This volume examines the nature of aristocratic society in the Spanish kingdoms of Leén and Castile in the twelfth century. Drawing on an extensive range of original sources, many of them unpublished, it highlights the unrivalled wealth, status and power enjoyed by some members of the aristocracy. It also explores the multifarious roles that lay magnates were expected to fulfil: as family protectors, landlords and judges; as courtiers, diplomats and military commanders; and, not least, as patrons of the church. The nobility of Leén and Castile experienced a number of important changes during this period. There are signs that a few great families began to develop an embryonic sense oflineage. The struggle for ascendancy with al-Andalus — Muslim Spain — also enabled some magnates to acquire influence far from their traditional centres of power, and the concept of crusade made itself felt in aristocratic circles. “The book's appendices include a unique biographical study ofthe counts of Leén and Castile, a selection of genealogical tables, and a number of documents which ate published for the first time.Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought THE ARISTOCRACY IN TWELFTH-CENTURY LEON AND CASTILECambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought Fourth series General Editor: D.E. LUSCOMBE Levertuime Personal Research Professor of Medievel History, University of Sheffield Advisory Editors: R. B. DOBSON Professor of Medieval History, Univesity of Cambridge, and Fellow of Christ's College ROSAMOND MCKITTERICK Professor of Barly Medieval European History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Newnham Coltege ‘The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated by G. G. Coulton in 1921. Professor D. E. Luscombe now acts as General Editor of the Fourth Series, with Professor R. B. Dobson and Dt Rosamond McKitterick as Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from political economy to the history of ideas. For a list of titles in the series, see end of book.THE ARISTOCRACY IN TWELFTH-CENTURY LEON AND CASTILE SIMON BARTON University of Exeter CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSPUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE The Pite Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge cb2 tn? United Kingdom CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS ‘The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, c#2 2ku, United Kingdom 40 West 2oth Street, New York, Ny 10011-4211, USA 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne, 3166, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1997 “This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1997 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Bembo 11/12 pt A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Barton, Simon, 1962— The aristocracy in twelth-century Leén and Castile / Simon Barton p. cm. ~ (Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought: 4th ser.) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 49727 2 (hardcover) 1. Aristocracy (Social class) ~ Spain ~ Leon (Kingdom) ~ History. 2. Aristocracy (Social clas) ~ Spain - Castile — History. 1 Tide. IL Series HT633.S7B378 1997 305.5209 46 ~ dez1 96-44325 CIP ISBN 0521 49727 2 hardback wwFor IsabelCONTENTS List of maps page x List of tables xi Acknowledgements xii List of abbreviations xiv INTRODUCTION 1 I LEON AND CASTILE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY 8 2 CLASS, FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD 28 3. THE LINEAMENTS OF POWER o7 4 THE NOBILITY AND THE CROWN 104 5 A WARRIOR ARISTOCRACY 148 6 PIETY AND PATRONAGE 185 CONCLUSION 221 Appendix 1 The counts of twelfth-century Leén and Castile 225 Appendix 2 Select genealogies 303 Appendix 3 Select charters 308 Glossary of Spanish terns 332 Bibliography 334 Index 354MAPS ‘Western Spain and Portugal, ¢. 1150 page xvi The Iberian peninsula at the death of Alfonso VI, 1109 Source: B. F. Reilly, The contest of Christian and Muslim Spain, 1031-1157 (Oxford, 1992) 10 The Iberian peninsula at the death of Alfonso VIII, 1214 Source: J. F. O'Callaghan, A History of medieval Spain (Ithaca, 1975) 24 Property acquisitions of Pelayo Froilaz, 1105-1127 4 Chief tenentes in the region of Leén, c. 1150 88 Itinerary of Alfonso VII, January 1146— February 1147 124Ld Bet 32 41 $1 4.2 5-3 TABLES Genealogy of the Leonese-Castilian Royal House Property acquisitions of Pelayo Froilaz, 1105-1127 Atistocratic fueros from twelfth-century Leén and Castile Office-holders in the household of Alfonso VII: 1. The mayordomo Office-holders in the household of Alfonso VII: 11. The alferex Lay witnesses to royal diplomas of 1137 Lay witnesses to royal diplomas of 1139 Lay witnesses to royal diplomas of 1147 page 13 75 96 143 144 176 177 178ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS [am grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for the grant of a Study Abroad Studentship, which enabled me to spend a happy and productive period working in the Spanish archives; to the British Academy for awarding me a Postdoctoral Fellowship; and to the Warden and Fellows of Robinson College, Cambridge (where much of this book was written) for electing me toa Research Fellowship and for contributing generously towards my research expenses. A great debt of thanks is owed also to all those individuals who have helped to bring this work to its happy conclusion. Pride of place must go to Richard Fletcher, who oversaw the completion of the doctoral thesis upon which this book is based and who has read uncomplainingly all the revised chapters I have sent to him since. His criticism, acute yet always kindly, has saved me from many a blunder; he has with great generosity Jent me books from his own library; and he has boosted my morale when spirits were flagging, I am also glad to acknowledge the helpful suggestions of the examiners of my thesis, Peter Biller and the late Derek Lomax. Martin Brett and Peter Linehan have been an invaluable source of advice and encouragement and have kindly read and commented upon an early draft of Chapter 6. This book would scarcely have been possible, however, without all the practical advice and ideas, not to mention the hospitality and friendship, that I have received from a large number of people in Spain. Particular thanks are due in this respect to Carlos de Ayala Martinez, Carlos Balifias Pérez, Isabel Beceiro Pita, Ernesto Fernandez-Xesta y Vazquez, Antonio Garcia y Garcia, José Manuel Gonzalez Sanchez, Gonzalo Martinez Diez, Pascual Martinez Sopena, Maria del Carmen Pallares Méndez, Ermelindo Portela Silva, Manuel Recuero Astray, Adeline Rucquoi and Jaime de Salazar Acha. J dedicate this work to my wife Isabel, for whom its completion will come as a great relief. Effortlessly combining the roles of critic and xiiAcknowledgements cheerleader, she has not only ploughed her way nobly through the innumerable drafts of the manuscript that have been placed before her, but she has proved a welcome ray of sunshine when things were gloomy and progress was painfully slow. xiiiAC AEM AHD AHDE AHN AHP AHRG AL AM AP BN BRAH CAI Cart. Cart. Toledo CCCM cD CHE CLRC DC DC Burgos I DC Burgos II DHILC ABBREVIATIONS Archivo de Ja Catedral de Anuatio de estudios medievales Archivo Histérico Diocesano de Anuario de historia del derecho espaiiol Archivo Histérico Nacional, Madrid Archivo Histérico Provincial de Archivo Historico del Reino de Galicia, La Corufia Archivos leoneses Asturiensia medievalia Archivo de la Iglesia Parroquial de Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia ‘Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris’, ed. A. Maya Sanchez, in Chronica Hispana saeculi XI, CCCM, xx1.i (Turnhout, 1990) Cartulario de F. J. Hemndndez, Los cartularios de Toledo: catdlogo documental (Madrid, 1985) Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis (Turnhout) Coleccién diplomitica, documental, or de documentos Cuadernos de historia de Espaita Crénica latina de los reyes de Castilla, ed. L. Charlo Brea (Cadiz, 1984) Docimentacién or documentos de ia catedral de Documentacin de la catedral de Burgos (804-1183), ed. J. M. Garrido Garrido (Burgos, 1983) Doctmentacién de la catedral de Burgos (1 184-1222), ed. J.M. Garrido Garrido (Burgos, 1983) Documentos para Ia historia de las instituciones de Leén y Castilla (sighs X-XIH), ed. E. de Hinojosa (Madrid, 1919) xivDM DMP Docs. EEM EEMCA ES GAL GRC GRF HC HR JMH LFH LP San Juan LV LR Corias COMM PA PRC Toledo Rassow SH List of abbreviations Documentacién or documentos del monasteria de Documentos medievais portugueses: Documentos regios, 1, ed. R. de Azevedo (Lisbon, 1958) Documentos Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, Historia de rebus Hispanie sive Historia Gothica, ed. J. Fernandez Valverde, CCCM, LxxuI (Turnhout, 1987) En la Espaita medieval (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) Estudios de Edad Media de la Corona de Aragon E. Flérez, M. Risco, et al., Espafia Sagrada, 1 vols. (Madrid, 1747-1879) J. Gonzilez, Alfonso IX, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1944) J. Gonzilez, El Reino de Castilia en la época de Alfonso VII, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1960) J. Gonzilez, Regesta de Femando II (Madrid, 1943) Historia Compostellana, ed. E. Falque Rey, CCCM, 1xx (Turnhout, 1988) ‘Historia Roderici vel gesta Roderici Campidocti’, ed. E, Falque Rey, in Chronica Hispana sacculi XI, CCCM, LXX1Li (Turnhout, 1990) Joumal of Medieval History A. Lépez Ferreiro, Historia de la Santa A.M. Iglesia de Santiago de Compostela, 11 vols. (Santiago de Compostela, 1898-1911) Libro de privilegios de la Orden de San Juan de Jerusalén en Castilla y Leén (siglos XIEXV), ed. C. de Ayala Martinez (Madrid, 1995) Leges Visigothorum, ed. K. Zeumer, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Legum Nationum Germanicarum, 1 (Hanover-Leipzig, 1902) El Libro Registro de Corias, ed. A. C. Floriano Cumbreio, 2 vols. (Oviedo, 1950) Ordenes Militares ‘Prefatio de Almaria’, ed. J. Gil, in Chronica Hispana saecuti XII, CCCM, xx1i (Tumhout, 1990) Privilegios reales de la catedral de Toledo (1086-1462), ed. J. A. Garcia Lujin, 2 vols. (Toledo, 1982) ‘Die Urkunden Kaiser Alfons’ VII. von Spanien’, Archiv fir Urkundenforschung 10 (1928); 11 (1930) Studia Historica: Historia medievalOS1t -3 ye8nas0g pue utedg uray, ‘wxOgL 9 xviINTRODUCTION The past forty years have witnessed a transformation in our knowledge of the nobility of early medieval Europe. The prodigious efforts of French and German scholars, in particular, have made it possible to trace the origins and evolution of aristocratic groups across the early and central Middle Ages; to unravel the complexities of their family ties; and to analyse the distribution of wealth and power within their ranks. In short, they have enabled us to appreciate more fully the dominant role that was played by the lay aristocracy within medieval society as a whole.’ Fruit of this endeavour has been the publication of a spate of learned books and articles.? While some of the most enlightening studies have taken the aristocracy of France and Germany as their theme, important advances have been made in other parts of Europe, too. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, that in a Spanish and, to be more precise, in a Leonese-Castilian context, the subject remains in its infancy. That is not to say that the aristocracy of the medieval kingdoms of Leon. and Castile has never attracted the attention of scholars. The eruditos of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of whom the most eminent was perhaps Luis de Salazar y Castro, compiled numerous works whose purpose was to celebrate the illustrious past of some of the greatest noble lineages of the Iberian peninsula.* Yet the example that was set by such 1 Although some writers have argued that ‘aristocracy’ and ‘nobility’ are not synonymous, common usage suggests otherwise. I make no distinction between the two in the pages that follow. 2 By far che best introduction to the vast literature is T. Reuter, ed. and teans., The medieval nobility: studies on the naling classes of France and Geran from che sixth to the twelfth century (Amsterdam, 1979). ‘There are also a number of relevant articlesin F. L, Cheyette,ed., Lordship anid community in medieval Europe (New York, 1968). There has been a timely review of recent research by L. Génicot, ‘La nobiesse médiévale: encorel’, Revue d’Histore Faésiastique 88 (1993), 173-201 3 For Portugal, for example, see J. Mattoso, Ricos-homens, infangdes e cavaleies: a nobreza medieval ‘portuguesa nos s&ulos XTe XIT (Lisbon, 1988) and, by the same author, A nelneza medieval portuguesa: @ familia € 0 poder (Lisbon, 1987). A stimulating guide to aristocratic mores in che British Isles is provided by D, Crouch, The image of eristcrayy in Brtaia 1000-1300 (London, 1992). 4: Typicalofthe genreisL. deSalszary Castro, Historia genealigica dela Casade Lan, 3 vols, (Madrid, 1696-7) IThe aristocracy in twelfth-century Ledn and Castile admirable scholarly enterprise was not to be followed by succeeding generations. Studies devoted to the nobility of Leén and Castile became few and far between. The reason for this long-standing neglect is not hard to fathom. For, while the abundant documentation pertaining to the noble lineages of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has provided the materials for a considerable number of important studies, the archives of the aristocratic families of the early and central Middle Ages have long since disappeared. The historian who wishes to study lay aristocratic society before c. 1300 must resign himself to a long and patient search for those scraps of information relevant to his purposes that have been preserved in church archives. It is hardly surprising that a good many scholars, faced with the vastly richer archival holdings of the episcopal sees and monastic houses of Leén and Castile, have chosen to devote their energies to the study of ecclesiastical institutions. During the course of the past twenty-five years, however, it is fair to say that Spanish historians have tentatively begun a long overdue reappraisal of the aristocracy and its role in Leonese-Castilian society prior to the fourteenth century.5 Proof of this are the clutch of significant studies that have appeared.® Some scholars, following firmly in the footsteps of the eruditos, have been particularly concerned to reconstruct the genealogical ramifications of certain important families.” Others have begun to probe the character and concerns of the aristocracy as an élite social group. Thus, such diverse topics as kinship structure, landholding custom and ecclesiastical patronage have already been the object of illuminating analysis.® Yet, so much more still remains to be done. 5 Seminal work was cartied out by S, de Moxé, ‘De Ja nobleza vieja a la nobleze nueva: la transformacién nobiliaria castellana en la baja Edad Media", Cuarlemos de Historia 3 (1969), 1~240; and Moxé, ‘La nobleza castellano-leonesa en la Edacl Media: problensitica que suscita su estudio-en ‘el marco de tana historia social’, Hispania 30 (1970), $68. 6 Auseful survey of recent literature on the subject isto be found in P. Martinez Sopena, La nobleza de Leon y Castilla en los sighos Xy XIl: un estado dela cuestion’, Hispania $3 (1993), 80r~22. Fora wider view, see M. C, Gerbert, Les noblsses espagnols au Moyen Age, Xie-XVe sitcle (Patis, 1994). 