Miro, called the Old or the Elder (in Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

, Miró el Vell) (died 896) was the count of Conflent

County of Conflent

The County of Conflent or Confluent was one of the Catalan counties of the Marca Hispanica in the ninth century. Usually associated with the County of Cerdanya and the county of Razès, and was located to the west of Roussillon...

 from 870 and Rosselló

Counts of Roussillon

This is a list of the counts of Roussillon, in Catalan Rosselló.-Carolingian counts:These counts were nominated by the Carolingian kings of France, of whom they were vassals.*Gaucelm Hereafter, also counts of Barcelona....

 from 878 until his death. He was the son of Sunifred I

Sunifred I, Count of Barcelona

Sunifred was the count of many Catalan and Septimanian counties; including Ausona, Besalú, Girona, Narbonne, Agde, Béziers, Lodève, Melgueil, Cerdanya, Urgell, Conflent, and Nîmes; and Count of Barcelona from 844 to 848....

, count of Barcelona, Urgell, Cerdanya

Cerdanya

Cerdanya is a natural comarca and historical region of the eastern Pyrenees divided between France and Spain. Historically it has been one of the counties of Catalonia....

, and Besalú

Besalú

Besalú is a town in the comarca of Garrotxa, in Catalonia, Spain.The town's importance was greater in the early Middle Ages, as capital of the county of Besalú, whose territory was roughly the same size as the current comarca of Garrotxa but sometime extended as far as Corbières, Aude, in France....

, and Ermesende, and thus brother of Wilfred the Hairy

Wilfred the Hairy

Wilfred or Wifred, called the Hairy, was Count of Urgell , Cerdanya , Barcelona , Girona , Besalú , and Ausona ....

 and Radulf of Besalú

Radulf of Besalú

Radulf was a Count of Besalú. He was the younger son of Sunifred I, Count of Barcelona, and thus a brother of Wilfred the Hairy and Miró the Elder....

.

Wilfred inherited in 870 the county of Urgell and that of Cerdanya from his uncle Solomon I, but he gave the government of the pagus

Pagus

In the later Western Roman Empire, following the reorganization of Diocletian, a pagus became the smallest administrative district of a province....

of Conflent

Conflent

Conflent is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, now part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. In the Middle Ages it comprised the County of Conflent....

 to Miro. In 876, he rebelled against Bernard, margrave

Margrave

A margrave or margravine was a medieval hereditary nobleman with military responsibilities in a border province of a kingdom. Border provinces usually had more exposure to military incursions from the outside, compared to interior provinces, and thus a margrave usually had larger and more active...

 of Gothia

Gothia

Gothia is a name given to various places where the Goths lived during their migrations:* Götaland, the traditional original homeland of the Goths.* Dacia was referred to as Gothia during the fourth century, when it was settled by Goths....

, and invaded Roussillon

Roussillon

Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...

 with the help of Lindoi, viscount of Narbonne

Viscount of Narbonne

The Viscount of Narbonne was the secular ruler of Narbonne in the Middle Ages. Narbonne had been the capital of the Visigoth province of Septimania, until the eighth century, after which it became the Carolingian Viscounty of Narbonne. Narbonne was nominally subject to the Carolingian Counts of...

, and his brother. In 878, though condemned for his invasion by the Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

, John VIII

Pope John VIII

Pope John VIII was pope from December 13, 872 to December 16, 882. He is often considered one of the ablest pontiffs of the ninth century and the last bright spot on the papacy until Leo IX two centuries later....

, he was confirmed in his new possession by the king of France, Louis II. He was a protector of the monastery

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 of Saint Andrew

Saint Andrew

Saint Andrew , called in the Orthodox tradition Prōtoklētos, or the First-called, is a Christian Apostle and the brother of Saint Peter. The name "Andrew" , like other Greek names, appears to have been common among the Jews from the 3rd or 2nd century BC. No Hebrew or Aramaic name is recorded for him...

 of Eixalada and, before it was destroyed by a flood, the monastery of Saint Michael of Cuixà

Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa

Saint-Michel-de-Cuxa is a Benedictine abbey located in the territory of the commune of Codalet, in the Pyrénées-Orientales département, in southwestern France...

.

He married Quíxol, with whom he had one daughter, Godlana, who married the Count Bencion

Bencion

Bencion was the count of Empúries and Rosselló from 915 to his death. He was the son of Sunyer II of Empúries, whom he succeeded.He married Godlana, daughter of Miro the Elder of Conflent and Roussillon....

, son of Sunifred II of Empúries. He died in 896 and the county of Roussillon, except the interior, passed to Bencion under his father Sunifred. The rest; Vallespir

Vallespir

Vallespir is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. The capital of the comarca is Ceret, and it borders Conflent, Rosselló, Alt Empordà, Garrotxa and Ripollès...

, Capcir

Capcir

Capcir is a historical Catalan comarca of Northern Catalonia, now part of the French Département of Pyrénées-Orientales. The capital of the comarca was Formiguera, and it borders the historical comarques of Conflent and Alta Cerdanya...

, and Fenolleda; together with Conflent, passed to Wilfred and upon his death, to Miro the Young.