Born on 11 November 1082 in
Rodez,
Viscounty of Rodez,
County of Toulouse,
Francia, he was the son of
Ramon Berenguer II. He succeeded his father to co-rule with his uncle
Berenguer Ramon II. He became the sole ruler in 1097, when Berenguer Ramon II was forced into exile. Responding to increased raids into his lands by the
Almoravids in 1102, Ramon counter-attacked, assisted by
Ermengol V, Count of Urgell, but was defeated and Ermengol killed at the
battle of Mollerussa. During his rule Catalan interests were extended on both sides of the
Pyrenees. By marriage or
vassalage he incorporated into his realm almost all of the Catalan counties (except
Urgell and
Peralada). He inherited the counties of
Besalú (1111) and
Cerdanya (1117) and in between married
Douce, heiress of Provence (1112). His dominions then stretched as far east as
Nice. In alliance with the Count of
Urgell, Ramon Berenguer conquered
Balaguer. He also established relations with the Italian maritime republics of
Pisa and
Genoa, and in
1114 and 1115 attacked with Pisa the then-Muslim islands of
Mallorca and
Ibiza. They became his tributaries and many Christian slaves there were recovered and set free. Ramon Berenguer also raided mainland Muslim dependencies with Pisa's help, such as
Valencia,
Lleida and
Tortosa. In 1116, Ramon traveled to Rome to petition
Pope Paschal II for a crusade to liberate Tarragona. By 1118 he had captured and rebuilt
Tarragona, which became the
metropolitan seat of the church in Catalonia (before that, Catalans had depended ecclesiastically on the
archbishopric of Narbonne). In 1127, Ramon Berenguer signed a
commercial treaty with the
Genoese. On 14 July 1130, toward the end of his life, he became an associate member of the
Templars. He gave his five Catalan counties to his eldest son
Ramon Berenguer IV and Provence to the younger son
Berenguer Ramon. He died on 23 January/19 July 1131 and was buried in the
Santa Maria de Ripoll monastery. ==Marriages and descendants==