Hugh, tenth count of Albarracin

Hugh
Count of Albarracin
Predecessor	Blanca
Successor	Hugh
Born	1117 Kingdom of Aragon
Died	5 January 1187 (aged 69) Albarracin, Kingdom of Aragon
Buried	Cathedral of Híjar
Noble family	Cerdanya Vieja
Spouse(s)	Blanca de Oka (d. 1154) Gontroda Jimena
Issue Frederic Guislabert Hugh Guerau Sancha
Father	Suleyman of Eilat
Mother	Elisenda de Cerdanya

Hugh de Cerdanya Vieja (Catalan: Hug; 1117 - 5 January 1187) was an Aragonese nobleman, military commander, and noted falconer during the High Middle Ages. He was the first member of his dynasty to bear the name of Cerdanya Vieja.

Early life

Hugh was born in 1117, probably during the summer; an account of his death records that natus ante solstitium, while a later (and perhaps spurious) history of his dynasty reports that he was born around the Feast of St. James, which falls in July. His father, Suleyman of Eilat, was a man of Andalusian descent and unknown parentage. Perhaps a favored official at the court of William, count of Albarracin, he obtained permission for a matrilineal marriage to the count's daughter Elisenda circa 1100. Several years after his wife's death in 1136, Suleyman left Aragon for service in the duchy of Sinai, from whence he obtained his epithet.

Hugh was his parents' third and last child. Details about his early life are nonexistent. Hugh probably became a knight in the service of his distant cousin Blanca, countess of Albarracin. After the death of his elder brother Guislabert in May 1136, Hugh became the last surviving male of the House of Cerdanya. According to multiple chroniclers, Hugh had drawn increasingly close to King Adalbert since coming of age in 1133, with the ultimate aim of seizing the Cerdanya dynasty's lands for himself.

Hugh played a critical role in sparking the civil war of 1136-37 between Adalbert and William Raymond, duke of Valencia, the latter of whom sought both to control the Cerdanya lands as regent for his granddaughter Blanca, and to uphold her right to Albarracin against that of Hugh. At the conclusion of the war, on 1 August 1137, the king invested Hugh as count of Albarracin under the terms of the original grant of 1068. Hugh attempted unsuccessfully to regain his ancestral barony of Cerdanya, which had become the property of Queen Sibila at the conclusion of the war.

Count of Albarracin

After securing the county of Albarracin, Hugh successfully applied to change his family name to Cerdanya Vieja, probably to distinguish it from the "younger" Cerdanya line that had formerly served as counts of Calatayud. This appellation may have been given to the dynasty as early as the late 1120s, but historians remain uncertain as to this fact.

Hugh granted a surviving charter at Valderrobres, near Teruel, on 19 April 1140. In May 1141, he obtained royal confirmation of his wife's rights in the county of Albarracin in the event of his death. Despite his early closeness with King Adalbert, Hugh appears to have drifted away from the king in the later years of the reign. In February 1145, Hugh dutifully attended the great council convened at Manresa; on 2 August of the same year, however, he submitted to a warning from the king's justiciars that he should desist from "treasonous associations". The context of this warning is no longer known. After the queen's death in 1147, Hugh again attempted to secure the barony of Cerdanya from Adalbert, without success. On 14 November 1150, Hugh signed a bond of friendship with Otto the Holy, count of Rosello, which Adalbert may have perceived as threatening. Hugh retained a low political profile until the king's death in 1153.

Hugh enjoyed a better relationship with Adalbert's son Ramon-Berenguer III. He attended the royal tournament held at Lleida in 1154, at which he was granted permission to sit in Ramon-Berenguer's pavilion. Hugh obtained some form of military office after the new king's accession; he was recorded as praefectus militum on 14 January 1155. As such, he was given special responsibility for the raising of the Aragonese feudal host in April 1155, after Ramon-Berenguer's declaration of war on the Aftasid Sultanate.

War and imprisonment

In September 1155, Hugh was appointed as one of the commanders of the royal host while attending the king at Castellon. On 3 April 1156, Hugh fought in the battle of Tarazona, a bitter defeat for the Kingdom of Aragon against an Aftasid army. Fighting in the central division of the Aragonese army, Hugh was captured by the Aftasids. According to one later chronicler, the count was engaged bravely in holding off the enemy attack until Ramon-Berenguer could reach safety behind the Aragonese lines. It is possible that Hugh was wounded in the battle. Hugh was treated honorably by the Aftasids, and was perhaps taken to Lisbon, the sultan's capital, for the duration of his imprisonment.

During Hugh's imprisonment in the Aftasid Sultanate, the king appointed his eldest son Frederic to administer the county of Albarracin. In March 1157, in a formal appeal to Sultan Garsiya, Hugh complained of suffering "an illness of the chest". This appeal was denied, and Hugh remained in prison. The date of his release from Aftasid custody is not certain. He was probably released circa 1160, but may not have been released until 1162; the first documentary evidence of his presence in Aragon dates from 2 December of that year, when he granted a charter at Cantavieja.

Falconry

By the mid-1150s, Hugh had already developed a reputation as a great hedonist. An obituary written decades after his death labels him amator vini, a lover of wine. It seems likely that Hugh spent huge sums of money each year on expensive consumables and various entertainments, making him one of the most famous nobles in contemporary Christian Spain.

Circa 1170, Hugh authored the Liber de venatione cum avibus, a text on the art of falconry. He seems to have been a pioneer in the late medieval style of hunting with falcons.