Ermengol (or Armengol) I (974–1010), called ''el de Córdoba'', was the

Count of Urgell This is a list of the counts of Urgell, a county of the Principality of Catalonia in the 10th through 13th centuries. c. 798–870 Counts appointed by the Carolingians *798–820 Borrell, count of Urgell and Cerdanya *820–824 Aznar Galínde ...

from 992 to his death. He was the second son of Borrell II of Barcelona and his first wife, Letgarda. He was the second of the counts of Urgell and famous mainly for his participation in the

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

. A man of culture, Ermengol was open to influences from wider Europe and he made two voyages to

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, in 998 and 1001. He was a stimulus to his nobles in making pilgrimages to

Santiago de Compostela Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, as the destination of the Way of S ...

or Le Puy. He also reformed the judiciary of his county to make justice more available to all. Lewis, Archibald R.
The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050
'. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965, p. 379. He also began to reassert his authority over the outlying castles of his realm, whose lords were acting independent of his power. He also maintained an intense war against the

Caliphate of Córdoba The Caliphate of Córdoba ( ar, خلافة قرطبة; transliterated ''Khilāfat Qurṭuba''), also known as the Cordoban Caliphate was an Islamic state ruled by the Umayyad dynasty from 929 to 1031. Its territory comprised Iberia and parts o ...

. In 1003, Urgell was invaded by Abd al-Malik al-Muzaffar. Aided by the brothers

Bernard I of Besalú Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...

and Wifred II of Cerdagne, and his own brother,

Ramon Borrell of Barcelona Ramon Borrell ( ca, Ramon Borrell, es, Ramón Borrell; 972–1017) was count of Barcelona, Girona and Ausona from 992. He was the son of Borrell II of Barcelona and Letgarda of Rouergue, and was associated with his father in ruling the counties f ...

, Ermengol defeated them at the Battle of Torà, followed by the tighter

Battle of Albesa According to Catalan historian Ramon d'Abadal i de Vinyals, the battle was the:. . . product of a Catalan offensive in which the bishop Berengar of Elna met his death. . . in the middle of a preventative war targetting the latent threat of ‘Abd al ...

. Erdmann, Carl (1977), ''The Origin of the Idea of Crusade'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 99–100. He was captured by Abd al-Malik, the Córdoban ''

hajib A ''hajib'' or ''hadjib'' ( ar, الحاجب, al-ḥājib, to block, the prevent someone from entering somewhere; It is a word "hajb" meaning to cover, to hide. It means "the person who prevents a person from entering a place, the doorman". The ...

'', during reprisals in the summer, but was free by March 1004. In 1008, he led several successful expeditions against the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

.Erdmann, based on Adhemar de Chabannes. In 1010, he participated in the expedition of his brother Ramon Borrell of Barcelona against Córdoba itself. He died nearby at Castell de Bacar. His testament, dated around 1010, includes one of the first-attested mention of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

in Western Europe.

Family

Before 10 July 1000, Ermengol married Tetberga, presumably a daughter of Artaud I, Count of Forez, by his wife Tetberga of Limoges. Tetberga died between 7 April and 3 November 1005, when Ermengol's second wife is first mentioned. As his second wife, Ermengol married Guisla (Gisela), whose family is not known, but who could be the homonymous daughter of Gausfred I of Roussillon, named in her father's will in February 989. She survived him and was still alive on 18 November 1010. From this second union came two children: * Ermengol II, his successor *Ermesinda – married, before 1029,

Raymond III of Pallars Jussà Raymond III (died 1047), called Ramon Sunyer (Spanish: ''Ramón Súñer''), was the first Count of Pallars Jussà (Lower Pallars) from 1011 until his death. He succeeded his father, Count Sunyer I of Pallars, who divided his county between his two ...

Notes

Sources

*Lewis, Archibald R.
The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050
'. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965. *Aurell i Cardona, Martin. "Jalons pour une enquête sur les stratégies matrimoniales des comtes catalans (IXe-XIe s.)" ''Symposium Internacional sobre els Origens de catalunya (Segles VIII-XI)'', 2 vol, Barcelona 1991–2; vol 1, pp. 282–364. *Stasser, Thierry
"Origine familiale de trois comtesses de Pallars."
''Anuario de Estudios Medievales'', 26/1, 1996, pp. 3–16. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ermengol 01, Count of Urgell 974 births 1010 deaths Counts of Urgell 10th-century Catalan people 10th-century Visigothic people 11th-century Catalan people 11th-century Visigothic people