During the first half of the 11th century, the nobility took advantage of the weakness of the counts' authority and appropriated public assets and rights. There were uprisings amongst the nobility between 1040 and 1060 in the counties of Pallars, Cerdanya and Barcelona. Ramon Berenguer I re-established the authority of the counts in 1070 but was forced to make a pact with the nobility, sanctioning feudalism, a new social order that oppressed the free peasantry. Through their oath of fidelity, the nobility were bound to the count in a hierarchy in which the count was at the top of the new feudal society.