Aimerico Manrique de Lara

Aimerico Manrique de Lara or Aimeric ( 1152 – 14 October 1177) was the co-ruler of the Viscounty of Narbonne from 1167 and self-styled Duke of Narbonne from 1172. He was the nephew and heir of the Viscountess Ermengarda. He appears briefly to have ruled Narbonne in his own name from 1176 until his death. Origins Aimeric is first mentioned in a royal charter for Segovia Cathedral (March 1161) and later in the concession of the village of Madrigal to Burgos Cathedral (August 1164). He was either the eldest or second eldest son of Manrique Pérez, head of the Lara family and count of Molina, and Ermessende, daughter of Aimeric II of Narbonne and sister of Ermengarda. The seventeenth-century historian of the Lara family, Luis de Salazar y Castro, reasoned that Aimeric was the eldest son because he inherited Narbonne and was listed before his brother Pedro Manrique in the document of 1164. He was listed second, however, in that of 1161, and as Pedro inherited Molina, which was regarded as more important by the Laras, it is more likely that Aimeric was a second son, according to Antonio Sánchez de Mora. Derek Nicholson also held that Aimeric was the eldest son, since Pedro later followed their aunt in Narbonne, which has the appearance of following a line of succession. Karl Appel, following Joseph Vaissète, thought Aimeric was the eldest son and placed his birth towards 1152, when his parents were married, because of the number of children they had after him. First trip to Narbonne (1167–71) Perhaps because she had no descendants or being a woman required a man beside her to consolidate her authority, Ermengarda invited her nephew Aimeric to share power with her in Narbonne, and designated him her heir. He is first recorded north of Pyrnees with his aunt in 1167, when the two witnessed their overlord, Count Raymond V of Toulouse, confer certain fiefs on Count Roger Bernard I of Foix, thus forming an alliance against the increasing power of King Alfonso II of Aragon. In 1169 Ermengarda and Aimeric gained a new vassal of their own by granting Peyrac in fief to Raymond de Triavilla. In 1171 Ermengarda witnessed the sealing of an alliance between the count of Toulouse and Roger II Trencavel, who held several viscounties neighbouring Narbonne and was a former ally of the king of Aragon. Aimeric was absent from the region at this time, and he can be seen with his family at Molina in 1172.