Ermengol III

Ermengol (or Armengol) III (1032–1066), called el de Barbastre, was the Count of Urgell from 1038 to his death. He was the son of Ermengol II and Constance, daughter of the Count of Besalú.

Allied with his contemporary and second cousin Raymond Berengar I of Barcelona, together they shared in the process of erosion of the comital authority to the noblesse. They also cooperated in the Reconquista and he received a third part of the conquests, occupying, in 1050, Camarasa and Cubells after taking them from Yusuf of Lleida. In 1039–1040, Ermengol and Raymond Berengar signed a pact against Raymond of Cerdanya. Later in that decade, Raymond Berenger paid 20,000 solidi for Ermengol's support and military aid.

He took part in the Barbastro War of 1064 under the banner of Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. When Barbastro was captured, he was given the lordship of the city. On 17 April 1066, he died defending the city from Moorish reprisals.

Ermengol married before 1048 Adelaide, whose family is not known, even if some scholars made her daughter of Guillem I Count of Besalu. She died before May 1055, leaving a daughter:

• Isabel (died circa 1071), married Sancho Ramírez in 1065

before May 7, 1055, Ermengol took as his second wife Clemencia, presumably daughter of Berengar Raymond I and his second wife Guisla (this is hypothesized from the name of their 4 sons), by whom he had:

• Ermengol IV, his heir
• Berenguer
• Guillem
• Ramon

Clemencia died after June 26, 1057, and before November 6, 1062, Ermengol was remarried to a lady named Elvira

In 1065, Ermengol married as his fourth wife Sancha, daughter of Ramiro I of Aragon by Ermessinda of Foix, and may have had daughter, Sancha, who married Hugh II of Empúries.

Sources

• Lewis, Archibald R. The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050. University of Texas Press: Austin, 1965.
• Ponsich, Pierre. "Le Conflent et ses comtes du IXe au XIIe siècle." Etudes Roussillonnaises, 1, 1951, pp 241-344.
• Aurell i Cardona, Martin. "Jalons pour une enquête sur les stratégies matrimoniales des comtes Catalans (IXe-XIe s.)" Symposium internacional, 1991, vol 1, pp 281-364.