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Birth:          ABT  967 
Death:          1020 
Cause of Death: drowned in the Rhone
Burial:         Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoli

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_I,_Count_of_Besal%C3%BA
Bernard I (died 1020), called Taillefer (Bernat Tallaferro), was the Count of Besalú in 
Catalonia from 988 until his death. He was the eldest son of Oliba Cabreta and 
Ermengard of Empúries, and succeeded his father in Besalú while his younger brothers 
Oliba and Wifred, inherited Berga–Ripoll and Cerdagne–Conflent, respectively.[1][2]
Youth and succession[edit]

Bernard's first public action took place during the reign of his father, when he 
witnessed, alongside his mother, the donation of the church of Saint Vincent by Miro II 
to the church of Besalú on 12 April 977.[3] Bernard also witnessed his parents' 
donation of some property to Sant Llorenç de Bagà on 15 January 981, along with his 
brothers.[4] Oliba Cabreta had left his sons a strong principality, perhaps the strongest 
in Catalonia. Its control extended over the great Catalonian monasteries of Ripoll, 
Cuixà, Sant Joan, Lagrasse, Arles de Tec, Banyoles, and Camprodon.[5]

Despite already being a father of his eventual heir William, he had not fully come of 
age when his father abdicated to become a monk at Montecassino (988), since he and 
Wifred were left under the protection of the Pope, then John XV.[6] Alongside Besalú 
Bernard inherited the Fenouillèdes and Peyrepertuse in the County of Carcassonne, 
where his father had extended his dynasty's power base.[7] Bernard also stood to 
inherit Vallespir on the death of his mother, which finally occurred in 994.[8]

 Ecclesiastical policy[edit]

Despite its control of the great monasteries the family of Oliba Cabreta did not initially 
control a bishopric. This Bernard and his brothers immediately set out to rectify. 
Berengar, a younger brother, was made Bishop of Elne (993) and then Oliba resigned 
the county of Berga to Wifred and that of Ripoll to Bernard and entered the monastery 
of Ripoll (1003). He eventually became Bishop of Vic (1018).[8] By a large sum of 
money Bernard and Wifred then obtained the Archdiocese of Narbonne for Wifred's 
second son, also Wifred (1016).

In 998 Bernard joined Ermengol I of Urgell on a pilgrimage to Rome, the first of either. 
There they participated in a synod held under the auspices of the Emperor Otto III.[9] 
Ermengol returned to Rome in 1001. In 1016–17 Bernard and a large entourage that 
included with his sons William and Wifred, his brother Oliba, the viscounts of Besalú, 
Fenouillèdes, and Vallespir, the jurist Pons Bonfill, the abbot Adalbert, and many other 
dignitaries and prelates, went to Rome to celebrate Christmas at Saint Peter's 
Basilica.[10] There Bernard petitioned Pope Benedict VIII to create a see in Besalú. 
He also accused the nuns of Sant Joan of impropriety and because they refused to 
appear before a papal tribunal, Benedict suppressed their convent, calling it a 
meretrius de Venus (brothel) and establishing instead some monks under the rule of 
Aachen and remanding to Bernard the feudal dues of the abbey. By a bull directed to 
the new bishop, Benedict created Bernard's desired bishopric. The count then paid to 
have his second son, Wifred installed there.[11] Though a minor, Wifred was 
consecrated by the pope himself. The pope even gave Bernard the choice of the 
diocesan seat, which he placed in Besalú, in the Adalbert's monastery there.[12] To 
this monastery the new community at Sant Joan was subjected.[13] From Rome 
Bernard brought back a relic of the Holy Cross (Santes Creus, lignum Crucis) and 
deposited in Adalbert's Benedictine church, which already possessed altars dedicated 
to Sant Vicenç, Sant Salvador, Santa Maria, Sant Genís, and Sant Miquel Arcàngel.

