Centule V, Viscount of Béarn

[1] Centule increased the autonomy of the vizconde of Béarn and distanced them from the dukes of Aquitaine, to whom they owed theoretical vassalage.

He received the viscounty of Acqs and the countries of Orthe and Salies from the duke of Aquitaine, who freed him from nominal ties of vassalage.

The pope, however, exhorted him to break the marriage on grounds of consanguinity, which he obediently did (1074), founding, in penitence, a priory at Morlaas dependent on the Abbey of Cluny.

Centule married his eldest son to Talesa, a natural daughter of Sancho V of Navarre, and Gaston received the neighbouring viscounty of Montaner as a dowry, thus uniting it to the dominion of Béarn.

[2] In 1090, he travelled anew into Aragon at the head of Bearnese troops to assist in an assault on Huesca under the guidance of Sancho, but he was assassinated in the Tena Valley.