Count of Barcelona (1131-1162), regent of Provence (1144-1157), and ruling prince of Aragon (1137-1162).
Raymond Berengar (Sp. Ramon Berenguer) was probably born around 1113, the son of Berengar III and Douce of Provence. Most famous for having brought about the dynastic union of Aragon and Barcelona (known as the Crown of Aragon) through his marriage to Petronilla of Aragon in 1137, Raymond Berengar was also a warrior who successfully fought the Muslims of western and southern Catalonia. In many ways, he continued the path laid out by his father. He fostered the Order of the Temple and enhanced his position in Provence through dynastic ties. The count’s greatest military triumphs were the conquests of Tortosa, Lleida, and Fraga in 1148-1149, by which he incorporated the southern coastal areas later known as New Catalonia (Cat. Catalunya Nova) and gained territories that had separated Catalonia from Aragon. The Treaty of Tudellen of 27 January 1151, in which Alfonso VII of Leon-Castile and Raymond Berengar IV divided the Iberian Peninsula into zones for future conquest, bore witness to these successes. On his death, he was succeeded by his son King Alfonso II of Aragon.
-Nikolas Jaspert
Bibliography
Jaspert, Nikolas, “Bonds and Tensions on the Frontier: The Templars in Twelfth-Century Western Catalonia,” in Mendicants, Military Orders and Regionalism in Medieval Europe, ed. Jurgen Sarnowsky (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999), pp. 19-45.
Schramm, Percy E., Joan F. Cabestany, and Enric Bague, Els primers comtes-reis: Ramon Berenguer IV, Alfons el Cast, Pere el Catolic (Barcelona: Vives, 1963).
World History
