Editing History of Catalonia (section)

=== Carolingian conquest ===
[[File:Comtats catalans s. VIII-XII.svg|thumb|right|Evolution of the [[Catalan counties]] between the 8th and the 12th centuries]]
After repelling Muslim incursions as far north as [[Battle of Tours|Tours in 732]], the expanding [[Frankish Empire]] set about creating a buffer zone of Christian counties in the south that became [[historiographically]] known as the ''[[Marca Hispanica]]'' or Gothia. The first county to be conquered from the Moors was in Septimania which became [[County of Roussillon|Roussillon]] (including the [[Vallespir]]), following [[Siege of Narbonne (752-759)|the conquest of Narbonne]] (759).<ref>Hernàndez Cardona, Francesc Xavier. ''Història militar de Catalunya, vol. I, dels íbers als carolingis''. 1st ed. Rafael Dalmau Editor, 2001, p. 145. {{ISBN|84-232-0639-4}}.</ref>

In 785 the County of [[Girona]] (with [[Besalú]]) on the south side of the [[Pyrenees]] was captured. [[Ribagorça]] and [[County of Pallars|Pallars]] were linked to [[Toulouse]] and were added to this county around 790. [[Urgell]] and [[Cerdanya]] were added in 798. The first records of the county of [[Empúries]] (with [[Perelada]]) are from 812, but the county was probably under Frankish control before 800. After a series of struggles, [[Charlemagne]]'s son [[Louis the Pious|Louis]] took Barcelona from the [[Moors|Moorish]] emir in 801 and set up the [[County of Barcelona]].<ref name="Lewis2009">{{cite book|author-link=David Levering Lewis|first=David Levering |last=Lewis|title=God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zxuar_ISdcUC&pg=PA312|date=12 January 2009|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn=978-0-393-06790-3|page=312}}</ref>

[[File:Guifred1Barcelonsky.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Wilfred the Hairy]], depicted in the ''Genealogy of the Kings of Aragon'', c. 1400]]
The counts of the Marca Hispanica had small outlying territories, each ruled by a lesser ''miles'' with armed retainers, who owed allegiance through the Count to the Carolingian Emperor and later to the kings of [[West Francia]].

At the end of the 9th century, the Carolingian monarch [[Charles the Bald]] designated [[Wilfred the Hairy, Count of Barcelona|Wilfred the Hairy]] – a noble descendant of a family from [[Conflent]] and son of the earlier Count of Barcelona [[Sunifred I, Count of Barcelona|Sunifred I]] – as Count of Cerdanya and [[Urgell]] (870). After Charles's death (877), Wilfred became the Count of Barcelona and Girona (878) as well, bringing together the greater part of what was later to become Catalonia. On his death the counties were divided again among his sons, however, since then, the counties of Barcelona, Girona and [[County of Osona|Ausona]] (he repopulated the last one after a revolt)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Archibald Ross |title=The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718&ndash;1050 |date=1965 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |page=73}}</ref> remained under the rule of the same person, becoming the core of the future Principality. Upon his death in 897 Wilfred, making their titles hereditaries founded the dynasty of the [[House of Barcelona]], which ruled Catalonia until the death of [[Martin of Aragon|Martin I]], its last ruling member, in 1410.