County of Conflent

Conflent in the context of the western Spanish march in the early ninth century.

The County of Conflent or Confluent (

Marca Hispanica in the ninth century. Usually associated with the County of Cerdanya and the county of Razès, it was located to the west of Roussillon. It largely corresponded to the modern comarca of Conflent

.

History

In

Moorish phase before it was reconstituted as a county by the Franks. It was initially attached to the County of Razès and the Barcelona

.

Conflent was one of the last Catalan counties to see widespread grants of

aprisiones, which were not commonplace until the 890s.^[1] Serfdom, though less common there than elsewhere, existed in Conflent in the late ninth century.^[2]

Until 870 Conflent was also attached to the counties of

Carolingian monarch was disregarded and Conflent was ruled as a family possession. Already in the reign of Charles the Bald much of the royal fisc in Conflent had been granted away.^[3]

Throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries, Conflent was attached to Cerdagne, which was almost always more prominent.

In the mid-tenth century Conflent experienced a period of encastellation. Two castles, Castellano and Turres Betses, appear by the 950s; castles were more common in the Spanish and Gothic marches as one approached the border with the Moors:^[4] Conflent therefore lay somewhere in the middle in terms of density of fortifications.

Under

Vilafranca de Conflent

, which he had founded.

When the line of the counts of Cerdanya and Conflent died out in 1117, and the counties were inherited by

vegueria

within the county of Cerdanya or, more usually, Roussillon. Capcir was a sotsvegueria (major subdivision) of the vegueria of Conflent.

Conflent remained as a recognisable feudal unit as late as c.1200, when it was one of three counties (along with Cerdanya and Roussillon) whose charters were gathered together in the great cartulary called the Liber feudorum Ceritaniae.

Counts of Conflent

801 – 820 Bera
820 – 837 Oliba I
844 – 848
Sunifred I
848 – 860 Oliba II
860 – 870 Salomon
870 – 895 Miro I
895 – 897 Wilfred I the Hairy
897 – 927
Miro II
927 – 968 Sunifred II
968 – 984
Miro III
968 – 988 Oliba III Cabreta
988 – 1035
Wilfred II
1035 – 1068 William Raymond
1068 – 1095
William I
1095 – 1109
William II Jordan
1109 – 1117
Bernard

Sources

Lewis, Archibald Ross. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
Bisson, Thomas N. "Mediterranean Territorial Power in the Twelfth Century." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 123, No. 2. (Apr. 27, 1979), pp 143–150.
Bisson, Thomas N. "Celebration and Persuasion: Reflections on the Cultural Evolution of Medieval Consultation." Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol. 7, No. 2. (May, 1982), pp 181–204.

Notes

^ Lewis, 72 and n20.
^ Lewis, 170.
^ Lewis, 161–162.
^ Lewis, 229.
^ Bisson, Mediterranean Territorial Power, 144.
^ Bisson, Celebration and Persuasion, 185–186.

[1] Lewis, 72 and n20.

[2] Lewis, 170.

[3] Lewis, 161–162.

[4] Lewis, 229.

[5] Bisson, Mediterranean Territorial Power, 144.

[6] Bisson, Celebration and Persuasion, 185–186.

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