7 There have been a number of valuable studies by J. de Salazar Acha: ‘Una familia de Ia alta Edad ‘Media: Ios Velas y su realidad historica", Estudios Genealigicas y Herdldcas + (1983), 19-64; "El conde Fernando Peliez: un rebelde Ieonés del siglo XT, AEM 19 (1989), 87-975 “Los descendientes del conde Ero Feminde2, fimdador del monasterio de Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pillares’,in Goaliia en ta Edad Media (Madrid, 1990), 67=86; and ‘El lingje castellano de Castro en el siglo XIE consideraciones ¢ hipétesis sobre su origen’, Anaies de la Real Academia Matrtense de Herdldia y Genealogia t (1991), 33-8. See also the studies by J. M. Canal Sinchez-Pagin, "Elvira Pérez, condesa de Urgel: una asturiana desconocida’, AM 4 (1981), 93-129; Canal Sinichez-Pagin, “EI conde don Rodrigo Alvarez de Sarria, fundador de la orden militar de Monte Gaudio’, Compostellanu 28 (1983). 373-97: Canal Sinchez-Pagin, ‘Don Pedro Fernindez, primer Macstre dela Orden Militar de Santiago: su fara, su vida', AEM 14 (1984), 3371. E. Fernindez-Kesta y ‘Vazquez, Un magnate catalin en la corte de Alfonso Vit: Comes Poncus de Cabrera, prineps Cemore (Madcid, 1991). 8 The series of important studies by P. Martinez Sopena deserve particular mention: La Tiema de ‘Campos Occidental: poblamiento, poder y comunidad del silo X al XI (Valladolid, 1985), pp. 327-422; 2Introduction This book is concerned with the characteristics of lay aristocratic society in the ewelfth-century kingdoms of Leén and Castile. Its focus is broad, Rather than trace the political and economic fortunes of a single noble family across successive generations, as has been the typical modus operandi of many of those who have approached this subject hitherto, it seeks to highlight what have been called ‘the complexities and diversities of aristocratic existence’ in the period in question.’ It examines the unrivalled wealth, status and power that many members of the aristocracy enjoyed. And it explores the various roles that lay nobles were expected to fulfil: as family protectors, landlords, judges and administrators; as political leaders, courtiers and military commanders; and last, but not least, as patrons of the church. The twelfth century was a period of profound political upheaval for Leén and Castile. Torn apart by civil war after the death of Alfonso VI in 1409, the realms were teunited and then dismembered once more by his grandson Alfonso VII, before finally being reunited by Fernando III, this time for good, in 1230. In the interim, Ledn and Castile were frequently at one another's throats, jockeyed for power with their Christian neighbours, and also engaged in a titanic struggle for ascendancy with the successive Berber masters of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain), the Almoravids and Almohads. It was during this turbulent period that the nobility of Le6n and Castile experienced a number of important changes. There is evidence, for example, that a handful of aristocratic families began to acquire an embryonic sense of lineage; the challenges and rewards presented by the struggle against Islam led some nobles to acquire properties and lordships far from their traditional centres of power; the “Parentesco y poder en Len durante el siglo Xl: la “casata” de Alfonso Daa", SH s (1087), 33-87; “Elconde Rodrigode Leén ylas suyos: herencia y expectativa del poder entee lossiglos X y XT, in R. Pastor, ed., Relaciones de poder, de producién y parentesco en la Edad Media y Moderna (Madeid, 1990), pp. $184; ‘Monasterios particulares, nobleza y reforma eclestistica en Led enite los sighos XIy XM’, in Estadios de Historia Medieval en homewaie a Lais Sudres Fernindez (Valladolid, 1991), 323-31; ‘Relations de patenté et héritage wisigothique dans 'aristocratie du royaume de Ledn au Xie sicle’, in L’Europe feritdre de Espagne Wisigothique (Madrid, 1992), pp. 315-24. Other significant studies are M. C. Carlé, ‘Gran propiedad y grandes propietarios, CHE $7-8 (1973), 1-224; C. Entepa Diez, La nobleza leonesa en los sglos XI y XII (Astorga, 1984): M. E. Garcia Garcla, “Monasterios benedictinos y atistoeracia Iaica en Asturias Gigios XI y XIH), in Semana de historia eel _Monacatociniabro-asturleonés (Oviedo, 1982), pp. 195-233: M. I. Loring Garcia, ‘Nobleza ¢ iglesias ppropias en la Cantabria aktomedieval’, SH 5 (1987), 8-120; M. I. Pérez de Tudela y Velasco, ‘nfanczonesy cabalferos: su proyecion en la esera nobiliaria castellane-leanesa (Madkid, 1979); E. Portela and M, C. Pallares, ‘Elementos para el andliss dela aristocracia altomedieval de Galicia: parentesco ‘ypatrimonio'. SH s (1987), :7~32: Portela and Pallates, ‘Algunosproblernas relativesa la evolucién de lsestesicturas familiares de la nobleza medieval gallega’ inJ. C. Bermejo, ed., Parentesc, familia y ‘matrimonio en ia historia de Galicia (Santiago de Compostela, 1988), 25-39; and Portela and Pallares, “Aristoctacia y sistema de parentesco cn la Galicia de los sglos centrales de la Edad Media: el grupo de los Traba’, Hispania 33 (1993). 823-40. 9]. T. Rosenthal, Nobles and the noble lie, 1295-1300 (London, 1976), p. 18. 3The aristocracy in twelfth-century Ledn and Castile concept of holy war made its influence felt in aristocratic circles; and lay patronage of the church took on novel forms. Unfortunately, the sources for this enquiry leave much to be desired. For it is a striking feature of the meagre handful of historical works that were produced in Leon and Castile during the 500 years or so that separated the Arab invasion of the Iberian peninsula in the early eighth century and the Christian reconquest of most of al-Andalus by the middle of the thirteenth that for the most part the activities of the lay aristocracy feature so rarely in their pages. The majority of such writings, from the Asturian chronicles of the late ninth century down to the ambitious ‘general histories’ of Lucas of Tay and Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada in the first half of the thirteenth, were ‘official’ works of court historiography compiled at the behest of royal patrons and devoted almost exclusively to the deeds of the monarchs of Le6n and Castile. By and large, the exploits of the lay nobles of the realm were virtually excluded from their gaze.” One notable exception is the Historia Compostellana, which relates the history of the see of Santiago de Compostela during the period 109§-1139.1! Commissioned by the then bishop of Compostela, Diego Gelmirez (1100-40), the Historia comprises both a collection of documents pertaining to the see, and a celebration of the deeds of Bishop, later Archbishop, Diego. It was a collaborative work, although just how many authors actually took part in its composition has been a matter for much debate. The Historia is a narrative source of extraordinary value, for not only does it furnish the most detailed account of the political upheaval that followed the death of Alfonso VI in 1109, but it also provides a vivid portrait of Galician society in the first half of the twelfth century. It is particularly informative about the activities of the local aristocracy and its relations with the see of Compostela. The second work of historical literature that is particularly illuminating for our purposes, is the anonymous Chrowica Adefonsi Imperatoris, a panegyric in prose and verse dedicated to the deeds of Alfonso VII, from the king’s accession in 1126 down to his conquest of the port city of 10 Crénicas astrianas, ed. J. Gil Feménde2, with J. L. Moralejo and J. I. Ruiz de la Pefia (Oviedo, 1983);Lucas of Tay, Chrorticon mundi, ed. A. Schoctus, Hispania illustrata, 1 (Frankfurt, 1608), pp. 1-116; Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, Historia de rebus Hispanie sive Historia Gothica, ed. J. Feméndez Valverde, CCCM, 1xx11 (Tumhout, 1987); hereafter referred to as DRH. The historiography of the period is dissected in masterly fishion by P. Linehan, History and the historians of Medieval Spain (Oxford, 1993). 11. Hixtoria Compostellina, ed. E. Falgue Rey, CCCM,1Xx (Turnhout, 1988); hereafter referred to a8 HC, 12 On the composition and authorship of the Historia, sce the discussion in B. F. Reilly, “The “Historia Compostclana’ the genesis and composition of a twelfth-century Spanish “Gesta’"", Specutum 44 (1969), 78-85: IC, pp. ix-vexxiii; and F. Lopez Alsina, La ciudad de Santiago de ‘Compostela en ta alta Edad Media (Santiago de Compostela, 1988). pp. 44-93. 4Introduction Almeria in 1147." If, as has traditionally been supposed, the Chronica was the work of Bishop Amaldo of Astorga (1144~52/3), then it is a near- contemporary witness to many of the events it describes." The Chronica is a striking piece of historiography: the providential tone of the work, which is reinforced by a pastiche of references taken ftom the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, portrays Alfonso VII ‘as the leader of a chosen people carrying out God’s holy task through battle’.** Not only that, but the poetic rendition of the conquest of Almeria, which follows the chronicle, is suffused with a strong crusading spirit. As far as this enquiry is concemed, the Chronica is an invaluable source, for it has much to tell us of the magnates who attended the court of Alfonso VII, of the military campaigns they waged on his behalf and, indeed, of the challenges that some of them mounted against his authority. Moreover, the chronicle’s poetic colophon, in the truncated form in which it has come down to us, consists largely of a lengthy and stylised description of the chief members of the lay nobility who took part in the Almeria campaign of 1147. To the information that we are able to glean from the twelfth-century chronicles, much more may be added from the evidence of contemporary charters, Thankfally, these have survived in relatively good number. First, there are the diplomas that were issued by the monarchs of Leén and Castile themselves. There are, for example, over 100 extant, genuine diplomas from the reign of Queen Urtaca, at least 750 from that of Alfonso VII and over 1000 from that of Alfonso VIII16 Some of these documents record the largesse that was lavished by the monarchs upon 13 ‘Chronica Adefonsi Imperator’, ed. A. Maya Sinchez, in Chronica Hispana saecui XIl, CCCM, Lxxt.i(Turmhout, 1990), pp. 109-248; hereafter referred to as CAL. For the poctic account of the conquest of Almeria, see ‘Prefitio de Almaria’, ed. J. Gil, in Chronice Hispana, pp. 249-67; hereafter referred to as PA. 14 Matters of authorship are discussed by L. Sinchez Belda, ed., Chronica A defonsi Imperatoris (Madrid, 1950)s pp. in-Xaij ch GAL pp. 12-15. 15 RA. Fletcher, Reconquestand crusade in Spain c, 1050-11 50', Transactions ofthe Royal Historical Society, sth series, 37 (1987), 42. 16 Registers of most, but by 10 meansall, of the diplomas of the Leonese monarchs, ftom Urraca to Alfonso IX, are to be found in M. Lucas Alvarez, Las cancilerdas reales (12091230): El Reino de Lebn en laalta Edad Media, v (Leén, 1903). Only the charters of the reign of Alfonso IX have so far been systematically edited: J. Gonzilez, Alfonso EX, 2 vols. (Madtid, 1944), u; hereafter referred to as GAL. The chancery of Alfonso VII was the object of a derailed analysis by P. Rassow, who also ‘edited some fifty-seven of the king-emperor’s diplomas: ‘Die Urkunden Kaiser Alfons’ VII von Spanien’, Archiv fir Ureundenforschung 10 (1928), 327-4675 11 (1930), 66-137, henceforth Rassow, This should be supplemented by B. E. Reilly, ‘The chancery of Alfonso VIL of Ledn-Castilla: the petiod 1116-1135 reconsidered, Spetulihi 31 (1976), 243-61: and Lucas Alvarez, Las canclledas, pp. 87-314. Sixty-one charters of Fernando Il were edited by J. Gonzilez, Regesta de Fernando If (Madrid, 1943), hereafter referred to as GRF, pp. 241-343. The charters of Alfonso VII of Castile have been edited by J. Gonzilez, El Reino de Cestilla en la época de Alfonso VI, 3 vols. (Madtid, 1960), 11111; hereafter referred to as GRC. 3The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile those nobles who had rendered them particularly valuable service. Almost all have a witness-list attached which provides a valuable record of the lay and ecclesiastical magnates who were in attendance at the royal court at the time the charter was issued, In addition to the sizeable corpus of royal charters, there are a significant number of ‘private’ documents, issued to or by nobles: records of land conveyances, lawsuits, endowments to churches and monasteries, and so on. They shed a considerable amount of light on the social and economic concems of the lay aristocracy during the period under study. And yet, even these documents pale in comparison with the far richer resources that are available to the historians of other regions of the West. Thus, while 113 acts issued by the Anglo-Norman magnate Count Waleran of Meulan and a further 75 issued by his brother Earl Robert of Leicester have so far come to light, the surviving documents granted by their contemporary, Count Manrique Pérez de Lata, who held the reins of power in Castile between 1161 and 1164, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.'7 To compound matters, the documents that have survived to this day are desperately laconic: for example, they have practically nothing to tell us of the true extent of aristocratic patrimonies, nor of the way in which nobles organised their households and administered their lordships. As will become all too apparent in the coming pages, much of what we have to say must remain hesitant and tinged with doubt. Tam acutely aware that the essay which follows is not without its shortcomings. For one thing, some important areas of aristocratic activity do not receive the detailed scrutiny they doubtless deserve. The active political role of the nobility, for instance, which is at its clearest during the near anarchy of much of Urraca’s reign and the turmoil of the minority of Alfonso VIII, warrants far more attention than can be afforded here. Other subjects, such as the relationship between the nobility and the crown and the church respectively, could likewise have occupied a book in their own right. In other respects, the chronological limits of this study impose restrictions of their own. Changes in aristocratic life and behaviour could take many generations to crystallise and sometimes need to be viewed from a much wider perspective if they are to be fully appreciated. It is also a source of regret that the activities of aristocratic women receive such limited attention in the pages that follow, although this is to be attributed less to some wilful act of misogyny on the author’s part, than to the fact that with the exception of their numerous acts of piety, their lives remain almost a closed book to 17 D. Crouch, The Beaumont Tiins: the roots and branches of power inthe twelfth century (Cambridge, 1986), p. xi, For details of the acta of Count Mantique Pérez, see Appendix 1, pp. 264-5. 