County of Osona

The County of Osona, Ausona to the Romans, was the Catalan county of the Vic plain, won back blade by blade from the mid-eighth century and held by counts from Vic's citadel. Louis of Aquitaine ordered the Goth Borrell, already Count of Cerdanya and Urgell, into the empty land in 798 to mend Vic, Cardona and Casseres, and after Barcelona fell in 801 Borrell received Osona as a countship with its diocese. Vic stood in Frankish hands from 799. The revolt of 826, when Guillemo and Aisso took the land with Cordoban help and Rampon of Barcelona inherited the claim, emptied it again, and Osona lay waste outside Frankish hands until Wilfred the Hairy planted free peasants to till it in 879. Wedded to Barcelona's fortunes ever after, it passed as dowry to Bernard of Besalu in 1107 and came home heirless at his death, ending four centuries as a distinct county while its name lived on in the bishopric.