 Throughout his reign he had to navigate competing claims of suzerainty over him and until 1223 his reign was dominated by the Occitan War.He participated unenthusiastically on the side of the crusaders, but retained his viscounty, which he passed on to his son.On the abdication of Viscountess Ermengard in 1192, her nephew and heir, Pedro Manrique de Lara, a nobleman from Castile, travelled to Narbonne to receive the viscounty and then bestow it on his second son, Aimery, along with the suzerainty over the Viscount of Béziers (1194).