The seventeenth-century historian of the Lara family, Luis de Salazar y Castro, reasoned that Aimeric was the eldest son because he inherited Narbonne and was listed before his brother Pedro Manrique in the document of 1164.
[2] Karl Appel, following Joseph Vaissète, thought Aimeric was the eldest son and placed his birth towards 1152, when his parents were married, because of the number of children they had after him.
Perhaps because she had no descendants or being a woman required a man beside her to consolidate her authority, Ermengarda invited her nephew Aimeric to share power with her in Narbonne, and designated him her heir.
[4] In 1171 Ermengarda witnessed the sealing of an alliance between the count of Toulouse and Roger II Trencavel, who held several viscounties neighbouring Narbonne and was a former ally of the king of Aragon.
[4] By 1174 Aimeric had returned north of the Pyrenees, and was present to receive the homage of several of the vassals of Narbonne and to renew the alliance of 1164 with the Republic of Pisa, represented by its ambassador Ildebrandino Sismondi.