normalised feature of the landscape, and their expansion in the century that followed was closely connected to the Wars of the Counts. Power and domination were exercised through force and intimidation.16 The construction of castles after 1100 entailed a new permanence through the use of stone as primary material, ending the practice of partly wooden construction.17 Castles then played a role in demarcating the boundaries of controlled territory.
Feudal relations
Between the fall of Rome in the west and the full establishment of feudal relations, for a period, the peasantry had developed a degree of autonomy and self-sufficiency. This was gradually eroded by a process of taking over land of free peasants, usually achieved by the categorisation of newly acquired land as private or public. The move towards feudal relations had begun from around 900, through what has been termed the increasing caging of the peasantry.18 Peasant plot sizes fell and they came under increased pressure from church and the aristocracy. This value system also had implications for the position of women as the notion of the male heir, l’hereu, became normalised.19 The loss of freedoms for women, including many who worked the land, saw their relative autonomy eroded by the Church and a new social order.20 The dowry as a form of payment for marriage became increasingly normalised. The occasional instance of a prominent female noble reaches us, such as countess Ermessenda who co-governed Barcelona, Girona and Osona in the first half of the eleventh century. As the new economic order stabilised, instances of this kind are ever less frequent.
In the case of Catalan territory, it was proximity to the kingdom of Charlemagne and the Franks that permitted the adoption of feudalism, in contrast to hybrid and diverse models in other regions of Spain.21 The final years of the tenth century and the first half of the eleventh was the period during which a radical transformations took place. The domination of the local lord and the privileges ascribed to their families were more intense in Catalan lands than any other part of the peninsula.22 Local lords and the religious increasingly established monopolies around the usage of mills, ovens and presses, as well as any modest manufacturing.23 By mid-century, a new legal code emerged, which became known as the Usatges. This code was first compiled from 1068 and became in time a rudimentary civil law. It would not be, however, until the fourteenth century that the Usatges became an established form.24 Trade between the Christian zone and the taifas was penalised and fines introduced for those sold foodstuffs or weaponry.25 Whilst we term this period the beginnings of feudalism, we should note that the term feudalism is a much later coinage and did not emerge until the eighteenth century.26 A series of obligations was gradually imposed on sectors of the peasantry, known as (mals usos) misuses, which laid out the form of servitude required to the lord. Social stratification intensified with the rising wealth of the local nobility requiring a regime of defence of their interests, usually in the form of castles, which facilitated the assertion of local control.27 The programme of castle building extended as far south as Tarragona.
A parallel and linked process in the emergence of the feudal order was the development of the Church as a key component within the society. In the Marches, the owning of land became central to status. In parallel to this, the rising influence of the Church meant status affirmation could occur through donating land to the Church. From 970, we begin to find donations and bequests where the allotments and rents were given specifically to the clergy of the see. The counts and nobles increasingly built, together with higher ranking church figures, a new social order, through the control of ecclesiastical institutions and the hereditary transmission of the offices and incomes assigned to them. Thus, a bishopric and abbacy would nearly always be led by a member of a leading noble family.
Urban life and the market
Before the eleventh century, in medieval European cities, the notion of the market as a site of sale and exchange was little developed.28 Early markets mostly provided goods for luxury consumption. Local craft workers and merchants carried out their activity in the service of a privileged urban clientele: the count and his entourage, the bishop and his family. The local market was also a mechanism for local elites to extract profits.29 The fair was another development, with some evidence pointing to their emergence before 900. From the eleventh century, we see the emergence of both new fairs and markets. Fairs, which occurred several times a year also contributed to the rise of status of a location.30 Hospitals were also established. In that sense, these places stood out compared to villages that lacked these services. The emergence of the weekly market, usually held on Sundays, contributed to the growth of a settlement or town as it became a local pole of attraction. Road links were also key to determining the growth potential of a locality. Local officials were more likely to be established in these locales, as was a greater range of artisans, further contributing to the centrality of the locale. A virtuous pattern was thus created which ensured the upkeep and expansion of roads serving that community. In time, locations such as these would be construed as local capitals.
