Ramon Berenguer I, Count of Barcelona
Ramon Berenguer I el Vell ("the Old") was Count of Barcelona in
1035-
1076. He promulgated the earliest versions of a written code of Catalan law, the
Usages of Barcelona.
Born in
1024, he succeeded his father,
Berenguer Ramon the Crooked in
1035. It is during his reign that the dominant position of Barcelona among other
Catalan counties became evident.
Ramon Berenguer campaigned against the
Moors, extending his dominions as far west as
Barbastro and imposing heavy tributes (
parias) on other Moorish cities. Historians claim that those tributes helped create the first wave of prosperity in Catalan history. During his reign Catalan maritime power started to be felt in Western Mediterranean. Ramon Berenguer the Old was also the first count of Catalonia to acquire lands (counties of
Carcassonne and
Razés) and influence north of the Pyrenees.
Another major achievement of his was beginning of
codification of Catalan law in the written
Usatges or
Usatici of Barcelona which was to become the first full compilation of
feudal law in Western Europe. Legal codification was part of the count's efforts to forward and somehow control the process of feudalization which started during the reign of his weak father, Berenger Ramon. Another major contributor was the
Church acting through the institution of the
Peace and Truce of God. This established a general truce among warring factions and lords in a given region for a given time. The earliest extant date for introducing the
Truce of God in
Western Europe is
1027 in Catalonia, during the reign of Ramon Berenguer the Old.
He was succeeded by his twin sons
Ramon Berenguer II and
Berenguer Ramon II. His sister, Sibylle of Barcelona, married
Henry of Burgundy, and would become the grandmother of
Alfonso Henriques, first king of
Portugal.
Ramon Berenguers's marriages and descendants
* First wife, Isabel (or Elisabeth) of
Narbonne or of
Béziers** Berenguer (died young)
** Arnau (died young)
** Pere Ramon (1050-1073?) -> murdered his father's wife, Almodis, and was exiled
* Second wife, Blanca (origin unknown)
* Third wife,
Almodis de La Marche, countess of
Limoges**
Berenguer Ramon II, Count of Barcelona the Fratricide (1053/54-1097)
**
Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona the Towhead (1053/54-1082)
** Inés -> married Hugh d'Albo
** Sancha -> married Guilhem Ramon, count of
Cerdanya