6Introduction us. Notwithstanding these reservations, it is my modest hope that this book may at least serve to encourage others to research further in this field and that it will prove of more than passing interest to students of the aristocracy of other regions of the medieval West. Although the principal aim of this book has not been to provide an in-depth study of the fortunes of the greatest lay families of the kingdom, it is hoped that the prosopographical material that is included in the Appendix will provide future researchers in this field with a useful resource. Moreover, the fact that we know so much more about the interests and activities of the magnates of the realm, who travelled regularly to the royal court and led military expeditions on behalf of the crown, who enjoyed the most spectacular concentrations of landed wealth, and who, collectively, constituted the most important patrons of the church, means that the names of certain prominent lay figures, such as the Laras of Castile ot the Trabas of Galicia, crop up repeatedly.Chapter 1 LEON AND CASTILE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY On 1 July 1109, Alfonso VI of Leon and Castile, ‘emperor of all Spain’, passed away in Toledo. The previous week, water had miraculously begun to flow from the stones which lay in front of the altar of the church of San Isidoro in the city of Leon. According to Bishop Pelayo of Oviedo, who claimed to have seen it with his own eyes, the marvel that took place that week in Leén was not simply a portent of the imminent demise of the great Leonese monarch, but of ‘the sorrows and tribulations that befell Spain after the death of the aforesaid king, That is why the stones wept and the water flowed forth.” Bishop Pelayo, like many others of his generation, had good reason to hark back to the reign of Alfonso VI (1065-1109) asa golden age Viewed from the turbulent times of his daughter Queen Urraca (109-26), the period was remembered as one of material prosperity, boundless enterprise and large-scale territorial expansion. It was the time when Le6n and Castile had ‘opened up’ to the rest of Europe and a throng of foreign (though mostly French) pilgrims, clerics, merchants and knights, impelled by piety in many cases and by the prospect of self-enrichment in countless others, had made their way across the Pyrenees in ever increasing numbers.? With the king’s encouragement, the resettlement of large tracts of territory south of the River Duero — from Salamanca to Septilveda — had received a * ‘Hoe signum nichil alive protendit nisi luctus et teibulaciones que post mortem predieti Regis ‘euenerunt Hispanie; ideo plorauerunt lapides et manauerunt aquam’: Pelayo of Oviedo, Cronica, ed. B, Sinchez Alonso (Madrid 1924), pp. 84-6. 2 B.F. Reilly, The kingdom of Leén-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065-1109 (Princeton, 1988) is a scholarly and authoritative account of the reign. > On the so-called ‘Europeanisation’ of Christian Spain, M. Défourneaux, Les fangs er Espagne aux Xle et Xile sides (Patis, 1940) remains useful. See also J. F. O'Callaghan, *The integration of Christian Spain into Europe: the role of Alfonso VI of Leén-Castile’, in B. F. Reilly ed., Santigga, Saint-Denis, aad Saint Peter: the reception of the Romani Liturgy in Leén-Gastile in 1080 (New York, 1985), pp. 101-20. On the presence of French nobles in Spain, see M. Bull, Knightly piety ond the lay response to the First Crusade: the Limousin and Gascony, ¢970-€.1130 (Oxford, 1993), ch. 2. 8Ledn and Castile in the twelfth century decisive impulse.’ And, not least, the reign of Alfonso VI had seen the bounds of the realms of Leén and Castile pushed forward to unprecedented limits. By the time of the redoubtable king’s death, his kingdom encompassed an area more than twice the size of England, its frontiers stretching from the Atlantic seaboard in the west to the River Ebro in the east and from the Cantabrian littoral as far south as a line running from Coimbra in Portugal to Toledo on the River Tagus and then north-east to Medinaceli on the border of the Muslim kingdom of Zaragoza. Alfonso VI was a shrewd and ruthless operator. The murder of his brother Sancho under the walls of Zamora in 1072, in which he may have been implicated, and the imprisonment of another brother, Garcia, king of Galicia, early the following year, enabled Alfonso to gather into his own hands the territories that his father Fernando I (1035-65) had divided up among his sons. Like his father before him, Alfonso was not slow to capitalize upon the political weaknesses of his neighbours either. From 1074 onwards he began to exact vast payments of tribute, known as parias, from the enfeebled rulers of the taifa kingdoms of al-Andalus, the successor states which had sprung up in the roros and 1020s following the disintegration of the caliphate of Cordoba.* In 1076, after the murder of Sancho Garcia [V of Navarre (1054-76) — pushed over a cliff by his brother and sister = he annexed the fertile region of the Rioja and extended his authority over the Basque regions of Alava, Vizcaya and Guiptizcoa.? And on 25 May 1085, his crowning achievement, the great Muslim city of Toledo, together with most of the territory it controlled, was delivered into his hands.* Already by 1077, when he had assumed the imperial style for the first time, the Leonese king had made his political ambitions abundantly clear: suzerainty over all the other powers of the * On the resettlement of the trans-Duero, see A. Bartios Garcia, Esincturas agrarias y de poder en el ejempls de Avila (1085-1 320) (Salamanca, 1983), pp. 128-71; E. Portela, ‘Del Duero al inJ..A. Gatcia de Cortizat etal, Organizacién social del espacio en fa EspaRa medieval: la Corona de CCastila en ls siglos VIIa XV (Barcelona, 1985), pp. 85-122; andL. M. Villar Garcia, La Exacmnadura «astellano-leonesa: guerteros, cérigos y campesinos (711~1252) (Valladolid, 1986), pp. 70. » nthe reign of Femando I and his arrangements forthe succession see Reilly, Alfonso VI, pp. 3-21. * On the saifa states, see D. Wasserstein, The rise and fall of the party-kings: polities and society in Isarnic ‘Spain, 1902-1086 (Princeton, 1985); M. J. Viguera Molins, Los rinas de tafasy las invasiones magrebles: Al Andalus del Xtal XII (Madrid, 1992), pp. 23-151..On the parias, see H. Grassotti, ‘Para a historia del botin y de las parias', CHE 3940 (1964), 43-1325 spr. in Grassouti, Miselnca de estudies sobre instieuionescastellano-leonesas Bilbao, 1978), pp. 1337221; and J. M. Lacarra,“Aspectos econémicos de Ia sumisién de los reinos de taifas (1010-1 102)’, in Homenaje a Jaime Viens Vives, 2 vols. (Barcelona, 1965), 1, pp. 255-77; npr. im Lacarra, Colonizacién, parias, epoblaci6n y otros estudios (Zaragoza, 1981), pp. 41~76. By far the mos illuminating account of Alfonso VP's policy towards the zaifas isto be found in The Tibyan: memoits of Abd Allah B. Buluguin, last Zirid amir of Granada, trans, A. T. Tibi (Leiden, 1980), pp. 87-92. 7 Reilly, Alfonso V1, pp. 87-92. * Bbid., pp. 161-84: cf. J. Miranda Calvo, La reconguista de Toledo por Alfonso VI (Toledo, 1980). 9GOL ‘TA OsuOFTY JO peop ou ae EINsuTUEd UeTAq] ey z vingzar aiav¥owly allLsv9— NoaT 984 10Ledn and Castile in the twelfth century peninsula, Christian and Muslim alike; to the south the taifas of al-Andalus; to the east the kingdom of Aragon and the counties of Catalonia.’ The capture of Toledo eight years later not only gave rise to a dramatic shift in the balance of power in Spain, but served notice that the imperial pretensions of the Leonese king were on the verge of acquiring stark political reality. But the hegemony that Alfonso VI was able to establish so rapidly over the other powers of the peninsula was not to go unchallenged. The conquest of Toledo in May 1085 and the siege of Zaragoza the following spring caused such consternation in Muslim quarters that the beleaguered taifa rulers sent urgent appeals to the Berber Almoravids in Morocco, requesting military assistance to enable them to roll back what seemed to them to be an inexorable Christian advance."? In the summer of 1086 these appeals were heeded when the Almoravid emir, Yiisufibn Tashufin (1061-1106), landed with an army at Algecitas. On 23 October he inflicted a humiliating defeat upon the forces of Alfonso VI at Sagrajas on the outskirts of Badajoz. Although in the event the Almoravids were to reap no territorial advantage from their success, the campaign of 1086 set the tone for the years to come. Yiisuf returned to the peninsula in 1088, and again in 1090. In the latter year, he annexed the taifa kingdoms of Granada and Malaga to his empire; in 1091, Cordoba, Seville and some of the lesser taffas followed suit. The Almoravids had turned from liberators into conquerors. One by one, the remaining taifas were brought to heel: Badajoz in 1094; Valencia — which had been conquered in that same year by the Castilian soldier of fortune Rodrigo Diaz, El Cid in 1102." By the time: of the death of Alfonso VI in 1109, only the taifa of Zaragoza maintained a fragile independence; and that was to be ruthlessly snuffed out by Yasuf’s son, “Alibn Yusuf (1106-43), in May of the following year, In the meantime, Almoravid armies had launched a series of attacks northwards against Christian positions. A hard-fought struggle ensued in which the fortunes of both sides see-sawed dramatically. At times it seemed as if the Christian defensive line would be overrun altogether. Toledo itself was besieged on more than one occasion but managed to hold out. Alfonso VI did what he could to stem the tide, capturing the strategic fortress town of Medinaceli in 1104 and leading raiding expeditions deep into al-Andalus in 1104 and 1106. But on 29 May 1108 these efforts were fatally undone when a Christian army was annihilated by Almoravid forces near Uclés, just south of the Tagus. The cream of the ” Reilly, Alfonso VE, pp. 103-4. A.usefil introduction to the Almoravid movement and itsimpact on Spanish affairs is. Bosch Vis, Los Almerivides Tetuan, 1936; 1pr. Granada, 1990). CE. Viguera Molins, Lo wines de taf, pp. 153-201, R.A. Fletcher, The guesifor EI Cid (London, 1989), provides by fir the best account ofthe Cid's career. 11The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile Leonese aristocracy, including no fewer than seven counts, reportedly perished in the battle, as well as Alfonso VI's son and heir, Sancho." As a result of this reverse, the Christians were pushed back to their positions in the Tagus valley. But try as the Almoravids might, Toledo, the greatest prize of all, eluded their grasp. Although their spectacular victory on the battlefield of Uclés ultimately failed to provide the Almoravids with the decisive strategic breakthrough that they had long been seeking, the untimely death of the Infante Sancho triggered off an acute political crisis within Ledn—Castile itself, the consequences of which would reverberate for years to come.” Faced with a lack of suitable male candidates to succeed to his empire, Alfonso VI’s choice fell upon his eldest daughter Urraca. In June 1109, in Toledo, in one of his last significant public acts, Alfonso VI formally proclaimed Urraca as his heir and announced her imminent betrothal to Alfonso I ‘the Battler’ (1104-34), king of Arag6n. On paper, at least, the alliance between Leon-Castile and Aragon had much to be said for it. By pooling the military resources of the two most powerful Christian realms of the peninsula, it might have been possible not just to turn back the increasingly perilous Almoravid advance, but perhaps to recover large areas of territory that had been lost to them, too. ‘After all, Alfonso I of Arag6n had already acquired an impressive reputation both as a warrior and as a leader of men.’* The alliance also avoided leaving Leén-Castile under the sole rule of a woman, something that many contemporaries (not least Alfonso VI himself) may have found difficult to countenance. In practice, however, the marriage settlement proved to be an unmitigated disaster. It was not just that Urraca and Alfonso were related by common descent from King Sancho III the Great of Navarre (1004~35) and that in the eyes of the church the marriage was incestuous. Nor that the couple seem to have got on uncommonly badly almost from the moment they set eyes on one other. What blew Alfonso VI's carefully laid plans so far off course was also the fact that there were rival claimants to the throne within Leén-Castile itself who saw their own vital interests fatally threatened by the marriage settlement of 1109 and were prepared to fight to defend them. Urraca’s first husband, Count Raymond of Burgundy, had died in 1107. He had been one of several French noblemen persuaded to cross the Pyrenees in 1087 to assist the Leonese king in his struggle against the Almoravids. The Burgundian had been well received at the Leonese court and had been favoured with a sizeable fiefin Galicia, as well as the hand of » DRH, pp. 216-17. } On the consequences of the disaster at Uclés, see Reilly, Alfonso VI, pp. 353M \ There is a brief study of his reign by J. M. Lacarra, Alfonso ef Batallador (Zaragoza, 1978). 12Leén and Castile in the twelfth century Table 1.1 Genealogy of the Leonese-Castilian Royal House Femando 1 (1035-45) 1 Aifonso VI Garcla 1 of Castile (1065-1105) of Galicia (1065-72) (1085-72) ® Alfonso] = Ry Tees = Hem of of Aragén, ‘Burgundy 4.1128) Burgundy 1104-34) @. 1107) 1112) ‘Alfonso VIL Alfonso 1 (1126-57) of Portugal (1128-85) Sancho IL Femando It of Catile of Leon (4157-58) 1157-88) Alonso VIL of Castile (4158-1214) yee Berenguel = Alfonso IX scene efiaén (1244-47) (1188-1230) Femando IIL 1217-52) 13The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leon and Castile the king’s daughter into the bargain. At one time, the count had harboured designs of his own on the throne and in ro9s had even plotted to partition the kingdom on the king’s death with his cousin Henry of Chalon.** Although in the event Alfonso VI had managed to outlive his ambitious son-in-law, Count Raymond’s claim to the throne did not die with him and was taken up by the supporters of his infant son Alfonso Raimindez. Meanwhile, Raymond’s cousin Count Henry - who had been awarded the county of Portugal by Alfonso VI in 1096 together with the hand in marriage of his illegitimate daughter Teresa, and who by 1109 had been blessed with a son of his own, Alfonso Enriquez — viewed the imminent marriage alliance between Leén and Aragén with similar misgivings. ‘Urraca was crowned queen in the summer of 1109."° The following autumn, she and Alfonso of Aragén were married at Monz6n near Palencia. Within a year, however, the couple were at loggerheads and large-scale fighting had broken out throughout Leén and Castile. The first to move were the supporters of Alfonso Raimtindez, led by the boy’s guardian Count Pedro Froilaz de Traba, who launched a rebellion in Galicia within months of the marriage taking place. As Count Henry of Portugal also began to make preparations for war, Urraca thought it politic to come to terms with the supporters of her son. In September II11, the six-year-old Alfonso Raimiindez was crowned and anointed in Santiago de Compostela. The queen formally agreed to recognise her son as her heir and he began to be associated with his mother in royal documents. In the meantime, however, hostilities had broken out between Urraca’s forces and those of her estranged husband Alfonso of Aragon. In 1111, the latter had seized Toledo, won a series of crushing military victories and taken a sizeable slice of territory stretching along the pilgrimage road through Castile — from Burgos as far west as Suhagtin - as, well as the territory of the Rioja, under his authority. And this at the very time when the Almoravid threat was growing more serious by the day. In 1110, Talavera on the Tagus had fallen to their forces; the following year they captured Santarém in Portugal; and in 1113 they seized the strategic fortress of Oreja. It must have seemed that it was only a matter of time before Toledo followed suit. But for so long as the very survival of the kingdom north of the Duero remained in the balance, ambitious military operations on the frontier with al-Andalus were simply not an option for the increasingly beleaguered Leonese queen. Hostilities between Urraca and Alfonso of Aragon dragged on until ” Reilly, Afonso VI, pp. 248-35. % On the reign of Urraca, sce B. F, Reilly, The kingdorn of Ledn-Castilla under Queen Uinace, 1109-1126 (Princeton, 1982). 