Taifa
Whilst conquest of these terrains was not yet possible, the situation of the tenth century was increasingly reversed with Christian forces now having the capacity to mount raids and excursions. Although Christianity and Islam defined the two sides of the cultural frontier, religious differences were secondary motivations in their conflicts during the eleventh century. Moreover, during peaceful intervals, a variety of cultural, commercial, social and political exchanges occurred across the religious frontiers. Al-Andalus had, however, reached its zenith and was engulfed in civil war. Central authority collapsed in the 1010s, leading to division into 30 or so locally based territorial Islamic kingdoms, the taifas. Christian territory gradually expanded southward into Muslim-controlled areas, with the raiders sacking towns, destroying crops and seizing animals, collecting loot and captives for ransom or enslavement and encouraging Mozarabs to return with the raiders and take up residence in Christian areas. Yet the Christian zone to the north was still unable to capitalise on this crisis and in spite of growing Christian pressure, these societies were not conquered.
Lleida became an independent taifa or emirate that included under its jurisdiction a large part of the current counties of Segrià, the south of La Noguera, Pla d’Urgell and La Segarra. Whilst no individual taifa could defeat Christian kingdoms of the north, Christian Spain was not yet strong enough to reconquer and repopulate extensive territories. Instead, Christian leaders intervened in the squabbles amongst the taifas, forming alliances with some taifas against others, or launching independent attacks to sack cities and capture territories. The economic damage was obviously considerable, not just in terms of the tribute paid but also of ravaged lands and deserted villages. Instead of attacking, they might threaten a vulnerable taifa into paying protection money in the form of tribute. In 1051, Yusuf b. Hud, ruler of Lleida, paid northern Christian counts to protect him against his family in Zaragoza. The count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer received taxes from the Saracens of Tortosa and Lleida and thus was able to increase his wealth. This enabled him to cement his status as the leading count in the Christian zone. The northern Christian counties increasingly held the initiative which increased on these frontier zones as the century proceeds. Al-Andalus was gravely weakened by the later eleventh century. However, the situation was transformed for a while with the arrival of the Almoravids. This grouping, embodying an intransigent form of Islam, crossed into Spain in 1086 and began a series of reverses for the Christian powers.
Expansion of villages
Around 800, the zone under Carolingian control was populated with semi-scattered settlements made up mainly of hamlets. Some of these hamlets later became villages, others became farmsteads and others simply disappeared. The usual settlement type was one of scattered population, separated into isolated houses. This form became widespread after the eleventh century. From the 850s, the land that was more distant from the frontier experienced a new process of human intervention. Settlements stabilised and new land was cleared of woodland. The appearance of these farmsteads had an effect on the cultivated landscape. Each agricultural unit was often surrounded by its fields, orchards, and sometimes a vineyard, and even had rights over woodland or pastureland. In mountainous land, many farmsteads were made up of a large field and a group of terraces. The grazing of herds was normally the principal source of wealth with iron smelting an additional resource controlled by local lords.31 Although it remains common to speak of a medieval climate anomaly lasting perhaps from 800 to 1300 at its maximum extent, it now seems that the increase was more modest than assumed and within the broader pattern there was substantial variation. Yet even a more modest increase in temperatures did permit increased agricultural production, which enabled population and urban growth. Village names became established as permanent features.32
As in many Western European locations, the eleventh and twelfth centuries saw the building of villages around churches, some were built around castles, and villages (vilanoves) were established where previously there had been none.33 New villages were often organised along one or two streets. Both the Church and the nobility sought to influence the village-building process, with a battle for souls and tenants relevant to both. A feature that has lasted until the present, the Mas type farmhouses are the type of tenure best identified of the time, especially since the middle of the eleventh century. These peasant homes were modestly scattered, not usually more than 150 metres apart.34 Whilst still tied to their local lord, these farmsteads usually provided sufficient surplus to permit a modest degree of security to the peasantry.35 As society became feudalised, large sections of the population remained subject to a few lords, to whom they had to serve and swear allegiance. Some were tied to the land and could not leave it. They were the so-called remença peasants, because they had to pay a certain amount to free themselves from these obligations.36 The Church was also a beneficiary in this social ordering.
