County of Roussillon

The County of Roussillon was one of the Catalan counties of the Marca Hispanica, the frontier zone established by the Frankish kings south of the Pyrenees. Its core lay around Ruscino and later Perpignan, in what is now southern France. A Visigothic county existed there in the sixth and seventh centuries; after the Moorish conquest and Frankish reconquest, counts were appointed in the ninth century. The county was often united with Empúries, and its rulers built castles and monasteries while gradually escaping royal control. In the late tenth century Count Giselbert I moved the capital from Castellrosselló to Perpignan, which became the leading town of the region. Roussillon developed its own customs and, unlike much of Catalonia, retained Visigothic law in its courts. On the death of Count Girard II without heirs in 1172, the county passed to Alfonso II of Aragon, ending its separate dynasty. Its lands later formed part of the Principality of Catalonia and were ceded to France in 1659.