14Leén and Castile in the twelfth century 1rr7. In that year, the queen sought to defuse the dynastic crisis in Leén-Castile once and forall by ceding authority over the region between the Duero and the Tagus, including Toledo itself, to her son Alfonso Raiméandez. Shortly afterwards, a trace was also agreed with the king of Aragon. The success of these diplomatic manoeuvres may be gauged from the fact that for the next nine years, until the time of her death in 1126, Urraca’s position remained largely secure. Nevertheless, the price of peace was high. Large areas of Castile, including the towns of Burgos, Castrojeriz and Carrién de los Condes, not to mention the Rioja, remained firmly in Aragonese hands. To the west, meanwhile, Portugal had drifted out of the Leonese orbit for good. True, the death of Count Henry in 1x12 had removed one potential threat to Urraca’s precarious political survival, but his widow Teresa, who had now begun to style herself queen, remained to watch jealously over the interests of the dynasty they had founded. Whatever gloss Urtaca or her supporters might have wished to put on the bewildering series of events that had unfolded between 1109 and 1117, there was simply no getting away from the fact that the imperium that had been so painstakingly assembled by Alfonso VI was but a shadow ofits former self, Yet, in all fairness, the seeds of Urraca’s undoing had been sown even before she ascended to the throne. Alfonso VI’s plans for the succession had been fatally flawed from the very beginning. That his daughter had subsequently proved unable to manage that dubious political legacy may not have been altogether her own fault. When Queen Urraca died at Saldafia near Carnién on 9 March 1126, herson Alfonso VII (1126-57) wasted no time in pressing his long-standing claim to the throne."” Yet, in spite of the much publicised reconciliation that had taken place between mother andson in 1117, and the leading part that the latter had hitherto played in the political life of the kingdom, the accession of Alfonso VII proved to be anything buta foregone conclusion. When the king made his way to the royal city of Leén to be crowned, the garrison put up some resistance and had to be reduced by force. What is more, although Alfonso was subsequently able to win pledges of loyalty from most of the leading members of the aristocracy of the kingdom, some magnates — notably the Castilian counts of Lara, Pedro and Rodrigo Gonzilez — were notably lukewarm in their support and would eventually lead a large-scale rebellion against the crown in 1130. To add to the king’s difficulties, garrisons loyal to Alfonso I of Aragén remained at large at numerous points in Castile. Despite such unpromising beginnings, however, Alfonso VII did much " M,Recuero Astray, Alfonso VI, Emperadorel imperi hispénico enel siglo XU (Len, 1979) isthe only modern study of the reign hitherto, This should be supplemented by B. F. Reilly, The costes of Christian and Muslin Spain, 1031-1157 (Oxford, 1992). pp. 168. 15The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile to restore the tarnished prestige and battered authority of his dynasty. His first priority, having secured the support of most of the nobility of the realm, was to mend fences with his aunt, Teresa of Portugal. Once this had been achieved, at a meeting between the two at Ricobayo near Zamora in April 1126, Alfonso felt confident enough to address the vexed question of his eastern frontier. Between 1127 and 1131 he successfully neutralised the Aragonese threat by prising out the garrisons that had been installed by Alfonso I at various points along the pilgrims’ road through Castile. By 1135, Alfonso VII’s position had been transformed. Recalcitrant elements within the ranks of the Leonese-Castilian nobility had either been brought to heel or cast into exile. Meanwhile, the death of Alfonso I of Aragon on 7 September 1134 —a few weeks after his humiliating defeat at the hands of the Almoravids at Fraga near Lérida - had not only removed the spectre of renewed Aragonese intervention in Castile, but had enabled Alfonso VII to recover those remaining Castilian territories that still lay in Aragonese hands, as well as the district of the Rioja, and even to take the city of Zaragoza temporarily under his lordship. It was a mark of his restored authority that on Whit Sunday 1135 — almost exactly fifty years to the day after the conquest of Toledo by Alfonso VI— Alfonso VII had himself crowned emperor in Leon. It was not just that he had restored the borders of his kingdom almost to what they had been during the heyday of his illustrious grandfather (although Portugal would remain outside his grasp), but that, as his chronicler put it, ‘King Garcia (of Navarre) and King Zafadola of the Saracens and Count Ramén of Barcelona and Count Alfonso of Toulouse and many counts and dukes of Gascony and France were obedient to him in all things.”"® By May 1135, the anonymous chronicler bombastically claimed, Alfonso VII’s authority was felt from the Adantic to the Rhéne.” With his own house in order, and with his borders for the moment secure, Alfonso VII at last had a free hand to address the long-neglected question of the frontier with al-Andalus. In this he was encouraged by the fact that Almoravid power was now clearly on the wane. The Muslim assault on Christian positions which some years previously had threatened to push the Leonese back to the Duero had begun to run out of steam. Now, with Leén and Castile ascendant once more, the boot was firmly on the other foot. In 1133, and again in 1138, Alfonso VII led plundering expeditions deep into al-Andalus. The castle of Oreja on the Tagus fell to ‘pro co quod rex Garsias et rex Zafadola Sarracenorum et comes Raymundus Barchinonensium et comes Adefonsus Tolosanus et multi comites et duces Gasconie et Francie in omnibus essent obedientes ei’: CAL, i, §70. © CAL i, §68. 16Leén and Castile in the twelfth century the emperor after a seven-month siege in October 1139; the town of Coria, which lay towards the frontier with Portugal, followed suit in June 1142. By the mid-1 140s the Almoravid empire had begun to unravel and its authority was being challenged not only by the rival Almohad confederation in North Africa, but by dissident elements within al-Andalus itself.° Eager to take advantage of the political turmoil, the rulers of the Christian realms launched a series of attacks against their Muslim foes. Alfonso VII himself led raids into al-Andalus in 1143 and 1144; and he briefly held the great city of Cérdoba in May 1146. In 1147 campaigning reached a crescendo. In January, the fortress town of Calatrava on the Guadiana was seized by the emperor. On 17 October, in a campaign that was apparently regarded by both the participants and the papacy as a crusade, Alfonso VII’s forces combined with armies from Navarre, Barcelona, Montpellier and Genoa to conquer the port city of Almeria.?" A week later, Lisbon fell to a joint assault by Portuguese troops and a motley force of English, German and Flemish crusaders who, en route for the Holy Land, had paused to lend a hand. On top ofall these spectacular military successes, Tortosa was captured by Count Ramén Berenguer IV of Barcelona (1131-62) in 1148, and Lérida and Fraga went the same way the following year.” By the middle of the twelfth century, the mood throughout the realms of Christian Iberia was one of heady optimism. The spirit of crusade abounded. Wherever one looked, it must have seemed that Islam was in headlong retreat. ‘The conquest of Almeria probably represented the high-water mark of Alfonso VII's achievements. The campaign was later to be the subject of exultant poetic celebration in the anonymous Poem of Almeria. Yet, the emperor was hungry for further success. Just how hungry, may be gauged from the terms of the treaty he had drawn up with the count of Barcelona at Tudején, on the border between Navarre and the Rioja, on 27 January 1151.% The principal purpose of the agreement was to arrange for the partition of Navarre following the death of its king, Garcia Ramirez IV (1134~$0). But its terms went much further than that. The treaty prefigured nothing less than the complete dismemberment of the territories of al-Andalus between the two rulers: Valencia, Denia and Murcia were to be the preserve of the count; the emperor would get the % See A. Huici Miranda, Historia poltica del imperio almohade, 2 vols. (Tetwan, 1956-7); R. Le Tourneau, The Almohad Movement in North Africa in the twelfih and thirteenth centuries (Princeton, 1965). On Almohad involvement in Spain, see Viguera Motins, Los einas de taifts, pp. 203347. An account of the Almeria campaign from a Genoese viewpointis provided by Caffaro, De captione Almere et Tortuose, ed. A. Ubieto Arteta (Valencia, 1973), pp. 1929. % De expugnatione Lyxbonensi, ed. C, W. David (New York, 1936) isa graphic eyewitness account, ® On the conquest of Tortosa, see Caffaro, De captione, pp. 30-3. ™ Liber Feudonum Moor, ed. F. Miquel Rosell, 2 vols. (Barcelona, 1945), 1, pp- 39742. 17The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile rest. Whether this was just wishful thinking on Alfonso VII's part, or whether he and the count of Barcelona truly believed that the expulsion of the infidel from Spain was just around the corner, itis hard to judge. All the same, if the emperor fondly imagined that his dominion would soon span the peninsula from Seville to Santiago de Compostela he was to be sorely disappointed. It was not for want of trying, though. Time and time again, during the last years of his life, Alfonso VII would lead his armies into al-Andalus. Already, in 1150, Cordoba had been the object ofa long, yet fruitless, siege. The following summer Jaén received the same treatment, but with similar lack of success, and a projected attack against Seville had to be called off when a crusading army from overseas apparently failed to make an appearance as planned.”* In 1152, the emperor tried and failed to annex the diminutive kingdom of Guadix, east of Granada. It was all very frustrating, but the simple truth was that Alfonso VIE lacked the resources in manpower, money and matériel to make the large-scale occupation of territory beyond the Sierra Morena a practical proposition. The ambitions of the Imperator Hyspaniarum far outstripped his means. Alfonso VII died on 21 August 1157 as he returned north to Toledo from an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Almeria which had been besieged by the Almohads. On his death, the kingdom of Leon-Castile was divided between his two sons. Castile and Toledo were assigned to the eldest, Sancho IT (1157-8), while Leén and its territories passed to Fernando II (1157-88)2® The division of Alfonso VII's sprawling imperium — which had been adumbrated as early as 1143 — had been guided by the same principles of dynastic precedent that had led his ancestors Sancho III of Navarre in 1035, and his son Fernando I in 106s, to partition their dominions among their sons and to assign the family’s patrimonial lands to the eldest” Even so, the emperor's carefully laid plans for the inheritance, like those of his grandfather Alfonso VI back in 1 109, were to be nothing but a source of discord and unhappiness. One thirteenth-century chronicler saw the division of the kingdom and its dire consequences as a divine punishment; another blamed the influence of two of Alfonso VII's % A charter of Alfonso VIT of 24 Aug. 1151 records that it had been drawn up “quando imperator jacebat super Gaen expectando naues Francorum que debebant ucnire ad Sibiliam’: F. J. Hernandez, Los cartularios de Taledo:catélogo documental (Madrid, 1983), henceforth Cart. Toledo, no. 81. The previous year, Bishop Gilbert of Lisbon is known to have visited his native England in an attempt to recruit volunteers for the forthcoming campaign against Seville: John of Hexham, Historia, in Symeonis monchioperaommia,ed.T. Amold,2 vos, Reis Seies7s (London, 1885), 1p. 324. DRH, pp. 228-0. On the reign of Sancho III, see GRC, 1. pp. 137-49: on that of Fernando I, see GRE, pp. 15-158. Accharter of t Mar, 1143, ftom the Galician monastery of Sobrado, was drawn up ‘tempore quo inpperabat imperator Aldefonsus gentem Sarracenorum, fils eius rex Sancciuis in Castela, alius filins eius rex Fernandus in Gallecia’: AHN, Clero, 526/11 18 2Ledn and Castile in the twelfth century court magnates, Count Manrique Pérez de Lara and Count Fernando Pérez de Traba, who it was claimed had ‘aimed to sow the seed of discord’ thereby.?* Barely had Sancho III and Fernando II had a chance to mourn the passing of the emperor than they had begun to quarrel. Matters were then further complicated in August 1158 when Sancho followed his father to the grave, leaving his three-year-old son Alfonso VIII (1158-1214) as his successor.” The regency that followed gave rise to a violent struggle for power, as rival factions within the Castilian nobility — the Laras and the Castros — sought to secure custody of the child-king. By 1161, the Laras had won the day and forced the Castros into exile. But, in the meantime, Castile’s neighbours had taken the opportunity to feather their own nests, and in 1159 Sancho VI of Navarre (1150-94) and Fernando II of Leén had seized a number of Castilian frontier towns. To add insult to injury, in 1162 the Leonese monarch took Toledo under his control, although his subsequent efforts to meddle in Castilian affairs came to nothing. By 1166 Toledo was back in Castilian hands. Three years later Alfonso VIII began to rule in his own right, and in 1170, in a notable diplomatic coup, he secured the hand in marriage of Eleanor, the daughter of Henry Il of England, Having teetered for some time on the brink of the abyss, Castile had emerged from its internal crisis bruised, but more or less intact. Castile and Leén would remain at loggerheads until they were finally reunited by Fernando III (1217-52) in 1230. In the interim, violent disputes flared up periodically, with towns and castles along the frontier between the two frequently changing hands. But there were to be no major territorial gains for either side. Instead, the rulers of Leén and Castile often had other, more pressing, concerns to deal with elsewhere: to the west, Alfonso I of Portugal (1128-85) remained a constant thorn in the side of Fernando II; to the east, Alfonso VIII of Castile became embroiled in a wearisome border dispute with the Navarrese. On top of all that, the southern frontier with al-Andalus was facing renewed attack. Already, within months of Alfonso VII’s death, Almohad armies had overrun the forward positions that the emperor had been able to establish to the south of the Sierra Morena during the latter years of his reign.° Calatrava seemed about to go the same way, when the Knights Templar % Crdnica latina de Jos reyes de Castilla, ed. L. Charlo Brea (Cadiz, 1984), henceforth referred to as CLRG, p. 8; DRH, p. 229. * ‘There iso adequate accountin English ofthe reign of Alfonso VIII, For what follows, see GRC, t chs. ji, v=vil. Considerably briefer, yet useful nonetheless is L. G. de Valdeavellane, Historia de 2: de los onigenes a la baja Edad Media 2 vols.. 4th edn (Madrid, 1968), 11, ch, xxi. » A, Huici Miranda, “Un nuevo manuscrito de “al-Bayan al-Mugrib; datos inéditos y aclaraciones sobre os tiltimnos afios del reinado de Alfonso VII, el Emperador’, Al-Andalus 24 (1939), 63-84; cf Reilly, The contest, pp. 221-3. 19The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile declared themselves unable to hold the fortress, but was eventually saved when the doughty abbot of the Cistercian house of Fitero and a group of volunteers stepped into the breach and organised the city’s defence against the advancing Almohads.