Church development
The institutionalisation of the Church was a central component to the establishment of feudal relations.37 The count appointed the bishops, or intervened in their appointment, because the bishop was the linkage between the count and the local population. The formation process of the parish network of the Catalan lands has traditionally been situated in the middle ages.38 The parish, as a boundary, represented the basic foundation of religious life. Their increase is significant between the tenth and eleventh centuries, which indicates both population growth as southwards movements became safer. The proliferation of new parishes is also an indicator that Christianisation was closely connected to this population movement. The establishment of the parish was also how the Church benefited through the tithe tribute, often around 10 per cent of the harvest. Monasteries were one further element in the assertion of local control. Once consolidated, monasteries became important sources of local legitimation. New roads were built or repaired to permit the emergence of religious networks. This does not mean that churches built then were still there 500 years later. Rather, what was important was that the parish was established and a new Church would normally be built later to replace the old. Monasteries were established in areas that were dynamic economically and with stable populations, whilst religious buildings from the Visigothic period were repaired.
The establishment of doctrinal uniformity was part of the process of Christianisation. The first doctrinal divergence deemed a heresy for four centuries was associated with two bishops, one from Toledo and the other, Felix of Urgell, and appeared in the late eighth century. The doctrine was known as adoptionism and claimed that Jesus was the adopted son of God. It was condemned as polytheism. The doctrine and its supporters were repressed by the Franks and a re-Christianisation process of conventional theology was pursued in the areas that had followed adoptionism.39 Subsequently, Catalan territory became increasingly integrated into the normal patterns of western Christendom. New monasteries were established such as Cuixà (878), Ripoll (879) and Sant Joan de les Abadesses (887), which became centres of ritualistic activity. By the year 1000, the Benedictines alone had founded over 100 monasteries in Catalan lands. Ripoll became the spiritual capital, shrine and place of burial for the Barcelona dynasty.40 It was Ripoll, through the affluence derived from landholding, that was able to excel in manuscript copying and became a point of transmission of Islamic science to other European centres. Ripoll became strongly associated with a figure seen as central in the history of Catalan Christianity: abbot Òliba. From a noble family, Òliba was abbot of Ripoll and Cuixa, and later bishop of Vic. He was influential in the cultural terrain and also sought to promote the Truce of God, where warfare did not occur on Sundays or religious holidays. This movement existed in other parts of Europe and had emerged due to concern at the destruction wrought on religious buildings during dynastic conflicts.41 Whilst it was of minor significance at the time, Abbot Òliba also founded the monastery of Montserrat. Many abbeys played key roles in the processes of repopulating territory that had been mostly sparsely populated due to political instability and constant war, including Ripoll, Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Sant Cugat and Montserrat. The Church and the nobility continued to have interests that spanned the Pyrenees, and exchange, whether religious, cultural or economic, was common between these zones. Whether it was genuinely practised or not, Christianity remained consolidated as the principal religious expression in the territory.
The Jews
With the main focus of the Church in the development of a crusading culture in the south, the small Jewish population in the northern zone was able to consolidate. Jews were often the principal transmitters of innovation between Christian and Islamic zones as traders were permitted to move freely between both zones. In 1105, count Ramon Berenguer III of Barcelona permitted some trading privileges for these merchants with Al-Andalus. The counts of Barcelona both owned and protected the Jewish population.42 Barcelona and Girona became the two cities most associated with a Jewish population. As early as the late tenth century, there is evidence of a synagogue in Girona. By the eleventh century, a concentrated Jewish community is found within the city of Barcelona, which in time will become known as the Call. We can speak of a broad tolerance of the Jewish community in this period and opportunity would arise for leading figures to take roles in the court. The Barcelona-based Jewish philosopher Abraham bar Hiyya facilitated the cross-translation of works written in Arabic or Hebrew into Latin.43 With the Almoravids and later the Almohads from North Africa expressing a more intolerant and crusading form of Islam, a northwards movement of Jews occurred into the Christian zone. With their knowledge of Arabic, some were employed as translators.
