Early life and move West He was a
Hunfriding by birth, with no connection to
Gothia. He was probably Hunfrid III, the second son of
Hunfrid II,
dux super Redicam (duke over Rhaetia). He rebelled against
Louis the German, the
king of East Francia, and was forced to flee to
Charles the Bald, the king of
West Francia, to whom he was one of the few to remain loyal during the vicissitudes of the 850s. He was appointed count and margrave of several counties in the
Marca Hispanica by Charles, possibly as early as 854 and no later than 858.
Warrior under Charles the Bald In 858, Humfrid negotiated a treaty of peace with Abd al-Rahman, the
Moorish governor of
Zaragoza, and marched into Gaul to the assistance of Charles. He arrived at
Beaune in February and he did homage to the king on 21 March. He then joined Charles in making war on the
Norsemen. Louis took this as an opportunity to invade the country and Humfrid assisted Charles in fending him off. In September, Humfrid regrouped with his forces at Beaune before joining in the
defeat of Louis at
Saint-Quentin on 15 January 859. During the campaigning of 858, Humfrid had been enfeoffed with the
County of Autun and
Margraviate of Burgundy. In 856, the
Moors captured the castle of
Terrassa near
Barcelona. In 861, they besieged Barcelona itself, but Humfrid bought them off and renewed the treaty with the consent of Charles. It was to last for three decades.
Exile to the east In 862, Charles named his son
Charles the Child as
king of Aquitaine. This was opposed by the nobles, who, with the exception of Humfrid, did not support the young Charles in his subsequent rebellion. The elder Charles accused Humfrid of disloyalty. On 19 August, Humfrid was deposed. He was not to give up, though. He took
Toulouse and killed
Count Raymond I in the fighting. Charles responded by confiscating Humfrid's Burgundian lands. Even the pretender
Pepin II of Aquitaine led a band of Norsemen in an attack on Toulouse, but was repulsed. Humfrid then fled to
Italy, and from there to
Swabia, where, in 872, he was a count in
Zürich. He was alive as late as 876. ==Notes==