*! It was the birth of the military Order of Calatrava which, along with its counterparts the Order of Santiago (founded 1170) and the Order of Alc4ntara (founded 1176), would play an increasingly important role in the campaigns on the southern frontier during the succeeding decades.” The relief of Calatrava marked only the beginning ofa long and bloody struggle for supremacy." Campaigning intensified in 1171 when the Almohad caliph, Yiisufl (1163-84), visited the peninsula in person to take the fight to his foes. His armies struck deep into Christian territory causing widespread devastation and consternation. The heady days back in the middle of the century when men had confidently looked forward to the imminent conquest of al-Andalus must have seemed a distant memory indeed. Yet relief for the Christians was at hand, In 1176, the need to deal with unrest in North Africa led Yiisuf to curtail his operations in the peninsula, This breathing space was put to good effect by Alfonso VIII of Castile who, with the assistance of Alfonso II of Aragén (1162-96), was able to conquer the city of Cuenca the following year. In March 1179 the Christian monarchs set a seal on their firm alliance when at Cazola (like their counterparts at Tudején twenty-eight years before) they agreed to partition the peninsula between them. The need to quell revolts in North Africa meant that neither the caliph Y dsuf nor his son and successor Ya‘qiib (1184-99) was able to devote as much attention to Iberian affairs as each might have wished. The net result was that Christian armies were able to attack the Muslim south along a wide front throughout the 1170s and 1180s. By the last decade of the century, Alfonso VIII had firmly established himself as the pre-eminent ruler among the Christian realms of Iberia. In this he had been helped not only by his successes on the battlefield against Muslim and Christian alike, but by the disappearance of some of his most redoubtable rivals. In 1184 the Almohad caliph Yiisuf had been killed during the siege of Santarém; Alfonso I of Portugal had died of natural causes the following year; and in 1188 it had been the turn of Fernando IT of Leén. In July of that same year, at an assembly convened at Carrién, King Fernando’s son and successor, Alfonso IX (1188-1230), was » DRH, pp. 234-6. % See A. Forey, ‘The military orders and the Spanish reconquest in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’, Traditio 40 (1984), 197-234, © For what follows, see GRC, 1, pp. S91ff D. W. Lomax, The Reconquest of Spain (London, 1978).¢h. . © Liber Feudonun Maior,1, pp. 49-31. The location of Cazola is uncertain, 20Ledn and Castile in the twelfth century knighted by Alfonso VIII and required to pay homage to his Castilian cousin.*5 A few days later, Alfonso VIL knighted Conrad of Hohenstaufen, the son of Frederick Barbarossa, and promised him the hand of his daughter Berenguela in marriage. The king of Castile had not only become the senior peninsular ruler, but he was beginning to cut an increasingly impressive figure on the European stage, too. The conflict between Christian and Muslim was about to enter a new and decisive phase. In r191, the caliph Ya‘qab captured the castle of Alcdcer do Sal and a number of other fortresses from the Portuguese. Four years later, he returned to launch a major offensive against Castilian positions in La Mancha. When Alfonso VIII hurried south to block the Almohad advance his army was annihilated at Alarcos near Calatrava on 19 July, and the king barely escaped with his life. For the next two years, Castile was to be buffeted as never before. Not only did Alfonso VIII have to contend with the ferocious attacks of the Almohads, who succeeded in recovering important strongpoints in La Mancha (notably Calatrava) and the Tagus valley between 1195 and 1197, but in 1196 Leonese and Navarrese forces, with Almohad backing, launched devastating raids of their own into Castilian territory. This ‘impious alliance’ between Christian and Moor, a chronicler would later observe, ‘seemed to conspire for the destruction of the king of Castile, barbarously inflictingall possible harm in the whole kingdom, to the extent that not in a single corner of the realm could anyone feel safe’ 37 The very survival of Castile seemed to hang in the balance. ‘That Alfonso VIII was able to withstand this triple assault says much for his qualities of generalship and resolve. But events elsewhere would also come to his aid. For one thing, renewed turmoil in North Africa, prompted by the invasion of Tunisia by Almoravid forces based in the Balearic Islands, speedily led the Almohad caliph to agree to a five-year truce with his Castilian adversary in 1197. For another, the papacy, already disillusioned after the Third Crusade to the Holy Land had ended in disarray in 1192, viewed the renewed bickering among the Christian rulers of the peninsula with increasing dismay and brought all the diplomatic pressure it could muster to bear in an attempt to bring an immediate halt to this internecine strife. These diplomatic initiatives 2 Colecién diplomética del monasterio de Sahagiin, 1v, ed. J. A. Fernindez Flérez (Leén, 1991), pp. 428-31, On the reign of Alfonso IX of Leén, see GAL, 1. 3 CD Sehegtin, 1, pp. 4313. » ‘Sic igitur Christian’ cam Mauris colligati colligatione impictatis in desolationem regis Castelle ‘conspiraise uidcbantur, mala quecumque poterant atrociter toto regno undique inferentes, adco quod nusquam in toto regno uel angulus unus inveniri posset, in quo quisquam securus esset' CCLRC, p. 16. The translation cited above is taken from Citristians and Moorsin Spain, ed, and trans. C. Smith, 2 vols. (Warminster, 1988-9}, 18, p. 5. 21The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile finally bore fruit in 1197, when with papal encouragementan attempt was made to patch up relations between Leén and Castile, although the subsequent marriage of Alfonso IX and the Infanta Berenguela of Castile which sealed the rapprochement was later ruled invalid on grounds of consanguinuity by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216).* There was a flurry of diplomatic activity in the years that followed. A new truce was agreed between Alfonso [X and Alfonso VIII at Cabreros near Leén in 1206; the following year long-standing differences between Castile and Navarre were resolved by the Treaty of Guadalajara; and in 1209 peace terms were in turn agreed between the rulers of Navarre and Aragén.? With Christian Spain at peace at long last, an anti-Almohad coalition no longer seemed such a fanciful proposition. The conditions fora full-scale crusade against the Moorish south had never seemed riper and the papacy campaigned energetically to promote the idea. Within the peninsula, too, fresh attempts were being made to rekindle the flame of crusading spirit. The Poema de mio Cid, the vernacular poetic celebration of the deeds of El Cid, which was possibly performed for the very first time before a gathering of the Castilian court in or shortly before 1207, may conceivably have been commissioned with this very purpose in mind.‘ Preparations for the forthcoming crusade intensified in 1211, when the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nasir (1199=1213) succeeded in capturing the headquarters of the knights of Calatrava at Salvatierra in La Mancha. News of the fall of Salvatierra travelled fast. It seemed to contemporaries that the very defences of Christendom were in danger of being overrun. In response to papal urging, Alfonso VIII pledged support for the crusade, and Pedro IL of Aragén (1196-1213) and Sancho VII of Navarre (1194-1234) swiftly followed suit, Meanwhile, Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez of Toledo and Alfonso VIII’s physician Arnaldo visited France in person to drum up support for the forthcoming campaign.*' Only the kings of Portugal and Leén, otherwise preoccupied with a squabble over their borders, held aloof. By the spring of 1212 the coalition was in place. A vast host assembled in Toledo, inchiding many thousands of volunteers from beyond the % Even so, it was not until 1204 that Alfonso IX caved in to papal pressure and separated from Berenguela, and not before she had borne him four children, among them the ftore Fernando III. » For the treaties of Cabreros and Guadalajara, see GR, 11, pp. 36574, 424-9: on the pact of 1209, sec J. Mirety Sans, Ttinerario delrey Pedro I de Catalufa, Il de Aragon’, Boletin dela Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona 3 (1905-6), 441-2. A further peace treaty between Le6n and Castile was agreed at Valladolid on 27 June 1309: GRC i, pp. 479-84. “ On the date of the composition of the pocm, see C. Smith, The making ofthe ‘Poema de mio Cid” (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 65ff.; and J.J. Duggan, The ‘Gansar de mio Gid’: poetic creation in its economic and social contexts (Cambridge, 1989), ch. 6. But cf. Linehan, History and the historians, pp. 319-27. “ CLRG, p. 27. 22Ledn and Castile in the twelfth century Pyrenees.” In June, Calatrava was captured aftera briefsiege, whereupon the majority of the French combatants, considering that they had done their bit for the cause of Christendom, decided to head for home. Perhaps, as Alfonso VIII later reported to Pope Innocent III, the oppressive heat had proved just too much for the u/tramontani who were used to more temperate climes. More likely, as the Muslim historian al-Marrakushi believed, they had taken umbrage at the actions of the Castilian king, who in a show of clemency had guaranteed the lives and property of the Muslim inhabitants of Calatrava and had deprived the French knights of the prospect of a sizeable haul of booty thereby.“ Despite the fickleness of their French confederates, however, Alfonso VIII and his allies were resolved to press on with the campaign. When the caliph Muhammad, at the head ofa large Almohad army, took up position at Las Navas de Tolosa on the southern slopes of the Sierra Morena, Alfonso VIII and his troops made their way across the mountains to confront them. Battle was joined on 16 July 1212. The result was an overwhelming victory for the combined Christian forces.’ In the aftermath, large numbers of Moors were slain (100,000, or maybe more, according to Alfonso VIII’s own boastfial reckoning) and yet others taken prisoner. Untold quantities of booty were captured, too, including a woven silken banner which would eventually find a place of honour ~ where it still hangs today ~ at the nunnery which Alfonso VIII himself had founded at Las Huelgas in Burgos, and where within two years of his famous victory the king would find his final resting place. Later generations would regard the Christian success on the field of Las Navas de Tolosa not merely as the crowning achievement of the reign of Alfonso VIII, but of the centuries-long struggle between Christian and Moor, Contemporaries were scarcely less aware of its significance either. News of the triumph at Las Navas spread rapidly throughout Europe. As the bishop of Cremona later put it, Spain, and more especially Castile, had saved not just herself, but Rome too, and Europe as a whole.** Alfonso VIII’s much-vaunted claim, echoed on his coins and charters, to be the ‘defender of Christendom’ had been triumphantly vindicated.” The century and a half that elapsed between the accession of Alfonso VI and the death of Alfonso VII was dominated by the protracted © GRC, un, p. 567. © GRC, 1m, p. 568. “Christians and Moors in Spain, 111, 4, nd srans. C, Melville and A, Ubaydli (Warminster, 1992). PP. 138-9. © For a detailed analysis of the campaign chat culminated in the action at Las Navas, see A. Huici Miranda, Las grandes batalas de la Reronguista durante las invasiones afticanas (Masi, 1996), pp. 219-37; and GRC, 1, pp. 985ff “© Linehan, History and the historians, p. 295. ‘7 Ibid. 202-3. 23Fier THA osuoyTy Jo epeap ayp re ensumuad weHog! oy, nva20 | {io ouwyrayLedn and Castile in the twelfth century military struggle between Christian and Muslim. As a result of that struggle, Leén and Castile experienced an unprecedented expansion in their territories. By 1214, the Duero had been left far behind: the Leonese had reached the Tagus and had Caceres in their sights; while the authority of the Castilian crown was felt almost as far south as the banks of the Guadalquivir. But the acquisition of territory was one thing, effective control quite another. What would most exercise the minds of the monarchs of Leén and Castile during these years was how best to consolidate their hold on the recently conquered lands. A series of pressing questions presented themselves. How were these territories to be defended and governed? How were colonists to be induced to leave the relative safety of northern Spain to settle on the vulnerable frontier lands to the south? What arrangements were to be made for the ecclesiastical organisation of these areas? And so on. Warfare loomed large for all European societies in the twelfth century, but in Spain the existence of the unstable frontier with Islam meant that for some people military activity represented rather more than simply an occasional opportunity or obligation. This, we are frequently reminded, was ‘a society organised for war’.*® True, as we shall see in due course, warfare continued to represent a lucrative source of wealth and power for members of the long-established warrior aristocracy, who were lavishly rewarded by the crown for their deeds in battle with grants of estates, as well as a leading role in the administration of the frontier territories. But for other members of that society, warfare provided both a livelihood and a means to better themselves. The urgent need for settlers who could defend the frontier against attack all the year round and could take the fight to the enemy at a moment's notice, meant that generous incentives ~ exemption from taxation and immunity from prosecution for fugitive criminals, to name but two — were offered by the monarchs in order to entice colonists to the frontier regions beyond the Duero. For those frontiersmen who carried out their duties with distinction, the potential rewards were considerable: not just riches in the form of land or moveable wealth, although that would doubtless have weighed uppermost in the minds of many, but social advancement too. ‘Frontier society’ in Leén and Castile was dominated by the strategically situated walled cities that were established in the generation following the conquest of Toledo in 1085. At places like Avila, Salamanca and Segovia, warfare was apparently a way of life and knights - not merchants or “ ‘The phase was ftst coined by E. Louric, ‘A society organised for war: medieval Spain’, Past and Present 35 (1966), 54~76. Sepilveda, which which was granted a charter of privileges by Alfonso VI on 17 November 1076, was a case in point: see Los fiueros de Sepiilveda, ed. E. Séez (Segovia, 1953), pp- 44-31. 25The aristocracy in twelfth-century Lebn and Castile artisans — called the tune. When they were not busy raiding enemy territory and gathering booty, many frontiersmen devoted themselves to raising livestock, which in time of war could be safely corralled within the walls of the nearest city. Accordingly, it has been speculated that the advance of the frontier ‘may have been stimulated not only by nomadic warriors in search of a living but by ranchers in search of pasture lands which would allow for transhumance on a large scale’.*" Churchmen followed hard on the heels of these enterprising warrior- shepherds. Their task was to oversee the ecclesiastical organisation of the newly settled areas. Episcopal sees had to be restored and the machin- ery of diocesan administration put in place; churches had to be built and kept under episcopal control; and laymen had to be reminded of their duty to support the church by paying tithes and donating alms.*? Some belligerent clergymen even took a close personal interest in the campaigns that were regularly being waged against the infidel; like the Frenchman Jerome, successively bishop of Valencia and of Salamanca, who reputedly went to Spain to pursue his career because of the urge he felt ‘to kill a Moor or two’; or the Catalan Ramon, bishop of Palencia, who apparently ignored his diocesan responsibilities altogether and went off to live on the frontier.