Sunyer ( 870 – 950) was
count of Barcelona
The count of Barcelona (, , , ) was the ruler of the County of Barcelona and also, by extension and according with the Usages of Barcelona, Usages and Catalan constitutions, of the Principality of Catalonia as Prince#Prince as generic for ruler, p ...
,
Girona and
Ausona from 911 to 947.
Origins
He was the son of
Wilfred the Hairy and younger brother of the previous count of Barcelona,
Wilfred II Borrel. He worked jointly with his brother in the government of the counties held by their father after his death in 897. He did not reign independently until his brother's death in 911.
Family conflict
However, on the death of his uncle, Count
Radulf I of Besalú, in 913 or 920, a conflict emerged between Sunyer and his brother Count
Miró II of Cerdanya over the succession of the
County of Besalú. In exchange for the total renunciation of all claims on the
County of Barcelona, Sunyer gave up his claim on Besalú.
Sunyer was apparently married by 917, and later appears with wife
Richilda of Toulouse, speculated to have been a daughter of the
Count of Rouergue based on the introduction of novel names into the family. They had four sons and a daughter: Ermengol,
Miró,
Borrell, Adelaide (also called Bonafilla), and Wifred. Ermengol of Ausona, the eldest, governed the
county of Osona during his father's lifetime. He died on 21 August between 939 and 943 in a battle near
Baltarga, possibly against the
Hungarians
Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...
.
[David González Ruiz, ''Breve historia de la Corona de Aragón'' (Nowtilus, 2012), p. 38.]
Politics
Sunyer made important efforts with domestic politics, protected the church and strengthened its institutions by giving it more land and income. He also continued to encourage the repopulation of the county of Ausona.
He abandoned the defensive stance adopted by his predecessors and took up the fight actively against the
Moorish states to the south. Battles were fought at
Lleida
Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...
and
Tarragona. At the same time he managed to retain diplomatic relations with
Córdoba, which had increasingly lost control of its northern provinces. In 912,
Muhammad al-Tawil, the
Wāli of
Huesca and
Lleida
Lleida (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...
, attacked and destroyed the Barcelonian army under Sunyer in the
Tàrrega valley. However Sunyer's counterattack in 914 successfully pushed them back and resulted in the death of al-Tawil. He subsequently repopulated the county of
Penedès, which had been the scene of many conflicts between the Frankish and Muslim empires, as far as
Olèrdola (929).
From 936 to 937 he led an expedition against the
Muslims
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
. As a result of this successful campaign many of the enemy forces were killed, including the
Qadi of
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
. The Moors temporarily abandoned
Tarragona (which became a
no-man's land), while
Tortosa was forced to pay a tribute to the count. This gain was short-lived however, as
Abd ar-Rahman III
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Rabdī ibn Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Dākhil (; 890–961), or simply ʿAbd al-Raḥmān III, was the Umayyad Emir of Córdoba f ...
sent envoys and a fleet to Barcelona in 940, forcing Sunyer into a subservient alliance and to abandon a marriage pact he had reached with king
García Sánchez I of Pamplona, who was to marry (or had already married) Sunyer's daughter.
In 947 Sunyer retired to monastic life and ceded the government of his realms to his sons: Borrell II and Miró I. He died in the
Monastery of La Grassa (in
Conflent) in 950.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunyer, Count of Barcelona
870s births
950 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Burials at Santa Maria de Ripoll
10th-century people from the County of Barcelona
People from West Francia