Castellbò (Arnau)

Who he is

Name

Arnau de Castellbò

Title

Viscount of Castellbò

Since

not pinned (in power through the 1190s)

Born

not pinned

Family

Of the old viscounts of Urgell. Married in 1185 Arnaua de Caboet, heiress of the Caboet, lords of Andorra and of the valleys of Cabó and Sant Joan. Their daughter and heiress Ermessenda is the prize in his alliance with Foix.

Confidence

medium

GEC (Ermengol VIII; Cerdanya); Wikipedia (Raymond-Roger of Foix).

Overlord

The bishop of Urgell for Andorra; Peter II and the count of Urgell claim his service for the rest

What it holds

• Castle and valley of Castellbò
• The Valls d'Aguilar (not pinned)
• Andorra, held of the bishop of Urgell (the Caboet rights)
• The Caboet valleys of Cabó and Sant Joan
• Old viscountal claims around La Seu d'Urgell, against the bishop

How it was acquired

Castellbò by inheritance; Andorra and Cabó by marriage, 1185.

Allies and rivals

Ally: Raymond-Roger of Foix. Rivals: Ermengol VIII; the bishop of Urgell (Bernat de Vilamur by 1203); Peter II, who backs them. In 1194 he stood with the Cabrera in the faction opposed to the murdered archbishop.

How things stand that morning

At war with the count and bishop of Urgell since 1198; holds his valleys and Andorra.

Wealth

Mountain pastures, the Andorran dues, tolls on the roads from the Segre to Andorra and Foix.

Military

Castellbò and the mountain castles; the Foix alliance.

Threats

• Defeat and capture by the Urgell side
• Church censure for violence against churches

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. February to September 1203Captured with the count of Foix and imprisoned; freed through Peter II.Depends on: The war continuing Stopped by: A truce
2. between 1202 and 1208, not pinnedErmessenda marries Roger-Bernard of Foix; Ermengol VIII cannot stop it, and Castellbò and Andorra pass in time to Foix.Depends on: The alliance holding Stopped by: Defeat, or the king forbidding the match
3. after his death in 1226Condemned with his daughter as heretics by the Inquisition in 1269.Depends on: Later events Stopped by: Not in play

Places of note

• Castellbò: Viscountal castle
• Andorra la Vella: Andorra (Caboet inheritance)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The war, the alliance and the Caboet marriage are well attested; the exact list of his valleys in 1200 is not.

On the map: Valley districts; the viscounty's limits in 1200 are rough.

Primary sources for Aragon

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
• Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
• The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
• Deeds of the Counts of Barcelona, Anonymous (monks of Santa Maria de Ripoll) (first version 1162 to 1184; continued in the later 13th century; final version 1303 to 1314). The house chronicle of the counts of Barcelona.
• History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
• The Book of Examples: the History of the Berbers and of the Muslim Dynasties of North Africa, Ibn Khaldun (1375 to 1379 at Qal'at Ibn Salama and Tunis, revised until 1406). Ibn Khaldun's tribal histories are the standard account of the powers that Almohad chronicles treat as background: the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym in Ifriqiya and Tripolitania and their alliances with the Banu Ghaniya and Qaraqush; the Zenata of the central Maghreb (Banu Marin, Banu Abd al-Wad, Tujin, Maghrawa) before their rise; the Sanhaja and the veiled peoples of the Sahara; the Masmuda and the Almohad tribes. Read online
• The Pleasant Book: a Summary of the History of the Maghreb, Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushi (completed in 1224, in the East, after the author left the Maghreb in 1217). Abd al-Wahid was a boy of fifteen at Fez and Marrakesh in 1200 and later moved in Almohad court circles, so his account of Yaqub al-Mansur (died January 1199) and of the first years of Muhammad al-Nasir is partly from memory and from men he knew: the character of the new caliph, the weakness that let the Banu Ghaniya overrun Ifriqiya, the Majorca expedition of 1203 and the Ifriqiya campaign of 1205 to 1206. Read online
• Official Letters of the Almohad Chancery (1140s to 1260s; the letters nearest 1200 are of the reigns of al-Mansur and al-Nasir). Circular letters from the caliphs to governors, tribes and towns announcing victories, appointments and policy, preserved in later manuscript collections.

7 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.