* At the end of the twelfth century, a traveller from the frontier regions who ventured north across the River Duero might well have felt that in some respects he was entering a different world. For one thing, our hypothetical traveller would doubtless have been struck by some of the urban centres he came across. For, unlike the military and stockbreeding settlements that passed for towns along much of the frontier (the great city of Toledo was the notable exception to the rule), north of the Duero small but burgeoning mercantile centres were coming increasingly to the fore. Nowhere was this more the case than along the camino francés, the pilgrim road that ran ftom France across northern Spain to the holy city of Santiago de Compostela. During the course of the eleventh and cwelfth centuries the steady flow of pilgrim traffic along the route to Compostela provided a major stimulus to urban development. At places like Logrofio, Burgos, Sahagin and Leén, colonies of foreign merchants took up residence and set up shop in order to cater for the needs of the faithful who passed through in droves on their way to visit the tomb of Saint James at Compostela.* © Villar Garcia, La Extremadura, pp. 188-203. 5! A. Mackay, Spain in the Middle Ages: from frontier 4o empise 1000~1500 (London, 1977), p. 40. © A good introduction to these matters is provided by R.A. Fletcher, The epizopate inthe kingdom of Lain in the twelit century (Oxford, 1078), ch. 4. > Linehan, History and the histaians, p. 248. % L.G.de Valdeavellano, Origenes de a burguesia en la Espaia medieval (Madrid, 1960), pp. 103-765). Gautier-Dalché, Historia urbana de Ledn y Castilla en la Edad Media (siglos IX-XIl) (Madrid, 1979), pp. 67-85, 26Ledn and Castile in the twelfth century But conditions in the countryside would also have caught the attention ofour traveller. North of the Duero was the region of the old Asturian and Leonese kingdom, where great seigneurial estates, worked by dependent peasant families, dominated the landscape.> Here, in contrast with conditions on the frontier, opportunities for social mobility were comparatively limited. By the twelfth century, much of the rural economy was controlled by cathedral churches and monasteries whose vast landed wealth was built above all upon the generosity of lay benefactors. The other dominant force in society were the members of the great landowning aristocracy whose immense political and economic influence had long since set them apart as the indispensable agents of royal government. They were the men into whose hands much of the administration of the realm was entrusted; who served the crown as tax collectors, counsellors, judges and diplomats; and without whose considerable military expertise the massive territorial expansion of Le6n and Castile would simply not have been possible. It is to these nobles, the secular élite of Leén and Castile, that we must now turn. * On mural conditions north of the Duero, see in particular Martinez Sopena, Tiera de Campos, pp. 20$-467; R. Pastor, Resistencas y luchas campesinas en la época del crecimiento y consalidacibn de ta Jormacin feudal: Castilla y Leén, sglos X-XUT, and edn. (Madrid, 1990); and C. de Ayala Martine, “Relaciones de propiedad y estructura econémica det reino de LeGn: Jos marcos de produccién agratia ye teabajo campesino (850~1230)’, in El reno de Leén en laala Edad Medio, v1 (Leb, 1994), PB. 133-408. 27Chapter 2 CLASS, FAMILY AND HOUSEHOLD The origins of the aristocracy of medieval Leén and Castile are hedged about with doubts and controversy. The rapid conquest of most of the Iberian peninsula by Muslim armies between 711 and 720 shattered not only the power of the Visigothic monarchy, but ako, to a large degree, that of the ruling class that supported it. True, there were those like Theodemir, lord of Orihuela and of a handful of other towns in the south-east of Spain, who sought to preserve their privileged status by speedily coming to terms with the invader.’ But for other Visigothic magnates the Muslim conquest may have spelled exile, imprisonment or even death, Faced with such unpalatable options, some aristocrats may have chosen to emigrate north, to the relative safety of the tiny independent Christian realm that emerged in the region of the Asturias during the decade of the 720s. That, at any rate, was what the chroniclers of the royal dynasty of Oviedo claimed when they came to write up the history of the kingdom 150 years later, by which time the authority of the Asturian kings stretched from Galicia in the west to the fringes of the Basque lands in the east and had even begun to impinge upon the Meseta of Leén and Castile. Like the phoenix rising out of its ashes, it was believed, the kingdom of the Asturias was the Visigothic regnum reborn, not just in spirit, but in personnel, too.? By and large, modern historians have tended to share this point of view. Although the eighth century may have witnessed the emergence of ‘a new and distinct nobility’ in the nascent kingdom of the Asturias, there is broad agreement that there was a certain continuity across the threshold of the Muslim conquestand that many of the nobles of the Asturian-Leonese realm in the ninth and tenth centuries were themselves direct descendants ' For the text and translation of the treaty between Theodemir and the Muslim governor “Abd al‘Aziz, see Christians and Moors, 111, pp- 10-13. ® Crbnicasasturianas, pp. 67-8, 122-3, 173; cf. the discussion in R.. Collins, The Arab conquest of Spain, 710-797 (Oxford, 1989), pp: 141-8. 28Class, family and household of the Visigothic ruling class.’ The debate need not detain us here. The sources for this period are so meagre that the point is virtually impossible to prove one way or the other. Instead, suffice it to say that from the very beginning the Asturian rulers were supported by a small group of powerful followers who, whatever their origin, assisted the fledgling monarchy in its wars against the Muslims and in the administration of the expandingkingdom. By their feats of arms and by the prominent role they played in the resettlement of the territories recovered from the Muslims, there emerged a warrior élite who would come increasingly to the fore during the course of the eighth and ninth centuries. Even so, our vision of these nobles, via the sparse charters and chronicles of the period, is blurred. It is only from the tenth century onwards that sufficient materials have survived to enable historians to piece together details of the family ties and landed wealth of some of the most influential aristocratic kin groups of the region.4 The picture that emerges is of a relatively small group ofinterrelated families whose political and economic influence was felt across large areas of the kingdom.* What is more, far from dying out in the eleventh century, as was once believed, what Mox6 dubbed the ‘primitive aristocracy’ of Leén and Castile enjoyed a spectacular increase in its wealth, authority and prestige.° The great families who held sway after 1100 did not emerge from nowhere. Almost without exception the magnates of the twelfth century owed their affluence and rank to the substantial reserves of economic and political power that their forefathers had built up over the course of generations. THE ARTICULATION OF A CLASS ‘Writing in the early seventh century, Isidore of Seville pithily defined ‘noble’ as ‘a man not of lowly rank, whose name and family is known’.” Although the chroniclers of twelfth-century Leén and Castile did not trouble to provide hard and fast definitions of what constituted the secular élite, they were nonetheless conscious of the yawning chasm that separated the nobiles from the rest of lay society on account of the wealth, status and +S, de Moxé, Repoblacién p sociedad en ta Espaiia cstiana medieval (Madrid, 1079), p. 131. CEJ. M. ‘Minguez, “Antecedentes y primeras manifestaciones del feudalismo astut-ieonés!, Ex torno al feudalism hispénico. I congreso de estedios medievales (Avila, 1989), p. 107;and C. Balifias Pérez, Do mito “é realidade: a definicién social ¢ teritorial de Galicia na alta Idade Media (séarlos VIET e IX) (Santiago de ‘Compostela, 1992), pp. 569m 4 See, in particular, Carlé, ‘Gran propiedad’, pp. 66-82; Martinez Sopena, Tiewa de Campos, pp. 329-67; Martinez Sopena, ‘Parentesco y poder’, passim. * Carlé, “Gran propiedad’, pp. 71-3; Portela and Pallares, ‘Elementos para el anilisis', pp. 26-32. + Moxé, ‘La nobleza castellano-leonesa’, p. 29, 7 ‘Nobilis, non vilis, cuius et nomen et genus scitur’: Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarune sive originum libri XX, ed. W. M, Lindsay, 2 vols. (Oxford, rgit), Lib. x, 184. 29The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile power that they enjoyed. The Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris, for example, in its account of the imperial coronation of Alfonso VII on Whit Sunday 1135, drew a clear distinction between the nobles and commoners who gathered in Leén cathedral to witness the spectacle.* For all that, contemporaries would have been equally aware that the Leonese-Castilian aristocracy was itself far from being a homogeneous group and that even within its ranks there existed men and women ofvery different social standing. At the very top of the dominant social group that we call the aristocracy were the territorial magnates. These magnates, potestates, principes or ricos hombres, as they are variously referred to in our sources, were prodigiously wealthy landowners, able to maintain a household retinue of vassal knights and other servants. Frequent visitors to the royal court, they were called upon to advise the monarch on matters of state, were entrusted with the administration of large areas of the kingdom, carried out diplomatic missions on behalf of the crown and played a pivotal role in the numerous military campaigns that were waged by the monarchs of Ledn and Castile. In short, the great nobles constituted a power élite upon whose support the monarchy relied to ensure the efficient government of the realm. The most illustrious among these magnates were the counts. The title of comes was the prerogative of only a very small group of grandes whose extraordinary wealth, status and power set them apart from their fellow nobles."® Unlike their peers in some other parts of western Europe, however, the counts of twelfth-century Leén and Castile did not claim to exercise independent public jurisdiction Dei gratia over compact autonomous counties." Instead, the comital dignity was a heritable badge of distinction bestowed upon certain magnates by the monarch, albeit effectively monopolised by a handful of leading families. The timing of the award of the privilege appears to have lain in royal hands, but there was an undoubted expectation of office that few monarchs may have felt able to resist..2 We encounter very few examples of heirs of * “Secunda uero die ... archiepiscopi et episcopi et abbates et omnes nobiles et ignobiles et omnis plebs iuncti sunt iterum in ecclesia beate Marie’: CAL, i, §70. ? Moxé, ‘De la nobleza vieja’, p. 11. " Atche time of the accession of Alfonso VILin 11 26, for example, only eight magnates held comital rank: Fernando Pérez, Gomez Niifiez, Gutierre Vermiidez, Muito Peliez, Pedro Gonzilez, Rodrigo Gonzilez, Rodrigo Vélaz and Sucro Vermédez. On the emperor'sdeath thirty-one years later, the figure remained the same: Gonzalo Fernandez, Lope Diaz, Manrique Pérez, Osorio Martinez, Pedro Alfonso, Ponce de Cabrera, Ramiro Froilaz, Rodrigo Pérez. 1 Anotable exception to the rule was Count Pedro Manrique, who regularly invoked divine grace in hiscomaial style: L. de Salazar y Castro, Prachas dela historia de la Casa de Lars (Madrid, 1604), pp. 14-88. © Ttmay have been this very expectation of office that led some young nobles to witness charters with the epithet fins comits. Gonzalo R odriguer, the son of Count Rodrigo Gémeg, and Alvaro Pérez, the son of Count Pedro Gonzilez de Lara, were both styled thus inthe charter of Alfonso VI they witnessed on 15 Feb. 1149: Coleibm diplomitica de San Salvador de El Moral, ed. L. Sereano Walladolid, 1906), pp. 58-9. 30Class, family and household counts being denied what they would have undoubtedly regarded as a bisthrighe.”? Succession to comital rank occasionally occurred automatically after the death of the title holder. The Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris relates that Alfonso VII conferred comital status upon Osorio Martinez immediately following the death of his elder brother Count Rodrigo Martinez at the abortive siege of Coria in 1138.'* Under rather different circumstances, the Galician magnate Gonzalo Fernandez de Traba may have been invested with the countship within weeks of the death of his father Count Fernando Pérez early in 1155."* Not infrequently, however, heirs to the countship ‘were made to wait for some considerable time before being allowed to accede to the tide, [tis striking, for example, that Manrique Pérez de Lara was not invested count until 1145, some fifteen years after the death of his father Count Pedro Gonzilez.'* And the Castilian Gonzalo Rodriguez did notattain the countship until 1173, nigh on thirty years after the demise of his father Count Rodrigo Gémez." In both cases, itis likely thatthe nobles were still young men when their fathers passed away, which raises the possibility that in Len and Castile an age bar may have existed before a noble might occupy comital office.'® Whether aspirants to the title were also required to deliver a large sam of money to the crown, as was the case in contemporary England, we simply do not know.” In the large majority of cases the countship probably passed from father to eldest son, but it was not unknown for two brothers to hold the title simultaneously. Suero Vermiidez, the son of the Asturian magnate Vermudo Ovéquiz, was elevated to the rank of countaround the year 1100 © Among the magnates who were denied the distinction of comital rank were Vela Gutiérres, the son of Count Gutierre Vermtide2, and Rodrigo Osorio, the son of Count Osorio Martinez. CAL ii, $43. ‘5 Count Fernando Pérez can last be traced with the court at Toledo on 8 Nov. 1154: AC Orense, Fondo Monacal, no. 17, where misdated 1152. He may have died shortly afterwards, for he disappears completely from court records. Acharter of 4 Dec. 1154, which purports to bea grant by Count Fernando to the monks of Caabsiro graui infiritate detemptus, is a forgery but may have some basis in fict nevertheless: AHIN, Cédices, 1439B, fols. 77~78t, By the time the court had reached Valladolid on 4 Feb. 1155, his son Gonzalo was already confirming diplomas as Comes Gundisaluus: Rassow, pp. 128-32; AHN, Clero, 1506/1. However, ifewo charters granted t0 the monks of Sobrado by Fernando Pérez and his brother Vermudo may be trusted, then the count of Traba wasstill alive on # July 1155: AHR.G, Monasterios. no. 261; Tumba del monasterio de Sobnado de tos Monjes, ed. P. Loscertales de Garcia de Valdeavellano, 2 vols. (Mactrid, 1976), 11, pp. 449-50, 451-2. 1 Mantique Pérez was elevated to the countship on 21 Aug, 1145. Among.the witnesses to the grant made by Alfonso VET to the see of Orense on that day, was Amalricusjpso die quo hec carta feta fut _factus comes: Coleaibn de documentos del archivo catedral de Orense, eds. M. Casteo and M. Martinez ‘Sueito, 2 vols. (Orense, 1922-3). 1. PP. 33-4 "GRC, uy, pp. 315-16 Count Rodrigo Gomer died late in 1146. Hisson Gonzalo Rodriguez may be tracedin the records between 1146 and 1202: see Appendix 1, pp. 260-1, 9. 1. F Barlow, William Rufus (London, 1983), p. 169. 