Almoravids and Almohads
Any assumption that Islamic Spain was finished was checked by the emergence of two fervent nomadic conquerors from North Africa, the Almohads and Almoravids. Their crusading form of Islam seemed to revive the collective moral of the territories of Al-Andalus and not only checked Christian advance but also were able to reverse it, which included the taking of Zaragoza. More significant for the counts of Barcelona, this brought to an end the system of tribute they had benefitted from with the taifa kingdoms. Raids were launched and in 1108 and 1109, territory as far north as Penedès was plundered, with the attendant burning of churches. As a consequence, the counts of Barcelona sought external assistance, including from England and France. European society is increasingly mobilised around the defence of Christendom and the First Crusade had launched 20 years earlier with the Second launched in 1147. It is in this context that the Christians increasingly frame their conflict in the Iberian peninsula in religious terms, mirroring that of their opponents. In response to the Almoravid threat, an internationalisation of the conflict occurred. The Papacy supported warfare against the pagans (Moslems) in Spain. Those knights who had missed the First Crusade saw Spain as an opportunity to redeem themselves amongst their social class as well as personal enrichment. This was an elite culture that valued both honour and a natural hierarchy, conveniently ordained by God. Aristocrats, knights and other leading figures thus shared a common heritage in the defence of Christendom. The leading cleric of the time, Oleguer Archbishop of Tarragona, called on foreign knights to aid in the defeat of the infidel. Oleguer, originally a Bishop of Barcelona had been rewarded by Ramon Berenguer III as Archbishop of Tarragona, restoring this historic location as the primary centre of the Catalan church. Oleguer was a leading proponent of the doctrine of the Truce of God. However, it was only to be applied amongst Christians and did not apply to pagans (as Moslems were seen). With an emergent culture of Christian unity, as well as international assistance, the Almoravid threat was gradually reduced. By around 1145, the Almoravid Empire fell apart. However, a new dynastic grouping of the Almohads entered Spain from North Africa and, by 1172, ruled all of Al-Andalus.
Creation of the kingdom of Aragon
As an indication of the rising status of the count-kings of Barcelona, they became allied in the Mediterranean with Pisa and Genoa. As with any successful medieval house, transactional and strategic marriages were made, including with Sicily. The Counts of Barcelona maintained cultural, economic and political ties with Rome as well as with the counties on the other side of the Pyrenees as well as Muslim Spain. Close cultural and dynastic connections meant that these mountains were not seen as a frontier, and a cross-cultural relation between Catalonia and Occitan territory later intensified. Attachment to a territory in this zone as well as one that could expand southwards remained strong; however, at some point, the growing ambitions of the kingdom of France ensured a conflict over this zone. The dominance of the house of Barcelona within the Christian zone had been clearly established and its leadership was accepted by the other houses.44 It is in this period that we see the first references to the terms Catalan and Catalans used by external observers. We should note that ‘Spaniard’ was not used until the thirteenth century, rather regional expressions such as Castilian or Leonese, etc. were applied. However, the term to describe the land as Catalonia had not yet been adopted but would begin to be used from around the 1150s.
The Christian kingdoms throughout the peninsula were now sufficiently strong to pursue a serious project of conquest and expand the area under their control. In 1114, the house of Barcelona sacked the Balearic islands of Ibiza and Mallorca. Yet full conquest was not possible due to the Almoravid threat and retreat to Barcelona was required. The neighbouring kingdom of Aragon, extending from the Pyrenees to the Ebro valley, developed along lines similar to Castile, where the Visigothic heritage was most important. A number of Christian kingdoms had now emerged across the north and were soon to embark on a major thrust southwards. With both Aragon and Catalonia still relatively small compared to Navarre and Leon, an alliance between them seemed to make strategic sense, providing benefits to both. Aragonese elites were weakened and feared assimilation within a rising Castile. For the Catalan counties, alliance with Aragon ensured the emergence of a territory of greater size, which was deemed useful against anticipated southwards pressure from France. The union of Aragon and Catalonia took place in 1137 with the betrothal of the count of Barcelona, Ramón Berenguer, to Petronilla, then still a child. For a period, this ruler and kingdom was the most powerful in the peninsula.
