Ramon Berenguer I began expansion in Occitania by purchasing the counties of Carcassonne and Razès. Ramon Berenguer III el Gran married Douce of Provence. The poetry of the troubadours became popular amongst the Catalan nobility. Notable troubadours include Berenguer de Palol, Guillem de Berguedà, Cerverí de Girona, Hug de Mataplana and Guillem de Cabestany; even Alfons I el Cast composed poems in Provençal. Courtly love, which contrasted sharply with the customs of a society in which marriages were arranged by pact, and the values of generosity and liberty spread far and wide through literature and influenced European thinking.