Around 1000 Bernard founded a comital monastery at Sant Pau in the Fenouillèdes, 
delegating its organisation to Wifred, abbot of Cuixà. In 1003 the count transferred the 
ancient monastic community of Sant Aniol d'Aguja to Sant Llorenç del Mont. In the 
decade after Bernard's death this house was under the rule of abbot Tassius, also 
abbot of Sant Pere in 1029–31. The Aachen ruled church of Sant Pere in Besalú, 
rebuilt in a Romanesque style begun under Miro II, was consecrated on 23 September 
1003 by Bernard.

Bernard's relationship with the Church was unusual. In two judgements emitted from 
his court in 1002 and 1004 the list of confirmants begins with four abbots, all figures 
at court and an indication of the preeminence of the monsteries in Besalú at the time.
[10] In a charter of 1017 Bernard remarked that the Pope held the sceptre of the 
world, but in a spirit of independence added: "let no one, neither the Pope himself, 
nor a General Council, violate the conditions of this document".[14]

Military interventions[edit]

In 1003, Bernard took part in the defensive campaign—described as a "holy war" or 
"crusade"[15]—that defeated an invading Córdoban army in battle near Thoranum 
castrum.[16] Of the allied Catalan leaders, Bernard appears to have been the senior.
[17] According to an early source (1043), before the battle Bernard reasoned that if 
the saints Peter and Michael and the Virgin Mary each killed 5,000 Muslims, there 
would be a manageable number left for the soldiers. He further recalls that the Muslims 
are often slain before they have a chance to retreat.[16] In the end, the Córdobans 
retreated to their own territory, where a second battle was fought at Albesa. The result 
of this second battle is unclear, but probably not favourable to the Christians, but it 
was the end of the brief war, and possibly of the campaigning season as well. 
Bernard's presence at this second battle can be surmised based on the presence of 
his brother Berengar, who died there.[18]

When Giselbert I of Roussillon died in 1014 his brother Hugh I of Empúries invaded 
the County of Roussillon and tried to wrest it from the hands of Giselbert's young son, 
Gausfred II, who appealed to Bernard and Oliba for aid. Through their intervention 
Hugh and Gausfred came to terms in 1020.

Administration[edit]

In 1005 Bernard began using the title prince (princeps, which at the time retained its 
sense, derived from Isidore, of "sovereign"). His brother Oliba, in perpetuating his 
memory, calls him princeps et pater patriae: sovereign and father of his country. Oliba 
also lauds his fair judgement. In 1015 Bernard began using the title duke (dux), 
implying military and even ethnic leadership, but not usurping royal rank.[19]

During Bernard's rule in Besalú there is evidence of continued reliance on the Liber 
iudiciorum of the Visigoths and on the Frankish court system established by the 
Carolingians.[20] There is also the earliest evidence of new judicial procedures, some 
of which had already been developed in Occitania, such as the court of procures et 
boni homines, the relinquishing of property rights known as a guirpitio, and the 
agreement called a pacto or conventio.[21] Bernard minted his own currency, but no 
examples survive, the only evidence of it being documentary. Later coins of his 
grandson and namesake, Bernard II, contain a representation of a cross, representing 
the relic Bernard I retrieved in Rome. He was also the first Catalonian count to have 
his own seal, imitating the Carolingian emperors and the Frankish kings in style. 
Though the latter were his nominal sovereigns, the existence of such a seal suggests 
that civil authority rested entirely with Bernard.[10]

Marriage, heirs, and death[edit]

