Spanish March in the context of "Duchy of Gascony"

Charlemagne (/ˈʃɑːrləmeɪn/ SHAR-lə-mayn; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian Empire from 800. He united most of Western and Central Europe and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west after the fall of the Western Roman Empire approximately three centuries earlier. Charlemagne's reign was marked by political and social changes that had lasting influence on Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

A member of the Frankish Carolingian dynasty, Charlemagne was the eldest son of Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon. With his brother Carloman I, he became king of the Franks in 768 following Pepin's death and became the sole ruler three years later. Charlemagne continued his father's policy of protecting the papacy and became its chief defender, removing the Lombards from power in northern Italy in 774. His reign saw a period of expansion that led to the conquests of Bavaria, Saxony, and northern Spain, as well as other campaigns that led Charlemagne to extend his rule over a large part of Europe. Charlemagne spread Christianity to his new conquests (often by force), as seen at the Massacre of Verden against the Saxons. He also sent envoys and initiated diplomatic contact with Harun al-Rashid, the Abbasid caliph in the 790s, due to their mutual interest in Iberian affairs.

The Catalan counties (Catalan: Comtats Catalans, IPA: [kumˈtats kətəˈlans]) were those surviving counties of the Hispanic March and the southernmost part of the March of Gothia that were later united to form the Principality of Catalonia.

In 778, Charlemagne led the first military Frankish expedition into Hispania to create a military buffer zone between the Frankish Empire and the Emirate of Córdoba, occasionally known as the "Hispanic March". The territory that he subdued would in later centuries become the kernel of Catalonia (not yet known like that since the first written mention of Catalonia is in 1113). In 781, Charlemagne made his 3-year-old son Louis the Pious (778 – 840) king of Aquitaine, who was sent there with regents and a court in order to secure the southern border of his kingdom against the Arabs and Moors and to expand southwards into Muslim territory.

Gothia may refer to:

• Gothia (Roman province), a fourth century Roman province in present-day Romania
• Götaland, a region in southern Sweden
• The land of the Crimean Goths in southern Crimea
• Principality of Theodoro, Greek principality in southern Crimea from early 14th century to 1475
• Septimania, a historical region in southern France
• Spanish March, a land in northern Spain
• Catalonia, the name being possibly derived from "Gothic land"
• Metropolitanate of Gothia, a diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the Middle Ages

The recorded history of the lands of what today is known as Catalonia begins with the development of the Iberian peoples while several Greek colonies were established on the coast before the Roman conquest. It was the first area of Hispania conquered by the Romans. It then came under Visigothic rule after the collapse of the western part of the Roman Empire. In 718, the area was occupied by the Umayyad Caliphate and became a part of Muslim ruled al-Andalus. The Frankish Empire conquered northern half of the area from the Muslims, ending with the conquest of Barcelona in 801, as part of the creation of a larger buffer zone of Christian counties against Islamic rule historiographically known as the Marca Hispanica. In the 10th century the County of Barcelona became progressively independent from Frankish rule.

In 1137, Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona betrothed the heiress of the Kingdom of Aragon, Petronilla, establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with Aragon, resulting in a composite monarchy later known as Crown of Aragon, while the County of Barcelona and the other Catalan counties merged into a state, the Principality of Catalonia, which developed an institutional system (Catalan Courts, constitutions, Generalitat) that limited the power of the kings. Catalonia sponsored and contributed to the expansion of the Crown's trade and military, most significantly their navy. The Catalan language flourished and expanded as more territories were added to the Crown of Aragon, including Valencia, the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, and Athens. The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, the end of the reign of House of Barcelona, serf and urban conflicts and a civil war (1462–1472) weakened the role of the Principality within the Crown and internationally.

Rampon (Rampó) was the second count of the Catalan counties of Barcelona and Osona from 820 until his death in 825.

Rampon was given the county of Barcelona, by Louis the Pious, King of Aquitaine, following Bera's accusation of treason, trial by combat, and his subsequent defeat. During his time as count of Barcelona, Rampon founded monasteries, all of Frankish origin, thus spreading Carolingian hegemony throughout the Spanish March.