Conclusion

Summary

From Gurb in the 880s and Sant Joan de les Abadesses in the 900s, to the men who saw Borrell II’s will carried out in 993 and went on to attend the gatherings of his sons, a complex of paths has been taken through the evidence of Carolingian Catalonia’s frontier counties. We have read many of the promised micro-histories, heard the voices of scribes and the instigators of what they wrote as recorded in the documents that they made, and most of all seen the pervasiveness of the connections that this study set out to examine. Whether the connections are between the most humble, such as the peasants associated in the Vall de Sant Joan hearing, from the count’s men, such as Guifré de la Nèspola and his Roman devotee colleague Riculf, to the count or to each other, it is clear that the methods employed can expose them and that they have an explanatory value that allows new depth to be perceived in social relations in the area.

In the combination of personal histories and exposed connections, can be traced the careers of those who held power, whether notables such as Eldoard in Vallfogona, or Adalbert in Gurb, lords such as the vicars, viscounts and counts, or those of equal status without the name. Although this secular world is being seen through a cat’s cradle of strings of documents, the ends of which are held by the Church, and this is the only reason that observations can be made, the fortunes of a number of these laymen can be traced. A host of rarely-glimpsed dignitaries such as Viscount Daneu in Urgell or Count Gauzfred, kinsman of Borrell, remind that the sample population’s contact with the Church may not have been typical, but perhaps balance is maintained by those whose preservation is not down to their own such contact but that of others.

Among these careers, some individuals rise, like the vicars of Gurb and those less visible notables whom Borrell’s patronage brought into the record. There were also falls, albeit over generations, as with the family of Sal·la, rather than over the course of an individual career. The reason for this discrepancy is simple: although a rise in influence may be detected from increasing appearances in the documentation, falls may not be simply diagnosed from a corresponding decrease that might have many meanings.