Rocabertí

Who he is

Name

Jofre de Rocabertí

Title

Viscount of Rocabertí

Since

1181

Born

not pinned

Family

Son of Viscount Dalmau IV (1166-1181), grandson of Jofre I. His brother Ramon is very probably Ramon de Rocabertí, archbishop of Tarragona since 1199. His aunt Ermessenda was the first wife of Count Sancho, the king's uncle.

Confidence

high

GEC (Rocabertí): Jofre viscount 1181-1212 and viscount in 1200.

Overlord

Peter II

What it holds

• Castle of Rocabertí over La Jonquera and the Albères road
• Céret in the Vallespir
• Carmençó (not located here)

How it was acquired

Inherited from Jofre I (attested 1142-1166) and Dalmau IV.

Allies and rivals

Kin and rivals of the counts of Empúries, who covet their lands; linked to the archbishop of Tarragona; to Count Sancho by an old marriage.

How things stand that morning

Holds his castles.

Wealth

Tolls and keepership of the La Jonquera pass on the road from Barcelona to Perpignan; Vallespir pastures.

Military

The castle of Rocabertí; a knightly household.

Threats

• The counts of Empúries

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. 1212Jofre's rule ends (death or succession).Depends on: Natural death Stopped by: Nothing likely

Places of note

• Rocabertí castle: Family seat over the pass
• Céret: Vallespir lordship

Where the sources disagree

• Rocabertí is often listed with Peralada; the GEC shows Peralada granted by Alfonso II in 1190 to Bernat de Navata and his wife Ermessenda, reaching the Rocabertí only later. Peralada is a separate record here.
• The GEC article on the family names a Ramon, son of Dalmau IV, without a church career; the campaign notes' archbishop Ramon de Rocabertí is very probably he, but this is not confirmed here.

Evidence: Viscount's dates from the GEC; holdings in 1200 thin beyond the castle and Céret.

On the map: Castle districts only.

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.