Of Occitan descent, Lucia de la Marca became Countess of Pallars Sobirà when she married Artal I. This alliance culminated the strategy of Count Ramon Berenguer I of Barcelona to secure the complicity of the Catalan counties after the scandal generated by his union with Lucia's sister, Almodis de la Marca. The incident is fairly well-known: Ramon Berenguer I, then married to Blanche of Narbonne, had Almodis de la Marca kidnapped in 1052. She was also married to Count Pontius III of Toulouse. The discontent of some counts was notable, especially that of the grandmother Countess Ermesenda, who even went so far as to secure the couple's excommunication. The conflict was not resolved until 1057.
With the death of Count Artal I in 1081, Lucia assumed the government of the county along with one of her sons, Artal II. This active participation of a woman in government is not an isolated case, but is comparable to the role played by her sister, Almodis, and Countess Ermesenda of Carcassonne.
Indeed, the rights and agency enjoyed by upper-class women in Catalonia, both in social and domestic life and in the political sphere, were made possible by the vigor of Hispano-Visigothic legal translation, which prevented the entry of Carolingian legislation into the border counties. This is how customs such as the usufruct of the deceased husband's property by widows, the equitable distribution of paternal inheritance among children, regardless of sex, and the allocation of a tenth of a husband's property to his wife upon marriage are understood.
This privileged position explains Lucía de la Marca's significant public presence, as evidenced by abundant existing documentation. Therefore, it is safe to identify the female figure appearing in the frescoes of Sant Pere del Burgal with the Countess; these frescoes were painted in the period following the death of Count Artal I, precisely the Countess's most active period in governing the city.
Source: Gencat
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