3rThe aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile and his brother Gutierre was similarly honoured in 1112.” Likewise, the Traba brothers, Fernando and Rodrigo Pérez, the counts of Lara, Pedro and Rodrigo Gonzilez, and the sons of the former, Manrique, Nuiio and Alvaro Pérez, all achieved comital rank. Fernando Pérez de Traba was even elevated to the status of comes ahead of his elder brother Vermudo during the lifetime of their father Count Pedro Froilaz, but this was probably due to the quasi-regal powers that Fernando shared with his paramour the Infanta Teresa Alfonso in the county of Portugal.?! Other magnates, for all their wealth and power, never achieved such status. The career of the distinguished Castilian noble Gutierre Fernandez de Castro providesa case in point.” Among the aristocracy oftwelfth-century Len and Castile, Gutierre Fernindez possessed an impeccable curriculum vitae. He servedas mayordomo (the chiefdignitary ofthe royal household) to Alfonso VII between 1135 and 1138, as tutor and mayordomo to Sancho III and as guardian to Alfonso VIII? Besides, he took part in numerous military campaigns,” was charged with diplomatic missions on behalf of the crown,?* held fenencias (lordships) in Burgos, Castrojeriz, Calahorra and Soria, among others,* and was a generous patron of Castilian monasteries.”” Of sufficient standing to be dedicated several laudatory verses in the epic Poem of Almeria2® he was also described as magnus in corte imperatoris in one royal diploma,” titled princeps Castelle in another? and % ‘Suero Vermiidee had been elevated to the countship by 1 Apr. 1101: AHN, Clero, 1749/1 bis. Gutierre Vermiidez comes de Montenigroappears among the witnesses toa grant of Queen Urraca of 9 May 1112: Colei6n diplomética do mosteircisteriense de Sta. Marta de Osira (Ourense) (1025-1310), ed. M. Romani Martinez, 2 vols. (Santiago de Compostela, ro9), 1, pp. 10-11. % Fernando Pérez had achieved comital rank by 1 Feb, 1121: Documentos medicvais portugueses: Documentos regi, 1, od. Re de Azevedo (Lisbon, 1958), henceforth DMP, p. 70. * On the career of Gutierre Femnindez, see CD Ef Moral, pp. xi-xxix; Sanchez Belda, Chroica Adefonsi Imperatoris, pp. 237-8; GRC. 1, pp. 32145 and Salazar Acha, “Ellinaje de Castro’, pp. 35-9. ® Gutierre Fernindezserved as mayordomoto Alfonso it becweenatleastFeb. 1135and24 Oct. 1138: BN, MS 1 3093, fols. 81r-82r, AC Zamora, 14/4. A charter of the Infante Sancho of 22 Apr. 1145. refers to Gutierre Fernindez and his wife Toda Diaz as his mutitores, five years later the Castilian was styled paraninfius Sarai regis in a charter of Alfonso VIL; GRC, tl. pp. 9-10; Dacumentacién del ‘monasterio de Santo Domingo de Silos (954-1254), ed. M. C. Vivancos Géme2 (Burgos, 1988),pp. 77-8. He served as mayordomoto King Sancho between atleast 20 July 11 53 and 23 uly 1155: GRC, 11, pp. 22-39. On his role during the minority of Alfonso VIII, see DRH, pp. 236-7. ™ Gutierre Ferninder was at the siege of Castrojeriz in Sept. 1131: Cartulario de San Millén de la Cogolla, ed. L. Serrano (Madrid, 1930), p. 309: AHIN, Cédices, 1002B, fol. st. He also took patt in the reduction of Oreja in 1139: CAL, ii, §30; CD Oseira, 1, pp. 18-20; AC Zamora, 8/667; Libro de _privilegios de la Orden de San Juan de Jeraslén en Castilla y Leén (gfos XI-XV), ed. C. de Ayala ‘Martinez (Madrid, 1995), henceforth LP San juan, pp. 183~$; Rassow, pp. 80-1; Dactamentacién de la catedral de Burgos (804-1183), ed. J. M. Garrido Garrido (Burgos, 1983), henceforth DC Burgos 1, pp. 213-14. He joined the Andalusian razzia of 1144: J. A. Llorente, Noticias histérias de fas eves provineias vaseongadas, Aland, Guipccioa y Vizcaya, 4 vols. (Madrid, 1806-08), 1V, pp. 81-2; Documentacion medieval de a catedral de Avila, cd, A. Barrios Garcia (Salamanca, 1981), pp. 6-7. And the campaign against Cordoba in 1146: T. Minguella y Araedo, Historia de a didcess de Sigéientzn y de sus obispo, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1910-1 3)1, pp. 3801; El Tumbode San Juli de Santos (sglos VIU-XED, ed. M. Lucas Alvarez (Santiago de Compostela, 1986), pp. 168~70; Rassow, pp. 97-8. His presence 32Class, family and household styled potestas in numerous more."! Yet, for all his loyal service to the crown, Gutierre Fernandez was never elevated to the status of count. This may indicate that by the twelfth century the title was above all a matter of blood, rather than of service or merit, and that, valued servant of the crown. though he clearly was, the Castilian magnate was considered to be not quite ‘top drawer’. However, Gutierre Fernandez was certainly no social upstart. His father Fernando Garcés, lord of Hita and Guadalajara, was a frequent visitor to the courts of Alfonso VI and Urraca between 1097 and 1125, while his paternal grandfather was in all likelihood Count Garcia Ordéfiez of Najera.** Gutierre Fernandez was but one among several influential aristocrats who, although denied the distinction of comital office, were none the Jess important magnates in their own right. Frequent visitors to the royal court, they were closely associated with the king and his counts in the exercise of power. Besides, they were also sufficiently well thought of to be able to marry into the greatest families of Leén and Castile. In other words, it would be unwise for us to imagine two rigidly defined and mutually exclusive groups within the ranks of the high nobility of the kingdom. If the honour of comital office appears to have been largely the prerogative of a small number of magnates, that is not to say that those same nobles enjoyed a monopoly of political, military and economic power. Below the charmed circle of the magnates there was a large amorphous group of lesser nobles, or knights, who are generally referred to in our during the expedition to Almeria in 1147 is confirmed by the royal diplomas he wimessed at Calatrava on 4 and 9 june, and on 11 July: R. A. Fletcher, ‘Diplomatic and the Cid revisited: the seals and mandates of Alfonso VII", JMH 2 (1976), 332-3: CD Orense, 1, pp. 145-7:,}. Carto Garcia, “El privilegio de Alfonso VII al monasterio de Antealtares’, Cuademos de Estudios Gallegos 7 (1952), 148-55, and A. Lépez Ferreito, Historia de la Santa A.M. Iglesia de Santiago de Compostela, 1x vols. ‘Gantiago de Compostela, 1898-1911), henceforth LFH, V, Ap.,.pp. 46-8 at Andéjar on 17 Joly: AHN, Cédices, 14398, fol. srv;and at Baeza on 19 Aug., and again, after the fall of Almeria, on 25 Nov, 1147: Colecidn diplométiea medieval de a Rioja, ed. J. Rodriguez y Rodriguez de Lama, 4 vols, (Logrofio, 1976-92), 11, pp. 226-7; CD Sahagin, 1¥, pp. 202~3. He was present at the second siege of Cérdoba in 11 50: Cart. Toledo, no. 76. And at that of Jaén in 1151: BN, MS. 13093, fol. 144¢-v; Colecién documental del archivo de la catedral de Ledn, v, ed, J, M. Fernandez Catan (Leén, 1990), pp. 261~3: Cart. Toledo, nos. 81-2; AHN, Cédices, 11 4B, fol. 25 le also probably took part in the ‘Andalusian expedition against Anddjar, Pedroche and Santa Eufemia in 155: Cart. Toledo, nos. 107-8. » CAL i, §28, 94. % Gutierre Ferninder is cited 2s lord of Burgos, Castrojeriz and Amaya in an original charter of 11 46 inserted between fols, 83 and 84 of the Becerro Mayor of the abbey of Aguilar de Campéo: AHN, Cédices, 994B. For details of the tenencias of Gutierre Fernandez, see Salazar Acha, ‘El linaje de Castro’, pp. 36-7. ® CD El Metal, pp. xxiv-xxviii, —™ PA, IL 299-85.” DC Burgos I, pp. 226-8. % Documentacén del monastero de San Juan de Burgos (1091-1 400), ed. F. J. Petia Pérez (Burgos, 1983), pp. 29-32, > For example, Rassow, pp. 84-5. » Salazar Acha, "EL linaje de Castro’, passimt; cf. Canal Sanchez-Pagin, ‘Don Pedro Fetnindez’, pp. 36-47; Reilly, Uraca, pp. 222, 2. 46, 209. 33The aristocracy in twelfih-century Lebn and Castile sources as milites, infanzones or, towards the end of the twelfth century, Sijosdalgo.* Some were wealthy landowners in their own right, such as the Leonese knight Pedro Peliez de Arnales, who held extensive property interests in the region of the western Tierra de Campos.*# Others were related to some of the most illustrious aristocratic families of the realm. Diego Pérez Almadrin, for example, who served in the knightly entourage of Count Ponce de Cabrera, was the grandson of Count Martin Flainez.>> Even powerful magnates were sometimes awarded the epithet of miles: Vela Gutiérrez, the son of Count Gutierre Vermtidez, was addressed as such by Alfonso VII when the emperor granted him the vill of Nogales near Astorga in May 1149.* By and large, however, the miles was a noble of humbler stock, who lacked the economic and political clout of the great magnates and whose sphere of influence was invariably restricted toa relatively reduced area of the kingdom. Very occasionally, such men were called upon to witness a royal charter if the king and his entourage happened to be in the vicinity, ot if the noble was with the royal army on campaign, but for the most part their influence at the royal court was probably entirely ephemeral. Most would have served as mounted knights in the king’s household or in that of a powerful magnate, to whom they would have been bound by ties of vassalage and from whom they would have received benefices in land or cash. For those knights of slender means, these fiefs, together with the booty they won while on campaign, would no doubt have constituted a major source of income. Notwithstanding the modest resources of many of these knights, their role as mounted warriors evidently carried with it considerable social cachet. Although in the eyes of society the milites and infanzones clearly could not compete in terms of wealth and status with the all-powerful magnates, they were held to be nobiles by birth all the same and would pass. on that privileged status to their heirs. A Leonese scribe of 1093 summed up the prevailing view when he roundly declared that the infanzones of the Bernesgg valley were ‘knights not born of humble parentage, but ofnoble stock’ 5” In some quarters, apparently, miles and nobilis were fast becoming synonymous.** By no means all knights could have laid claim to such noble ancestry, » Pérez de Tudela y Velasco, Infartzones y cabalers, pass. % There are some notes on his career in Martinez Sopena, Tiewa de Campes, pp. 405-10. ° Martinez Sopena, Tiema de Campos, pp. 379-80: S. Barton, “Two Catalan magnates in the courts of the kings of Le6n-Castile: the careers of Ponce de Cabrera and Ponce de Minerva re-examined’, JMH 18 (1992), 258. % Rassow, pp. 105-6. » “Mites non inf infizones dic unt (Leén, 1990), p. 586. * CE. CAL, i, §30, 75, 92. parentibus ortos, sed nobiles genere necnon et potestate, qui vulgar lingua olecién doctmental del archivo de facatedral de Le6n, tv, ed. ]. M. Ruiz Asencio 34Class, family and household however. The privileged position of the caballeros villanos, or commoner knights, rested exclusively upon their military function.*? The origins of this social group can be traced to the late ninth century, when the Christian descent from the Cantabrian mountains into the Duero basin Jed to the need fora large cavalry force more suited to the requirements of plains warfare. As kings and other lords sought to attract settlers to these newly conquered areas, generous terms such as exemption from taxation were promised to those willing to perform cavalry service. As a result, the Leonese-Castilian frontier gradually witnessed the emergence of a quasi-noble military class whose privileged status was determined solely by their possession ofa horse and armour and their willingness to carry out cavalry service for their lords, Lourie has observed: For these caballeros there was no mystique of knighthood; they were privileged because they were useful. Entry into their ranks was solely the result ofacquiringa horse, inheriting one or having it thrust upon you. And exit was just as casual. The unreplaced loss or sale of one’s horse would reduce one to the ranks of the tax-paying infantry.” Be that as it may, for those parvenu knights who were able to maintain their privileged position, 1t was not long before they began to intermarry with the families of milites whose noble status derived from birth. With the passage of time, the line that separated the commoner-knights from their more illustrious peers became increasingly blurred, The example of the caballeros villanos reminds us of the ease with which upwardly mobile knights could improve their lot. But it was not only at the bottom end of the privileged social order that such advancement can be seen to have taken place. Although it is fair to say that the magnates comprised a relatively closed circle within Leonese-Castilian aristocratic society, it was by no means impossible for outsiders to gain entry to this select company. We are reminded, in particular, of the Catalan nobles Ponce de Cabrera and Ponce de Minerva, who arrived in Leén in 1127 in the entourage of Berenguela of Barcelona, the young bride of Alfonso VII, and who in the succeeding years came to enjoy considerable wealth, power and prestige.“? Although few were able to match the meteoric rise of the Ponces, we encounter other nobles who, if their gains were rather more modest, were none the less able to climb the social ladder during the course of the twelfth century. % See C. Pescador, ‘La caballerla popular en Ledn y Castilla’, CHE 33-4 (1961), 101-2385 35-6 (1962), 56-201; 37-8 (1963), BB-108; 36-40 (19964), 169-260. * Lourie, “Asociety organised for war’, p. $8. On the similarly modest means of many post-Conguest English knights, see S, Harvey, “The knight and the knight's fee in Eraghand’, Past and Present 49 (1970), 3~43~ © See Femnindex-Xesta y Vazquez, Un magnate catalan, passim; Barton, “Two Catalan magnates’ passin, 33The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile One such man was Martin Diaz.4? This Leonese knight served in the household of Alfonso VII, who rewarded him lavishly for his loyal service, granting the village of Albires in the Tierra de Campos in 1142 and that of nearby Pajares de Campos — which Martin Diaz had previously held as a benefice from the crown — in 1144, as well as the church of Velerda two years after that.” The Leonese noble subsequently served as mayordomo in the household of Count Ponce de Cabrera and he also held the office of merino of Carrién.** By dint of his loyal service, Martin Diaz was able to build up an important power-base for himself and his kin. Although few details of his patrimony are known to us, the documents issued by his heirs demonstrate that the family held extensive property interests in the Tierra de Campos and beyond. ** His children became prominent figures on the Leonese-Castilian scene and from two of his grandchildren were descended the influential noble dynasties of Sarmiento and Villamayor. The career of Fernando Yafiez provides an even more spectacular demonstration of the way in which milites could achieve rapid. social advancement by virtue of their distinguished service to the crown.** The Historia Compostellana has much to say of the loyal service the Galician noble lent both to Queen Urraca and to herson Alfonso VII.” The author of the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris wasa great admirer of Fernando Yaiiez, who also received glowing praise for his martial qualities in the Poem of Almeria.