page_title: Bernard I, Count of Besalú
section_title: Marriage, heirs, and death
hierarchical_section_title: Bernard I, Count of Besalú / Marriage, heirs, and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Bernardo Tallaferro Čeština: Bernardo Tallaferro
context_page_description: Bernard I, called Taillefer, was the Count of Besalú in Catalonia from 988 until his death. He was the eldest son of Oliba Cabreta and Ermengard of Empúries, and succeeded his father in Besalú while his younger brothers Oliba and Wifred, inherited Berga–Ripoll and Cerdagne–Conflent, respectively.
context_section_description: In 992, Bernard married Toda, also known as Adelaide, as contemporary charters attest. A grant of property dated 27 March 1000 to the church of Santa Maria del Castell de Besalú refers to uxori mee Tota que vocant Azalatz (my wife Toda who they call Adelaide) and another grant to the same, dated 1 March 1018, refers to uxor mea Tota comitissa que vocatur Adalet (my wife, the countess Toda, who is called Adelaide). The couple was a consistent patron of said church, also making a donation on 7 May 1012, with their son. She is never mentioned after the publication of Bernard's will.
  According to the modern Europäische Stammtafeln, Toda may have been the daughter of William II of Provence or William II Sánchez of Gascony. It has been hypothesised that she was the route by which the exotic Byzantine name Constance, feminine form of Constantine, entered Spain. Boso II of Arles had married Constance, speculated to have been daughter of Charles Constantine and granddaughter of the Emperor Louis III by Anna, daughter of Leo VI the Wise. Boso's son, William I of Provence, married Adelaide of Anjou. Their son, William II, thus had both Adelaide and Constance in his name pool. If Bernard's wife was indeed his daughter, this would explain the name of Bernard's own eldest daughter and perhaps the name of a certain Constance, wife of Sancho Garcés, illegitimate son of García Sánchez III of Pamplona, and a daughter of García's wife, Stephanie, by a previous marriage, perhaps to an unnamed son of Bernard of Besalú.
  Bernard drowned in the river Rhône while crossing into the County of Provence in 1020 and was buried in the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll. Bernard's will, dated 26 September 1020, lists his children as Henry (Asenric/Aienrich), Hugh, Berengar, Adelaide, Constance, and William, and also names his wife and brother Oliba. His will was then published by his widow, his brother Oliba, his son Wifred, and the three other executors in a charter of 13 October, but this version does name his daughters and adds his brother Wifred and his nephew, Wifred's son and eventual successor, Raymond I. One of the executors of his will was Pons Bonfill. He left his younger sons under the tutelage (in tuicione) of their elder brother William, who inherited Besalú. His second son, Wifred, was already bishop of Besalú and his third son, Henry, he named as Wifred's heir in the diocese, with the price of his elevation (to bribe the cathedral chapter) to be paid by William. Bernard's two younger sons, Hugh and Berengar, inherited allodial lands strategically placed on the borders of the county. Though they were recognised as "co-heirs", these younger sons were never more than castellans and vassals of their elder brother.
  Bernard's eldest daughter, Constance, received several allods in his will. She may be the Constance, also known as Velasquita, who married Count Ermengol II of Urgell as his second wife, as part of the count's policy of strengthening his ties with Besalú, which lay between his county and powerful Barcelona. Another of Bernard's daughters, Adelaide, married Ponç I of Empúries, son and heir of Hugh I; widowed, she entered the monastery of Sant Pau. A possible daughter Garsenda (Garcinda), unnamed in his will, married Berengar, viscount of Narbonne.
caption: Renovated nineteenth-century sepulchre of Bernard in the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll.
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