Álvaro (1239 in

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

– 1268 in

Foix Foix ( , ; ; ) is a commune, the former capital of the County of Foix. It is the capital of the department of Ariège as it is the seat of the prefecture of that department. Foix is located in the Occitanie region of southwestern France ...

), called ''Àlvar el Castellà'' ("the Castilian") in Catalan, 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. {{circa, 798–870 Counts appointed by the Carolingians *798–820 Borrell, count of Urgell and Cerdanya *820–824 Aznar ...

and

Viscount of Àger A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is so ...

from 1243. He was the son of Ponce I, Count of Urgell and succeeded his brother

Ermengol IX Ermengol IX (1243) was a medieval Catalan nobleman. After his father's death in 1243, the eight-year-old boy succeeded as Count of Urgell. However, he, too died during the same year, a situation in which he was the only Count of Urgell to die du ...

within a year of their father's death. Upon inheriting the county of Urgell, he exchanged his birth name, Rodrigo, for Álvaro and married Constance of Montcada, a relative of the ruling family of

Béarn Béarn (; ; or ''Biarn''; or ''Biarno''; or ''Bearnia'') is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in Southwestern France. Along with the three Northern Basque Country, ...

, at the order of

James I of Aragon James I the Conqueror ( Catalan/Valencian: ''Jaume I or Jaume el Conqueridor''; Aragonese: ''Chaime I'' ''o Conqueridor''; ; 2 February 1208 – 27 July 1276) was King of Aragon, Count of Barcelona, and Lord of Montpellier from 1213 to 1 ...

in 1253. However, he detested this marriage and had it annulled, marrying Cecilia of Foix, daughter of

Roger-Bernard II of Foix Roger Bernard II (c. 1195 – 26 May 1241), called the Great, was the seventh count of Foix from 1223 until his death. He was the son and successor of the count Raymond-Roger and his wife Philippa of Montcada. Life In 1208, Roger-Bernard marri ...

, in 1256. This was to be the source of great enmity and conflict between the houses of Béarn and Foix. The

House of Barcelona The House of Barcelona was a medieval dynasty that ruled the County of Barcelona continuously from 878 and the Crown of Aragon from 1137 (as kings from 1162) until 1410. They descend from the Bellonids, the descendants of Wilfred the Hairy. Th ...

supported the Bearnese. In 1259, Álvaro breached his

feudal obligations Feudal duties were the set of reciprocal financial, military and legal obligations among the warrior nobility in a feudal system. Translated into English by Philip Grierson as ''Feudalism'', 1st ed., London, 1952. These duties developed in bot ...

to the king of Aragon and brought down the royal wrath on his principality: the

seneschal The word ''seneschal'' () can have several different meanings, all of which reflect certain types of supervising or administering in a historic context. Most commonly, a seneschal was a senior position filled by a court appointment within a royal, ...

Pere de Montcada invaded and occupied Ponts. In 1267, the king of Aragon intervened again, this time in the legal dispute between Álvaro's two wives. Álvaro was forced to flee with his wife Cecilia of Foix, leaving Urgell in the hands of his son Ermengol X.

References

External links

Double Tomb of Don Àlvar Rodrigo de Cabrera, Count of Urgell and His Wife Cecília of Foix - Metropolitan Museum of Art

External links

The Cloisters - Collection Database
1239 births 1268 deaths Counts of Urgell 13th-century Catalan people 13th-century Spanish nobility {{Europe-noble-stub

References

External links

See also

External links