County of Pallars

The County of Pallars or Pallás[1] (Catalan: Comtat de Pallars, IPA: [kumˈtad də pəˈʎas]; Latin: Comitatus Pallariensis) was a de facto independent petty state, nominally within the Carolingian Empire and then West Francia during the ninth and tenth centuries, perhaps one of the Catalan counties,[2] originally part of the Marca Hispanica in the ninth century.

A widely circulated monastic account of 1078 from the Abbey of Santa María de Alaón contains the earliest foundation myth of any of the counties of the Hispanic March.

In reality, being so far from the centres of Carolingian power, it was easy for the rulers of Toulouse to act as sovereigns in Pallars and Ribagorza, granting privileges to monasteries in a style very similar to that of their own Frankish lords.

Two monasteries were founded in the valleys of the two principal rivers of Pallars: Santa Maria de Gerri by the Noguera Pallaresa and Senterada by the Flamicell on land granted by the emperor Louis the Pious himself.

The reign of Raymond I began with overtures of peace and alliance with the Muslim governors of nearby Huesca and Zaragoza (then under the Banu Qasi), but to no avail; by the end, a policy of Reconquista had been adopted.

[17] Raymond also consolidated his de facto independence from any superior authority by creating a new diocese of Pallars, enabling himself to control the local church.

Pallars and Ribagorza had experienced a constant decline as brother and cousins divided it up,[19] and the phrase in rem valentem appearing in charters indicates a transition from a money to a barter economy.

[22] At the same time, a steady advance was made in the borderlands; many charters make reference to land acquired de ruptura along in line settlement along the frontier.