From 1137, Ramón Berenguer ruled a unified Aragon and Catalonia. The union was dynastic, that is, two dynasties were merged, but the institutions of each country continued to function separately. We find here a parallel with the future union between Aragon and Castile which maintained a confederal rather than unitary relation. The new king met with the Aragonese courts in Zaragoza and with the Catalan courts in Barcelona. In these Catalan was spoken, and in the others Aragonese. Local legislative texts such as the Usatges de Barcelona continued to be in full force separately. The currency was also different. The Crown of Aragon, which existed between 1137 and 1715, was a monarchy made up of various political entities that shared the same sovereign: King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona; and later also king of Valencia, Mallorca, Sardinia, etc. However, as Catalan influence was greater than that of Aragon for most of the existence, we can also call the counts of Barcelona ‘count-kings’.45 One of the principal outcomes of the new union was an agreed division of the territory to be conquered in the south: the Crown of Aragon would move on the Mediterranean strip as far as Murcia whilst Castile would focus on the western Islamic zone of the Peninsula. The new unified Kingdom of Aragon embarked on a southern conquest that was now framed as a religious crusade.46 Pope Urban II granted indulgences, meaning remission of sin, to those who fought in the Iberian campaigns against the Muslims as had been offered to the participants of the First Crusade.47 The granting of property, special rights and freedoms was intended to attract settlers from the older and more secure Christian territories to the newly conquered cities and lands on the frontiers of Christendom. Warriors from elsewhere including Normandy helped make the Iberian frontier a new battleground in the development of crusading theology.48 The king led a reconquest of frontier lands and offered generous terms to the Muslims, allowing them to live under Christian authority and to retain their religion. With the submission of Tortosa and Lleida, a vast expansion of the territory was achieved. The next century would see even greater conquests southwards into Valencia. None of these cities was retaken, and a Catalan zone that had been under Islamic rule for over 400 years came to an end.
Consequences of the conquest
As we have seen, frontier zones had experienced decades of military pressure, raids and excursions. Whilst the city of Tarragona had been taken by the count of Barcelona in 1091, the re-settlement of the region was not very successful due to it becoming a new frontier. Tarragona had become almost a no-man’s-land, where settlers were afraid to live for fear of Andalusi raids.49 Count Ramon Berenguer IV began the conquest of Tortosa in July 1148, at the head of a force that can be deemed an international alliance, with the papacy again encouraging participation. The city resisted for five months, until in December, Tortosa capitulated. With surrender, the city of Tortosa and its Muslim inhabitants were promised measures to respect their religion, the protection of mosques and preserve their property.50 However, these promises were subsequently broken with mosques being converted into churches, Muslims enslaved and assigned to work the land. This breech in the agreement was partly because of pressure by contingents, both local and foreign, who demanded rewards for their part in the conquest. Christian colonisation of the city proceeded, with Norman, French, Catalan or Aragonese settlers, amongst the new settlers. The conquest of Lleida, together with that of Tortosa, meant the full incorporation of the lands that would define Catalonia into the present.
The Christian conquest of Tortosa and Lleida, in the mid-twelfth century, represented the acquisition of great wealth in land due to the established system of irrigation and market gardens (hortes). Military successes were combined with economic and demographic ones.51 In general terms, there was continuity of occupation and for most of the population, the conquest represented a change in ruling elites. For now, the religious practice of Islam was tolerated. The new regime required the recognition on the part of the Moslem population of its new vassalage in exchange for permission to continue to practise its religion.52 In most parts of the territory, there was a repopulation process with the arrival of new settlers from the northern zone. This process of populating changed the internal dynamic of Catalan territory. Dominated for hundreds of years by terrain close to mountains, a new spatial geography unfolded.
By the mid-twelfth century, the Christian zone of the Iberian peninsula was much greater than that remaining under Islamic control. One hundred and fifty years later, only the small kingdom of Granada survived. All the differing Christian kingdoms that had emerged were now strong enough to embark on further southwards conquest. However, first a period of internal consolidation was required to assimilate the recently gained territory including a large non-Christian population. Each Christian kingdom brought with it a new economic and political tradition into the newly conquered lands. New land to distribute was in abundance. Knights received fiefs along the advancing border both in order to shore up defences and to promote settlement along the frontier.53 As well as new economic models and social structures, cultural and linguistic transformation would also transform these territorial additions. By the end of the eleventh century, there is an increasing quantity of texts produced that bear ever closer resemblance to something we can call the Catalan language. These are mostly documents of a legal kind that contain instances of phrasing that is clearly Catalan. Given the prominent role of the religious in the maintenance of a literate culture, the first texts fully written in the Catalan language are associated with the Bishop of Urgell in 1080 and 1095. Catalan noble families also engaged in having family histories written as a mechanism to give their lineage a sense of historical continuity. By the 1150s, Catalonia was united and defined institutionally under a sovereign who was king of Aragon and count of Barcelona. The recent incorporation of vast new terrains was but the beginning in a phase of expansion both by land and by sea that was about to begin.
Notes
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