Norman crusaders in the Catalan reconquest: Robert Burdet and the principality of Tarragona, 1129-55
Lawrence J. McCrank
A Norman adventurer, Robert Burdet, while participating in the Reconquista, established a short-lived crusader principality at Tarragona. This gained fame after 1114, first serving Alfonso I el Batallador (‘The Warrior’) of Aragon wars against Banu Hūd Zaragoza; thereafter he was contracted by Archbishop Oleguer Bonestruga Tarragona, primate northeastern Spain 1118 and papal legate 1123, to assume 1129 secular lordship Tarragona which had been constituted comital house Barcelona as fief ecclesiastical principality. After this prelate's death 1137, held frontier attempted found an autonomous state, but 1146 new archbishop, Bernard Tort, began re-impose control over At same time, inherited royal title from Aragon, thus forming crown merging former kingdom with Catalan counties reviving crusade again...
Journal of Medieval History