Wilfred the Hairy (Guifré el Pilós)

WILFRED THE HAIRY (in Catalan: GUIFRÉ EL PILÓS) (840-897 AD), was count of Barcelona, Girona, Urgell, Cerdanya, Osona and Conflent, the territories known by modern historians as the “Catalan Counties”, which were part of the Hispanic March of the Carolingian Empire, a buffer zone established by emperor Charlemagne in 795 AD after his conquests against Al-Andalus south of the Pyrenees. A buffer zone between the kingdom of the Franks and the Umayyad Emirate (and later Caliphate) of Córdoba, the only surviving part of the gigantic Umayyad Caliphate of Damascus that extended from southern Gaul to northwest India during its peak. A buffer zone between Christendom and Islam, with the city of Barcelona located at the limit between the two.
Since its creation by Charlemagne, the counts of the Hispanic March had been directly appointed by the emperor of the Franks. These counts belonged to the Germanic warrior elite that had ruled Gaul and Hispania since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Wilfred the Hairy himself was of Visigothic origin. Wilfred was the last count of Barcelona appointed by the Carolingian emperor. Wilfred made his title hereditary, initiating the dynasty known as the House of Barcelona, which would unite with the House of Aragon in 1164 AD, the result being the creation of the Crown of Aragon. As both counts of Barcelona and kings of Aragon, Wilfred’s descendants would rule a Mediterranean maritime empire until the 15th century. Even though the title became hereditary, the counts of Barcelona remained loyal to the king of the Franks until the end of the Carolingian dynasty in the late 10th century, when Wilfred’s grandson Borrell II finally broke ties with the Franks.
The aftermath of the Carolingian conquest and uprisings led by local Muslim leaders left the plains of modern-day Central Catalonia heavily depopulated, as people migrated to either the coast or the Pyrenees. Wilfred is also known for having repopulated these areas with Gallo-Romance settlers from the Pyrenees, whose language would become Catalan centuries later. Wilfred died in battle repelling an Islamic raid in 897 AD. He is buried in the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll.