Its control extended over the great Catalan monasteries of Ripoll, Cuixà, Sant Joan, Lagrasse, Arles de Tec, Banyoles, and Camprodon.

[c] Alongside Besalú Bernard inherited the Fenouillèdes and Peyrepertuse in the County of Carcassonne, where his father had extended his dynasty's power base.

In 1016–17 Bernard and a large entourage that included with his sons William and Wifred, his brother Oliba, the viscounts of Besalú, Fenouillèdes, and Vallespir, the jurist Pons Bonfill, the abbot Adalbert, and many other dignitaries and prelates, went to Rome to celebrate Christmas at Saint Peter's Basilica.

He also accused the nuns of Sant Joan of impropriety and because they refused to appear before a papal tribunal, Benedict suppressed their convent, calling it a meretrius de Venus (brothel) and establishing instead some monks under the rule of Aachen and remanding to Bernard the feudal dues of the abbey.

The Aachen ruled church of Sant Pere in Besalú, rebuilt in a Romanesque style begun under Miro II, was consecrated on 23 September 1003 by Bernard.

[8][9] In 1003, Bernard took part in the defensive campaign—described as a "holy war" or "crusade"[10]—that defeated an invading Córdoban army in battle near Thoranum castrum.

[g] According to an early source (1043), before the battle Bernard reasoned that if the saints Peter and Michael and the Virgin Mary each killed 5,000 Muslims, there would be a manageable number left for the soldiers.

In 1015 Bernard began using the title duke (dux), implying military and even ethnic leadership, but not usurping royal rank.

[13] During Bernard's rule in Besalú there is evidence of continued reliance on the Liber iudiciorum of the Visigoths and on the Frankish court system established by the Carolingians.

[14] There is also the earliest evidence of new judicial procedures, some of which had already been developed in Occitania, such as the court of procures et boni homines, the relinquishing of property rights known as a guirpitio, and the agreement called a pacto or conventio.

A grant of property dated 27 March 1000 to the church of Santa Maria del Castell de Besalú refers to uxori mee Tota que vocant Azalatz (my wife Toda who they call Adelaide)[16] and another grant to the same, dated 1 March 1018, refers to uxor mea Tota comitissa que vocatur Adalet (my wife, the countess Toda, who is called Adelaide).

[i] Bernard drowned in the river Rhône while crossing into the County of Provence in 1020 and was buried in the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll.

[j] Bernard's will, dated 26 September 1020, lists his children as Henry (Asenric/Aienrich), Hugh, Berengar, Adelaide, Constance, and William, and also names his wife and brother Oliba.

[21][22] Another of Bernard's daughters, Adelaide, married Ponç I of Empúries, son and heir of Hugh I; widowed, she entered the monastery of Sant Pau.

Traditionally, Arnau is a Don Juan figure who carries on a series sexual liaisons with the nuns of Sant Joan de les Abadesses.

The Catalan-language writer Jacint Verdaguer drew on the historical count of Besalú for his fictional character Comte Tallaferro, who figures as the protagonist in his epic poem Canigó, a central work of the Catalan Renaixença.