Bera, Count of Barcelona

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The changeing territory of Bera throughout his reign.

Bera (Catalan: ) (d.844) was the first count of Barcelona from 801 until his deposition in 820. He was also count of Girona, Besalú, and Ausona from 812 or 817 and count of Razès and Conflent from 790 until his deposition. Because he held several frontier counties, he was the margrave of Gothia.

He was the son of William I, count of Toulouse and cousin of Charlemagne, and of the Visigoth princess Cunegunda, William's first wife. After 790 his father handed over to him the government of the counties of Razès and Conflent, entrusting those of Rosselló (with the pagus of Vallespir) and Ampurias to his other son Gaucelm (his son by his second wife Romilla).

Contents

1 Background and installation
2 Expeditions across the Ebro

2.1 First expedition
2.2 Second expedition
2.3 Third expedition

3 First truce
4 Second truce and downfall

Background and installation

From 796, Sa'dun al Ruayni governed Barcelona in opposition to Al-Hakam I, emir of Córdoba. In April 797, he was presented in Aachen and offered to submit the city to Charlemagne in exchange for his help against Córdoba. Charlemagne summoned an assembly in Toulouse in the spring of 800 and decided to send his son Louis the Pious toward Barcelona. An army under the command of several noble men, among them Rostany of Girona, Adhemar of Narbonne, and the aforementioned William of Toulouse, departed for Barcelona to assume control of the city, but Sa'dun did not fulfil his promise. They began a long siege, probably beginning in the autumn of 800. Sa'dun attempted to escape toward Córdoba to request help but he was captured. He was replaced as governor by Harun. The Christian Goth population continued to starve under the siege and finally decided to hand over Harun and the city, probably on Saturday, April 3, 801, with Louis entering the city on the following day. Not long after, Bera, who had participated in the siege, was invested as count. It is believed that Bera, under the influence of his mother, along with the supporters of a peace with the Muslims, instituted a truce that was finally accepted by Charlemagne in the year 812, for a term of three years.

Expeditions across the Ebro

Despite the influence of his Visigothic mother, urging him to keep peace with the Moslems, he took part in the Frankish campaigns to extend the southern border of the Marca Hispanica to the River Ebro, a natural barrier. There were three campaigns in 804, 808, and 809.

First expedition

In 804, Louis the Pious led an army to Tarragona, where, in Santa Coloma, the army divided into two bands. The one under Louis marched straight for Tortosa while the one under Bera, Adhemar, and Borrel of Ausona covered Louis' western flank and attacked Tortosa from the south. Bera circled his army around after crossing the Ebro at its confluence with the Cinca. The army moved as far as Vila Rubea before being forced to turn back to Vallis Ibana (possibly modern Vallibona), near Morella. There they met Louis's faction, back from an unsuccessful siege of Tortosa, and the two turned back to the north.

Second expedition

In 808, Charlemagne sent his legate Ingobert to Toulouse to meet Louis and prepare another expedition. The same tactic as in 804 was again employed. The so-called "Astronomer", author of the Vita Hludovici, writes that the forces of Bera and Adhemar crossed the Ebro in prepared boats while the horses swam. The horse dung was swept by the current past Tortosa and alerted the garrison. The wali of the city attacked and Bera was forced to retreat again.

Third expedition

In 809, Louis led his last expedition as king of Aquitaine into the Marca. With siege engines, Tortosa was besieged for forty days by Frankish and local troops (under Bera). The new emir, Abd ar-Rahman II, met the besiegers with an army. The Moorish chronicler Al Maqqari records that it was Moslem victory, while Astronomus simply states that the besieged offered Louis's the keys to the city and, satisfied, the king of Aquitaine lifted the siege and left.

First truce

It is probable that Bera was foremost in prompting peace with Córdoba. The Frankish court made a treaty of peace with that of Córdoba in 812. It took effect for three years.

In the year of the truce, Bera's father died on 18 May. Razès and Conflent passed fully into his hands. Soon thereafter, following his father's example, Bera gave his son Guillemó power there.

Also in that year, Bera travelled to the court of Aachen with several other counts of the region: Adhemar of Narbonne, Gaucelm of Roussillon, Odilo of Girona, Guiscafred of Carcassonne, Ermengar of Ampurias, Laibulf of Provence, and Erlin of Béziers. Several Gothic (hispani) nobles had accused the counts, mostly of Frankish paternity, of imposing unjust tributes and excises on their lands. The magnates defence was unsuccessful and Charlemagne decided in favour of the claimants

Second truce and downfall

Around 813, Count Odilo of Girona and Besalú died and these counties passed to Bera. In 815, the war with the Muslims, who, under the command of Ubayd Allah Abu Marwan, uncle of the emir Al-Hakam I, had assaulted Barcelona, was resumed. A Visigothic mercenary army compelled to the attackers to retire. This victory increased the prestige of Bera, whose relationships with the local Gothic nobility had to be very good. In November 816, the wali of Zaragoza traveled to Aachen and negotiated a new truce, which was finally concluded in February 817, for three years. The failures of the Frankish policy in Pamplona, where the Basques allied with the Banu Qasi successfully defied the Frankish authority, and Aragón, where the count allied with the Basques, presented this truce, and its main sponsor, Bera, as contradicting national interests. The war party was headed by Bera's half-brother, Gaucelm, and by Gaucelm's brother Bernard.

In February 820, a general assembly was celebrated in Aachen with Bera in attendance. Gaucelm sent his Gothic lieutenant Sanila in his place, who accused Bera of infidelity and perfidy. The litigation, as was customary in that era, was settled by a judicial duel in the palace itself. Bera was defeated by Sanila. Emperor Louis I, who did not consider the count a traitor, commuted the penalty of death implicitly carried by the defeat, and instead sent him into exile in Rouen. There he stayed until his death in the year 844. In Barcelona he was succeeded by Rampó.

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