Wilfred the Hairy and the Birth of the Counties
On the Frankish frontier against al-Andalus, the counts of Barcelona gather the Catalan counties into one hereditary house and drift free of Frankish rule.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat) — Grup Enciclopèdia, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana
- Catalan Nationalism: Past and Present — Albert Balcells, Macmillan (1996)
- Barcelona — Robert Hughes, Knopf (1992)
After the Muslim conquest of Iberia, Charlemagne’s Franks pushed south of the Pyrenees and took Barcelona in 801, setting up a frontier zone of counties historians call the “Spanish March”. Its counts were Frankish officials, but power gradually became local and hereditary. Wilfred the Hairy (Guifré el Pilós, count from 878 until his death in battle in 897) held Barcelona, Girona, Urgell, Cerdanya and other counties, repopulated the empty lands of the interior and founded the monasteries of Ripoll and Sant Joan de les Abadesses. He is buried at Ripoll, often called the “cradle of Catalonia”.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat) — Grup Enciclopèdia, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana
- Barcelona — Robert Hughes, Knopf (1992)
In 985 the Andalusian ruler al-Mansur sacked Barcelona. The Frankish king sent no help, and when the Carolingian line ended in 987, Count Borrell II did not renew his homage to the new Capetian king. From then on the counts of Barcelona were sovereign in all but name. The name “Catalonia” itself appears in written sources in the early twelfth century.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat) — Grup Enciclopèdia, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana
Whatever its historical basis, the story of Wilfred and the four bars has been told since the nineteenth-century Renaixença as the founding legend of the nation, and the senyera flies today from Catalan town halls and balconies.
- Catalan Nationalism: Past and Present — Albert Balcells, Macmillan (1996)
- Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat) — Grup Enciclopèdia, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana
Wilfred (Guifré el Pilós) was wounded fighting for the Frankish emperor, who dipped his fingers in the count's blood and drew four red stripes across his golden shield: the origin of the Catalan flag. Wilfred made the county hereditary, and Catalonia was born.
- Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat) — Grup Enciclopèdia, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana
- Catalan Nationalism: Past and Present — Albert Balcells, Macmillan (1996)
The blood legend first appears in the sixteenth century and is not history, though the red and gold bars are attested as the arms of the counts of Barcelona from the twelfth century. Wilfred did unite several counties and pass them to his sons, and Borrell II's break with the Franks in 988 was a real turning point.
- The Medieval Crown of Aragon: A Short History — T. N. Bisson, Oxford University Press (1986)
- Enciclopèdia Catalana (enciclopedia.cat) — Grup Enciclopèdia, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana
Why it matters today
Catalans date their nation to these centuries, and the legend of the four red bars, the *senyera*, is one of the first stories Catalan children hear. In 1988 Catalonia celebrated a "millennium" of its de facto independence from the Franks.