Borrell II of Barcelona

Borrell II (d.993), Count of Barcelona, lived the March's darkest hour: in 985 al-Mansur sacked and burned Barcelona itself. Borrell's appeals to the Frankish king went unanswered; and when the dynasty changed in 987 he simply never did homage to the new one. In that silence Catalonia's practical independence begins. He was also the patron who brought the young Gerbert; the future Pope Sylvester II; to study Arabic learning in his lands. Our line runs through his son Ramon Borrell.