In 992, Bernard married Toda, also known as Adelaide, as contemporary charters 
attest. A grant of property dated 27 March 1000 to the church of Santa Maria del 
Castell de Besalú refers to uxori mee Tota que vocant Azalatz (my wife Toda who they 
call Adelaide) and another grant to the same, dated 1 March 1018, refers to uxor mea 
Tota comitissa que vocatur Adalet (my wife, the countess Toda, who is called 
Adelaide). The couple was a consistent patron of said church, also making a donation 
on 7 May 1012, with their son.[22] She is never mentioned after the publication of 
Bernard's will. According to the modern Europäische Stammtafeln, Toda may have 
been the daughter of William II of Provence or William II Sánchez of Gascony. It has 
been hypothesised that she was the route by which the exotic Byzantine name 
Constance, feminine form of Constantine, entered Spain. Boso II of Arles had married 
Constance, daughter of Charles Constantine and granddaughter of the Emperor Louis 
III and Anna, daughter of Leo VI the Wise. Boso's son, William I of Provence, married 
Adelaide of Anjou. Their son, William II, thus had both Adelaide and Constance in his 
name pool. If Bernard's wife was indeed his daughter, this would explain the name of 
Bernard's own eldest daughter and perhaps the name of a certain Constance, wife of 
Sancho Garcés, illegitimate son of García Sánchez III of Navarre, and a daughter of 
García's wife, Stephanie, by a previous marriage, perhaps to an unnamed son of 
Bernard of Besalú.[23]

Bernard drowned in the river Rhône while crossing into the County of Provence in 
1020 and was buried in the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll.[24] Bernard's will, 
dated 26 September 1020, lists his children as Henry (Asenric/Aienrich), Hugh, 
Berengar, Adelaide, Constance, and William, and also names his wife and brother 
Oliba.[25] His will was then published by his widow, his brother Oliba, his son Wifred, 
and the three other executors in a charter of 13 October, but this version does name 
his daughters and adds his brother Wifred and his nephew, Wifred's son and eventual 
successor, Raymond I.[26] One of the executors of his will was Pons Bonfill. He left 
his younger sons under the tutelage (in tuicione) of their elder brother William, who 
inherited Besalú. His second son, Wifred, was already bishop of Besalú and his third 
son, Henry, he named as Wifred's heir in the diocese, with the price of his elevation 
(to bribe the cathedral chapter) to be paid by William.[27] Bernard's two younger sons, 
Hugh and Berengar, inherited allodial lands strategically placed on the borders of the 
county. Though they were recognised as "co-heirs", these younger sons were never 
more than castellans and vassals of their elder brother.[28]

Bernard's eldest daughter, Constance, was given several allods and eventually 
married Ermengol II of Urgell.[29] Another daughter, Adelaide, married Ponç I of 
Empúries, son and heir of Hugh I; widowed, she entered the monastery of Sant Pau. A 
possible daughter Garsenda (Garcinda), unnamed in his will, married Berengar, 
viscount of Narbonne.

In legend and epic[edit]

There is a historical relationship between Bernard and the Catalan legend of Comte 
l'Arnau. Traditionally, Arnau is a Don Juan figure who carries on a series sexual 
liaisons with the nuns of Sant Joan de les Abadesses. The abbess in the legend, who 
tries to keep Arnau from entering the convent, is usually named Engelberga. In 1017, 
at Bernard's insistence, Pope Benedict suppressed the convent, then under Bernard's 
sister Ingilberga, for rampant sexually immorality.

The Catalan-language writer Jacint Verdaguer drew on the historical count of Besalú 
for his fictional character Comte Tallaferro, who figures as the protagonist in his epic 
poem Canigó, a central work of the Catalan Renaixença.

Parents
____ Oliba II (ABT  940 -  990)
OF THE AMPURIAS (OF ASTURIA) Ermengarde (ABT  930 - 1001)

Siblings
TALLAFERRO Bernard I (ABT  967 - 1020)

Marriage To OF PROVENCE Toda-Adelaide (ABT  986 - )
    m.  992 

Notes

Parents
____ William I (ABT  954 -  994)
D'ANJOU Adelaide (Blanche) (ABT  942 - 1026)

Children by OF PROVENCE Toda-Adelaide ABT  986 - 
____ Guillaume I (ABT 1002 - )
OF BESALU Constance Velasquita (ABT 1010 - )

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