Urgell is one of the historical Catalan counties, bordering on the counties of Pallars and Cerdanya. Its maximal extension territory was between the Pyrenees and the taifa of Lleida, that is, the current comarques of Alt Urgell, Noguera, Solsonès, Pla d'Urgell, Urgell itself, and the still independent country of Andorra.
The historical capital was first La Seu d'Urgell and later Balaguer. The diocese was an old one, and traditions of the early Christian church lingered; Felix of Urgel's tendencies towards the heretical position of Adoptionism was attacked by Alcuin in Contra Felicem (Runciman 1947). Andorra was ceded to the bishop of La Seu d'Urgell by the count Ermengol IV of Urgell in the 12th century. The county of Urgell was extinguished and absorved by the Kingdom of Aragon and the Count of Barcelona, after the revolt of the count James II of Urgell against the king Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1413.
There is still a Bishop of Urgell, who since 2003 has been Joan Enric Vives Sicília. This role carries with it the position of joint head of state of Andorra.
Count of Urgel and Cerdanya since 870, he received the counties of Barcelona, Gerona, and Besalú in 878 from the Carolingian king of France, Louis the Stammerer.
The Bellonid dynasty was revived slightly by the appointment of Dela and Sunyer II, sons of Sunyer I, to the countship of Ampurias in 862.
On September 11, Bernard was dispossessed of his counties and the bishops of Elna, Urgel, Gerona, and Barcelona were confirmed in their sees.
Charlemagne's grandson, Charles II, granted Andorra to the counts of Urgel, from whom it passed to the bishops of Urgel.
Andorra's seven-century-old dual allegiance to two princes, one in Spain and one in France, originated in the late 13th century in a proprietary quarrel between the (Spanish) bishops of Urgel and the (French) heirs to the countship of Urgel.
Andorra was subsequently governed jointly by representatives of the Spanish bishop of Urgel and of the French head of state, each of whom received an annual payment of a token tribute.
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