County of Barcelona

County of Barcelona
Comitatus Barcinonensis (Latin)
Comtat de Barcelona (Catalan)
801–1162
The county of Barcelona (red) in the context of peninsular expansion of the Crown of Aragon.
The county of Barcelona (red) in the context of peninsular expansion of the Crown of Aragon.
StatusCounty of the Frankish Empire (801–10th century)
Independent county (10th century–1162)
CapitalBarcelona
Common languagesOccitano-Romance (Old Occitan and Old Catalan), Latin
Religion
Chalcedonian Christianity
(Roman Catholic after Great Schism c. 1054)
GovernmentFeudal monarchy
Count 
• 801–820
Berà
• 1131–1162
Ramon Berenguer IV
LegislatureComital Court
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• Established
801
• Disestablished
1162
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Emirate of Córdoba
Crown of Aragon
Principality of Catalonia
Today part of

The County of Barcelona (Latin: Comitatus Barcinonensis, Catalan: Comtat de Barcelona) was a polity in northeastern Iberian Peninsula, originally located in the southern frontier region of the Carolingian Empire. In the 10th century, the Counts of Barcelona progressively achieved independence from Frankish rule, becoming hereditary rulers in constant warfare with the Islamic Caliphate of Córdoba and its successor states. The counts, through marriage, alliances and treaties, acquired or vassalized the other Catalan counties and extended their influence over Occitania. In 1164, the County of Barcelona entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Aragon. Thenceforward, the history of the county is subsumed within that of the Crown of Aragon, but the city of Barcelona remained preeminent within it.

Within the Crown, the County of Barcelona and the other Catalan counties progressively merged into a polity known as the Principality of Catalonia, which assumed the institutional and territorial continuity of the County of Barcelona.


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