A past that has shaped the present
History and legend are combined in the source of Catalonia, given that the origin has roots with a real person, adorned with epic features: Guifré el Pelós or Wilfred the Hairy. This nobleman, renowned for his value in battle, is linked to the tradition of the four bars on the flag, marked with his fingers and his own blood on his golden shield. When he died in 897, he was the first Count to create hereditary passage and he left his possessions to the Marca Hispanica or Spanish March. He broke away from the Frankish kings and that gave way to the origin of the House of Barcelona. The Spanish March had been created by the Carolingian Empire as a frontier dividing the territories dominated by Christians and Muslims.
The Crown of Aragon
The ancestry of Guifré el Pelós was the Crown of Aragon, when his destiny was connected to the Kingdom of Aragon due to the dynastic problems of this monarchy. King Alfonso the Battler died without an heir and his kingdom went to the military orders. The will was not honoured and his brother Ramiro II, the Monk took over the throne. He did not have an heir either so in order to ensure succession, he gave his daughter Peronella’s hand to the Count of Barcelona, Ramon Berenguer IV, when she was only a year old. The marriage had to wait for another thirteen years as the Church did not permit marriage until the bride was at least fourteen years of age. Alfonso II, the son of Ramon Berenguer IV d’Aragó and Peronella, inherited all of the titles and kingship in 1164 after his father died and his mother was abdicated. In fact, what is historically known as the Crown of Aragon, the United Kingdom and the House of Barcelona began with him.
