Aurembiaix

Aurembiaix or Aurembiax (1196 – 1231) was the Countess of Urgell from 1208, the last of her dynasty.

She was the only child of Ermengol VIII and Elvira of Subirats. In 1206, Ermengol asked Peter II of Aragon to defend the right of his daughter to inherit and his widow to have the regency, but after Peter's death (1213), Guerau IV of Cabrera, a cousin of Aurembiaix's who claimed the inheritance, invaded the county and took control.

Aurembiaix married Álvaro Pérez de Castro in 1212, but in 1228 she had the marriage annulled and returned to Urgel to claim her right to succeed. She received the support of James I of Aragon and became his concubine at Agramunt. Threatened with invasion and a possible marital alliance with Aragon, the nobles of Urgell accepted Aurembiaix as their ruler. In 1229, Aurembiaix in turn married Peter, son of Sancho I of Portugal, and rendered Lleida to James and accepting Urgell back from him as a fief.

Aurembiaix died without descendants at Balaguer only about a year later. Urgell went to Peter.

References

• Chaytor, H. J. A History of Aragon and Catalonia. London: Methuen, 1933.