Isarn of Pallars

Isarn [Or Ysarn, his name appears in contemporary Latin sources as "Ysarnus" and "Aznarius", Isarn being a variant of Aznar.] (died 948) [That he died after 13 September 953 is sometimes said, as at the [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ARAGONESE%20NOBILITY.htm#IsarnPallarsdied953B Foundation for Medieval Genealogy] , but the source is unknown.] was the Count of Pallars from 920 until his death, and effectively an sovereign prince. He was the eldest of four sons of Raymond I, Count of Pallars and Ribagorza, and his wife Ginigents. With his younger brother Llop he co-ruled Pallars after his father's death in 920. Their brothers Bernard and Miró co-governed Ribagorza. [Archibald Ross Lewis (1965), [http://libro.uca.edu/lewis/index.htm "The Development of Southern French and Catalan Society, 718–1050"] (Austin, University of Texas Press), 122. These "sons" are sometimes referred to as "grandchildren", even by Lewis, see p. 221. Isarn is also sometimes recorded as one of the youngest two sons of Raymond, which would reserve the succession in Ribagorza, then overrun by Moors, to the more capable elder two.] A fifth brother, Otto (or Ato), was Bishop of Pallars, which allowed the counts, especially Isarn, to effectively control the Church in their territories.

Isarn probably co-governed Pallars with his father from around 900. [http://www.enciclopedia.cat/fitxa_v2.jsp?NDCHEC=003395 "Isarn I de Pallars,"] "Grup Enciclopèdia Catalan".] In 904 he was captured along with seven hundred others during a raid by the Moorish chieftain of Lleida, Lope ibn Mohammed. [Lewis, 221, but this happened while he was a child (Lewis calls him "heir") or while he was defending the region is unknown.] From the Codex of Roda we know that he remained a prisoner at Tudela until 918, when he was liberated by Sancho I of Pamplona. [The Codex states that Isarn was captured "in Tutela" (in Tudela) and released by "rex Sanzio Garseanis" (king Sancho Garcés).] As count, Isarn founded a convent, Sant Pere de Burgal, at Burghals and made his daughter Ermengardis its first abbess in 945. [Lewis, 245, 250–1. Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual (1997), "Catàleg dels monestirs catalans" (Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat), 53, suggests that Isarn became a monk at his own foundation in 949.] At that date he signed a charter as "Domnus Isarnus comes et marchio dum resideret in Paliarensis regno": "Lord Isarn, count and margrave, while residing in the kingdom of Pallars." [http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ARAGONESE%20NOBILITY.htm#IsarnPallarsdied953B Aragonese Nobility: Chapter 2. Condes de Pallars] at "Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Medieval Lands Project".] Isarn also had a son named William who either predeceased him (before 953) or succeeded him but died without descendents. [Ferran Valls i Taberner and Ferran Soldevila (2002), "Història de Catalunya" (Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat), 90.]

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