Guerau IV de Cabrera (1196–1229) was a claimant to the

County of Urgel The County of Urgell ( ca, Comtat d'Urgell, ; la, Comitatus Urgellensis) is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya. History The county of Urgell was carved by the Franks out of a former sect ...

during the time that

James I of Aragon James I the Conqueror ( es, Jaime el Conquistador, ca, Jaume el Conqueridor; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was King of Aragon and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1276; King of Majorca from 1231 to 1276; and Valencia from 1238 to 1276 ...

was

King of Aragon This is a list of the kings and queens of Aragon. The Kingdom of Aragon was created sometime between 950 and 1035 when the County of Aragon, which had been acquired by the Kingdom of Navarre in the tenth century, was separated from Navarre in ...

. His uncle, Ponç III of Cabrera, married the daughter of Ermengol VII named Marquesa in 1194. Also, Marquesa’s father, Ermengol VII, was the son of Ermengol VI and his first wife, Arsenda of Cabrera. Through these familial ties to the

House of Cabrera The House of Cabrera was an important Catalan dynasty. It began to rule in the Viscounty of Girona, which would be called Viscounty of Cabrera, as well as the Viscounty of Àger, the Sicilian County of Modica and the County of Urgell. Orig ...

, Gerau came to claim the

County of Urgell The County of Urgell ( ca, Comtat d'Urgell, ; la, Comitatus Urgellensis) is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya. History The county of Urgell was carved by the Franks out of a former sectio ...

. In 1208 with the death of

Armengol VIII Ermengol (or Armengol) VIII (1158 – 1208), known as ''el de Sant Hilari'', was the Count of Urgell from 1184 to his death. He was a son of Ermengol VII and Dulce, daughter of Roger III of Foix. In 1178, he married Elvira of Subirats, with whom h ...

Guerau claimed that Armengol's daughter,

Aurembiaix Aurembiaix (or Aurembiax) (1196–1231) was the Countess of Urgell from 1208, the last of her dynasty. She was the only child of Ermengol VIII of Urgell, Ermengol VIII and Elvira of Subirats. In 1206, Ermengol asked Peter II of Aragon to defend the ...

, could not inherit the land and so he should be made the ruler of the County. Aurembiax's mother, Elvira, was able to maintain control of the county until her death in 1220. In that year Guerau took control of the county of Urgell as Guerau I. Guerau was forced out of Urgel in 1228 and the land was put under the rule of Aurembiaix due to circumstances outside of his control. He remained Guerau IV, vicount of Cabrera and Guerau III, viscount of Ager. The death of Aurembiaix and himself the following year allowed other relatives to begin control. His son by Elo Perez de Castro became Guerau V, viscount de Cabrera, but control of the viscounty of Ager was consolidated with the county of Urgell under Aurembiaix's second husband

Peter I, Count of Urgell Peter I ( pt, Pedro, ) (23 February 1187 - 2 June 1258) was the second son of King Sancho I of Portugal and his wife Dulce, infanta of Aragon, and would eventually become Count of Urgell and Lord of the Balearic Islands. Biography Peter was bo ...

. In 1236 his younger son Ponce became Ponce I, Count of Urgell, and Viscount of Ager, and in 1243 became Ponce IV de Cabrera, thus consolidating administration of the lands as Guerau IV envisioned.

References

*Chaytor, H. J.
A History of Aragon and Catalonia
'. London: Methuen, 1933. {{DEFAULTSORT:Guerau 04 De Cabrera 13th-century people from the Kingdom of Aragon Counts of Urgell