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Ramon Berenguer III the Great was Count of Barcelona, Girona and Osona
from 1082-1131 and Count of Provence, Holy Roman Empire, from 1112.
Born in 1082 in Rodez, he was the son of Ramon Berenguer II. He succeeded his father to co-rule with his uncle Berenguer Ramon II. After 1097, when
Berenguer Ramon II was forced into exile, he was the sole ruler.
During his rule Catalan interests were extended on both sides of the Pyrenees. By
marriage or vassalage he incorporated into his realm almost all of the Catalan counties (except those of Urgell and Peralada). He inherited the counties of Besalú (1111) and Cerdanya (1117) and in-between married Douce, heiress of Provence (1112). Now his dominions stretched as far east as Nice
In alliance with the Count of Urgell Ramon Berenguer conquered Barbastro and
Balaguer. In 1118 he captured and rebuilt Tarragona, which became the
metropolitan seat of the church in Catalonia (before that, Catalans had depended
ecclesiastically on the archbishopric of Narbonne). He also established relations
with the Italian maritime republics of Pisa and Genoa and in 1114-1115
raided with them the Moorish pirate strongholds of Majorca and Ibiza.
They became his tributaries and many Christian slaves were recovered and set free. Jointly with Pisa Ramon Berenguer also raided Muslim dependencies on the mainland, including lands of Valencia, Lleida and Tortosa.
Toward the end of his life Ramon Berenguer became a Templar. He gave his five Catalonian counties to his eldest son Ramon Berenguer IV and Provence to the younger son Berenguer Ramon.
Ramon Berenguer's marriages and descendants
- First wife, María Rodríguez de Vivar, second daughter of Cid, died ca. 1105
- María -> married Bernat III, Count of Besalú (d. 1111)
- Jimena, a.k.a. Eixemena -> married Roger III, Count of Foix
- Third wife, Douce or Dolça de Gévaudaun, heiress of Provence, d. ca. 1127
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