Borrell I was the first

count of Cerdanya The County of Cerdanya ( ca, Comtat de Cerdanya, ; la, Comitatus Ceritaniae; es, Condado de Cerdaña, french: Comté de Cerdagne) was one of the Catalan counties formed in the last decades of the 8th century by the Franks in the ''Marca Hispanica' ...

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

, and

Osona Osona () is a comarca situated in Catalonia, Northeast Spain. Its capital is Vic. Its population in 2001 was 129,543. Osona covers roughly the same area as the historic Catalan county of Osona. The name Osona comes from ''Ausetans'', a group of ...

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 historian, politician and journalist. Life Abadal i de Vinyals was born in Vic. He graduated in law at the University of Barcelona in 1910. He also completed studies in history in both Barc ...

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

Visigoth The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

nobleman, probably from ''Cerretana'' (

Cerdanya Cerdanya () or often La Cerdanya ( la, Ceretani or ''Ceritania''; french: Cerdagne; es, Cerdaña), is a natural comarca and historical region of the eastern Pyrenees divided between France and Spain. Historically it was one of the counties ...

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

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

under

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...

and his son

Louis the Pious Louis the Pious (german: Ludwig der Fromme; french: Louis le Pieux; 16 April 778 – 20 June 840), also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was King of the Franks and co-emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813. He was also King of Aqui ...

king of Aquitaine The Duchy of Aquitaine ( oc, Ducat d'Aquitània, ; french: Duché d'Aquitaine, ) was a historical fiefdom in western, central, and southern areas of present-day France to the south of the river Loire, although its extent, as well as its name, fluc ...

, were subduing the ''

Marca Hispanica The Hispanic March or Spanish March ( es, Marca Hispánica, ca, Marca Hispànica, Aragonese and oc, Marca Hispanica, eu, Hispaniako Marka, french: Marche d'Espagne), was a military buffer zone beyond the former province of Septimania, esta ...

'' and expanding southwards into

Moorish 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 se ...

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. After Bera was deposed, Louis the Pious, King of Aquitaine, gave his lands to a nobleman unconnected to the factional struggles t ...

. Urgell and Cerdanya were granted to

Aznar Galíndez I Aznar Galíndez I (also ''Asnar'') (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 two like- ...

. , - , -

Notes

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