Borrell I was the first

count of Cerdanya The County of Cerdanya (, ; ; , ) was one of the Catalan counties formed in the last decades of the 8th century by the Franks in the ''Marca Hispanica''. The original Cerdanya consisted of the valley of the upper Segre. Today Cerdanya is a Catala ...

Urgell Urgell (), also known as ''Baix Urgell'' (''baix'' meaning "lower", by contrast with Alt Urgell "Upper Urgell"), is a ''comarca'' (county) in Ponent, Catalonia (Spain), forming only a borderland portion of the region historically known as Urgel ...

, and

Osona Osona () is a comarques of Catalonia, comarca situated in the Central Catalonia, central region of Catalonia, Spain. Its capital is Vic, Spain, Vic. Its population in 2001 was 129,543. Osona covers roughly the same area as the historic Catalan co ...

from between 797 and 799 to his death in 820.

Ramon d'Abadal i de Vinyals Ramon d'Abadal i de Vinyals (1888–1970) was a Catalan people, Catalan historian, politician, and journalist. Life Abadal i de Vinyals was born in Vic, Spain, Vic. He graduated in law at the University of Barcelona in 1910. He also completed stu ...

(1986). ''El domini carolingi a Catalunya''. . He was a

Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

nobleman, probably from ''Cerretana'' (

Cerdanya Cerdanya (; , ; , ) or often La Cerdanya is a natural region, natural comarca and historical region of the eastern Pyrenees divided between France and Spain. Historically it was one of the Catalan counties, counties of Catalonia. Cerdanya has a ...

). In the final years of the eighth century, the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

under

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

and his son

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (; ; ; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aquitaine from 781. As the only ...

king of Aquitaine The Duchy of Aquitaine (, ; , ) was a historical fiefdom located in the western, central, and southern areas of present-day France, south of the river Loire. The full extent of the duchy, as well as its name, fluctuated greatly over the centuries ...

, were subduing the ''

Marca Hispanica The Spanish March or Hispanic March was a march or military buffer zone established c. 795 by Charlemagne in the eastern Pyrenees and nearby areas, to protect the new territories of the Christian Carolingian Empire—the Duchy of Gascony, the D ...

'' and expanding southwards into

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

territory. When

and Cerdanya were subdued around 798, Borrel was appointed count. He took a very active part in the subsequent conquest of Osona in 799 and the successful siege of Barcelona in 801. He may have been named count in Osona as a reward for his services. In 804 and 805, he participated in the expeditions to Tortosa, but not in the subsequent campaigns of 807, 808, and 809. He died in 820 and Osona was given to

Rampon, Count of Barcelona Rampon (Rampó) was the second count of the Catalan counties of Barcelona and Osona from 820 until his death in 825. Rampon was given the county of Barcelona, by Louis the Pious, King of Aquitaine, following Bera's accusation of treason, trial by ...

. Urgell and Cerdanya were granted to

Aznar Galíndez I Aznar Galíndez I (also '' Asnar Galí'') (died 839) was a Basque Count of Aragon and Conflent from 809 and Cerdanya and Urgell from 820. Aznar has been confused with Aznar Sánchez, Duke of Gascony, and some authorities have even considered the ...

. , - , -

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrell Of Ausona Counts of Cerdanya Counts of Urgell 8th-century births 820 deaths 8th-century Visigothic people 9th-century counts in Europe