Ermengol VIII, Count of Urgell

Ermengol (or Armengol) VIII (1158–1208), known as el de Sant Hilari, was the Count of Urgell from 1184 to his death. He was a son of Ermengol VII and Dulce, daughter of Roger III of Foix.

In 1178, he married Elvira of Subirats, with whom he had an only daughter, Aurembiaix.^[1]

During his reign, the decline of his house was initiated at the hands of the viscounts of Àger. In 1206, a period of disorder commenced owing to the ambitions of Guerau IV of Cabrera, who disputed the right of Aurembiaix to succeed. Ermengol extracted a promise from Peter II of Aragon to defend the rights of his widow and daughter.

Notes

1. The origins of Elvira have been subject to recent scholarly reevaluation. She was once identified as daughter of Manrique Pérez de Lara, but Canal Sánchez-Pagín showed that Ermengol's wife was Elvira Pérez, daughter of Pedro Alfonso of Asturias. However, Sánchez de Mora has presented evidence that Aurembiaix was close kin to the Lara family and suggests that a documented countess Elvira Nuñez de Lara, daughter of Nuño Pérez de Lara, was in fact a second wife of Ermengol, to whom he married after the death of Elvira Pérez, and that Aurembiaix was her daughter. Sánchez de Mora, pp. 300-305.

Sources

• Chaytor, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. London: Methuen, 1933.
• Sánchez de Mora, Antonio. La Nobleza Castella en la Plena Edad Media: El Linaje de Lara (ss. XI-XIII) Doctoral Thesis, Universidad de Sevilla, 2003.