** We know next to nothing, however, about the family origins of Fernando Y diez which suggests that he was not of illustrious descent. Be that as it may, by his valiant deeds and by his loyal service to Queen Unraca, at a time when virtually all Galicia seemed against her, the knight rapidly won a name for himself. His worth to the crown was confirmed by his stout resistance to the Portuguese invaders during the 1130s, too. Fernando Y4iiez, lord of Limia, rapidly became one of the most influential ® See Martinez Sopena, ‘Tierra de Campos. pp. 304-403. © For the grant of Albires, see P. de Sandoval, Chronica del incite emperador de Espafa don Alfonso VI deste wombre, rey de Castilla y Leon, hijo de don Ramon de Borgata y de doka Hurraca, yna propietaria de Castilla (Madcid, 1600), pp. 148-9. On Pajares, ee L. Diez Canseco, ‘Sobre los fueros del Valle de Fenar, Castrocalbén y Pajares (Notas para el estudio del Fuero de Leén)’, AHDE 1 (1924). 373-4: CD Lesn, v, pp. 223-4. For the grant of Velerda, see Cartulario del manesterio de Esionze, ed. V. ‘Vigna (Madrid, 1885), pp. 25-6, and Rassow, pp. 97-8. “He is givens the mayordomo of Count Ponce in the charter Countess Maria Ferndindez granted to the community of Castrocalbén, south of Astorga, on 16 Aug. 1152: Los fueros del Reino de Leén, ed. _J- Rodriguez Fernindez, 2 vols. (Leén, 1981), 11, pp. 66-71. As merino of Cazsién, see CD-Sahagsin, 1, pp. 247-8; Documentation de la catedral de Palencia (1035-1247), ed. T. Abajo Martin (Burgos, 1986), pp. 118-20. # Martinez Sopena, Tiema de Campos, pp. 400-1. 4 There ate some brief notes on his earcet in Sérchee Belda, Chronica AdefonsiJmperatois, pp. 229-30. © HC, pp. 188, 211, 288, 490, 492. * CAL i, §75, 81; PA, Il. 199-216. © His mother may have been called Toda Raimtindes: see E! monasterio de San Pedro de Rocas y sw colecciér: dacumental, ed. E. Duro Pesta (Orense, 1972), pp. 140-1. 36Class, family and household figures on the stage of Galician politics. His acceptance into the circle of the high nobility of the region may be gauged from his marriage to a daughter of Count Gémez Niifiez.°° Moreover, unlike many of his fellow Galicians, who rarely strayed beyond the frontiers of their region, Femando Yaiiez became a regular visitor to the royal court during the reign of Alfonso VII anda linchpin in many of the miltary campaigns that were waged against the Muslims.*' In recognition of his sterling service, the emperor rewarded Fernando Yitiez with the lordship of several important frontier tenencias: Talavera and Maqueda near Toledo and the fortress of Montoro on the banks of the Guadalquivir.*2 His son, Pelayo Curvo, who regularly attended the courts of Alfonso VII and Fernando II, was similarly well rewarded for his services. Social mobility was not a one-way phenomenon, however. Just as we encounter cases of nobles who rose in power or status during the twelfth century, so we meet examples of well-connected families whose influence declined dramatically during the same period. Count Martin Flainez, for example, was without doubt one of the most powerfull and distinguished members of the Leonese-Castilian aristocracy during the latter part of the reign of Alfonso VI.% His untimely death at the battle of Uclés in 1108, however, cut short his illustrious career. Of the three sons who survived him, Rodrigo and Osorio Martinez enjoyed similar power and prestige. Both were raised to the status of count and both were frequent visitors to the court of Alfonso VII. Rodrigo Martinez died without issue in 1138, but the children of Osorio Martinez maintained their power and influence in the kingdom of Leén during the second half of the twelfth century and beyond, despite the fall from favour of their father during the latter part of the reign of Alfonso VII."* Yet, when we come to trace the fortunes of the descendants of the third son of Count Martin Flainez, a strikingly different picture greets us.” Our earliest reference to Pedro Martinez occurs in a charter of December 1117 in which Alfonso VII granted to his ‘most beloved knight and faithful vassal’ some land at Siero * HC, p. 44s. * Thus, he took part in the siege of Oreja in 1139 and in the Andalusian campaign of t1g4: CD Oseira.1, pp. 18-20; DC Avila, pp. 6-7. In 1146, he was sent by Alfonso VI to help Tb Hamdin hold Andiijar, and was also present at the siege of Cérdoba that same year: CAI, ii, §to0: Cart, Toledo, no. $6; Tumbo Samos, pp. 168-70. His presence on the Almeria campaign of 1147 is vouchsafed not only by the Poem but by documentary evidence, too: CD Orense, 4 pp. 14575 AHIN, Cédices, 1439B, fol. stv; CD Sahagin,1v, pp. 202-3. The Galician also participated in the Jaén and Guadix campaigns of 1151 and 1152 respectively: BN, MS 13093, fol. 144—v; AC Ty, 345. 8 Cart. Toledo, nos. 47, $3.74. Onn 26 Sept. £158 Fernando Il made a grant to Pelayo Curvo ‘pro-bono et fideliseruicio quod mihi a pueritia fecists et pro possessionibus et pro hereditatibus uesttis quas in seruicio meo perdistis quas stilicet hereditates uobis rex Portugalisinimicus destruxit’: AHN, Clero, 1437/11. & Martinez Sopena, ‘El conde Rodrigo’, pp. 6}-6; see Appendix 1, pp. 266~7. % Ibid. pp. 7ofl. — ™ Martinez Sopena, Tierra de Campos, pp. 381-8. * Ibid. pp. 3748 37The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile near the River Cea. Some time before 1123, however, Pedro Martinez was killed in a skirmish. He left a widow and six children.” The careers of three of them — Diego Pérez Almadran, Garcia Pérez and Nazareno Pérez ~ are particularly well known to us. By far the most distinguished was Garcia Pérez, who served in the household of Count Ramiro Froilaz and was rewarded by Alfonso VIE for his loyal service on at least three occasions. With his wife Teresa Pérez, he later won renown as the founder of the Cistercian nunnery of Gradefes.*! Their daughter Guntroda married another influential lay figure in the Tierra de Campos, Tello Pérez de Meneses. Diego Pérez Almadrn, we have already seen, served as a knight in the household of Count Ponce de Cabrera. He performed with distinction during the Andalusian campaigns of Alfonso VII and was rewarded by the emperor for his exploits.? Nazareno Pérez, like his brothers, held important property interests in the western Tierra de Campos and around Villavicencio in patticular.© But though the children of Pedro Martinez were undoubtedly well-connected and wealthy landowners in their own right, none of them could truthfully be described as a powerfiul magnate. Their visits to the royal court were apparently few and far between. With the exception of Garcia Pérez, they do notseem to have been entrusted with the administration of any tenencias by the crown,“ nor did they marry into any of the greatfamilies of the kingdom. In other words, they seem to have been denied the very sources of influence and power that were essential if noble family were to thrive. By the late twelfth century, our sources reveal only too clearly that the descendants of Pedro Martinez had become firmly integrated into the circle of local Leonese caballeros. KINSHIP AND INHERITANCE On 3 October 1134, Count Fernando Pérez de Traba and Archbishop Diego Gelmirez of Santiago de Compostela struck a deal. In exchange % CD Sahagin, wv, pp. s1-2. CD Sahagiin, vv, pp. 83-3. © On the carcer of Garcia Pére2, see A. Calvo, Elanonastero de Gradefes. Apuntes para su historia y la de algunos otros cenobios y pueblos del concefo (Le6n, 1945: xpd. 1984), pp. 163-75; J. Rodriguez Fernindeg, ‘Los fundadotes del monssterio de Gradefts’, AL 24 (1970), 209-42: and Martinez Sopena, Tiera de Campos, pp. 375-6. In 1153, Count Ramio Froilaz granted land at Villiseca to Garcia Pérez and his wife Teresa Pérez in recognition of their loyal service: AHD Leén, Fondo. Gradefes, no. 71, see below Appendix 3,n0. v1. For the largesse of Alfonso VII, see Calvo, Gradefes, PP. 164-5, 308-9; CD Sahagin, 1, pp. 202-3. * Derails in Calvo, Gradefes, pp. 163-70. J, L. Martin Rodrigues, ‘La Orden Militar de San Marcos de Leén’, Leén yu Historia, 1¥ (Leén, 1977). PP- 5374. © Martinez Sopena, Tierra de Campos, pp. 376-9. + Garcia Pérez held authority over Cea with Femando Bravo between 1160 and 1164 at least: Calvo, Graefes, pp. 310-13. 38Class, family and household for the vill of Lubre and some other properties in northern Galicia, Count Fernando promised to grant the archbishop his shares in the churches of Trasmonte and Lenes in the same region.® The text that ‘was drawn up to record the transaction is unremarkable enough in itself; it is a perfectly standard. exchange document of the period. What does catch the eye, however, is the list of twenty-two notables who were called upon to witness the charter. They included various ecclesiastical dignitaries, several Galician knights and no fewer than seven of Count Fernando’s relatives: his brother Vermudo, his sister Lupa and her husband Count Mufio Peléez, his other sisters Urraca, Elvira and Ildaria, and his nephew Sancho Sinchez. The presence of quite so many of Count Fernando’s kinsmen among the witnesses to the charter of 1134 would not have raised any eyebrows among his contemporaries. For at that time it was customary — not only in Leén and Castile but north of the Pyrenees too — for men and women conducting property conveyances of one kind or another to seek the approval of their relatives. There was apparently no legal obligation to secure the laudatio parentum, but for a variety of reasons it was deemed both proper and prudent to do so. In some respects, family relationships among the aristocracy of twelfth-century Leon and Castile may be said to have been conditioned by what anthropologists label cognatic or bilateral kinship. In other words, equal importance was attached to both the male and female lines of the kin group, with the result that the ‘family’ came to resemble a loosely defined horizontal grouping of collateral relatives, far removed in character and spirit from the male-dominated lineages of later generations.” This sense of kinship had a profound impact upon landholding and inheritance practices. The patrimony of a conjugal family at any given time could be said to have comprised three principal blocks of properties: the lands that a husband and wife had acquired separately prior to their marriage, via inheritance or other means, and the so-called gasanciales; that is, those properties that the couple had obtained together since. According to custom, on the death of either © HC, pp. 494-6. See S. D. White, Custom, kinship and gifis to sans: the Laudatio. Parentum in westemt France, 1050-1150 (Chapel Hill, 1988). © Fora good introduction to these matters, see J. Goody, Tite developmtent of the family avid rnarriage in Europe (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 103-36, 222-61; D. Herlihy, Medieval households (Cambridge, MA, 1983). pp. 79-111. Thus, when Count Sucro Vermidet and Countess Enderguina Gutiérrez made over the tohastety of Cortellana and numerous other estates to the monks of Chiny ia 1122, they drew a distinction between those lands which were de parentibus nosris and those that were de nostrs _gonantis; Colecién de documentos de lacatedral de Qviedo, ed. S, Garcia Larragueta (Oviedo, 1962), pp, 367-70. The Anglo-Norman nobility seems to have taken a similar view: see J. C. Hol, ‘Politics and Property in early medieval England’, Past and Present $7 (1972), 124%. 39The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile spouse, their heirs — both male and female — could expect to receive and share out amongst themselves the lands that their deceased father or mother had brought to marriage, as well as half of the gananciales; the other half automatically passed to the surviving spouse. On the other hand, if parents were predeceased by a member of their own off- spring who had no legitimate heirs, then they would receive those lands that their son or daughter had obtained during the course of their life- time. We can gain some idea of how these arrangements worked out in practice from the charter that Fernando Garcés de Hita had drawn up in November 1119, The document in question recorded the anas — or bridewealth — that the Castilian magnate had agreed to assign to his second wife, the Catalan heiress Estefania Armengol.”° Among the various lands that were granted by Fernando to his bride, were his half shates in an estate at Castrojetiz near Burgos and in another at Certato near Palencia which he had previously acquired with his first wife Tegridia Martinez. As the charter goes on to explain, on the death of Tegridia half of the properties in question had passed to Fernando Garcés, and the other half to their children, by virtue of their rights of inheritance. Elsewhere in the charter of 1119, mention is also made of some lands at Cevico near Palencia and at Uceda near Hita, which Fernando Garcés and Estefania Armengol had already acquired together. To the half of the properties that automatically belonged to Estefania, her husband now undertook to grant her his own share. But in actual fact, the estate at Cevico had been granted to Estefania by Queen Urraca in June of that year with the strict provision that it was hers to hold alone and that her husband and his children by his first marriage were to enjoy no right to any share of the property.” That Fernando Garcés evidently thought that half of Cevico was his by right to dispose of as he pleased, whatever the royal charter of Queen Urraca had to say about the matter, provides a revealing insight into the way in which inheritance custom was viewed by some members of the lay aristocracy. The importance attached to both the male and female lines of the family meant that women were not only allowed to own and transmit property, but were also entitled — in theory at least—to an equal share of any inheritance. This right was enshrined in numerous pieces of legislation, from the Visigothic Liber Iudicionum to the fueros (collections ® Inche late eleventh century the Leonese dowager Mamadonna Godesteiz survived two husbands and het children by both marriagesand was able rousenble spectacular collection of properties as a result: Martinez Sopena, ‘Parentesco y poder’, p. > Daeimertos dls lotveeia de Sante Mt fa Mayor Vlladld, es. M. Masco Vilhlobosand J. Zurita Nieto, 3 vols. (Valladolid, 1917-20), 1, pp. 141-2. "Dees, Valladotid, 2. pp. 125-7. 40Class, family and household of customary law) of the twelfth century.” Furthermore, the numerous references in the charters of this period to the division of family properties among both male and female heirs demonstrate that the practice remained widespread in aristocratic circles. The diploma of September 1174, by which Countess Aldonza Rodriguez granted some properties to the Cistercian nunnery of Cafias in the Rioja, provides a typical example.” Among the lands that the countess promised to make over to the house, was her half share of an estate at nearby Zarraton which she had previously acquired with her late husband Count Lope Diaz de Haro. The other half of the estate — which had corresponded to Count Lope ~ had been divided up equally on his death among his three sons and eight daughters, all of whom declared that they too were willing to grant their share of the property to the nuns of Caifias. The distribution of patrimonial lands among kinsmen did not necessarily involve the fragmentation of each and every family property into equal parts. Very often, rather, an agreement was reached whereby villages and estates could be shared out rather than partitioned among the heirs. Count Fernando Pérez de Traba referred to sucha family pact in the documenthe had drawn up on 3 October 1134 to record his exchange of properties with Archbishop Diego Gelmirez;”* and his niece Urraca Vermiidez mentioned a similar agreement when she granted the monastery of Genroso (about sokm north-east of Compostela) to the Cistercian monks of Sobrado in 1145.75 Alternatively, heirs to a part share in a family property might subsequently seek to gain control over the rest of the estate from their own kin. In this way, Count Suero Vermiidez conducted a series of deals with his relatives during the first quarter of the twelfth century in order to bring the Asturian monastery of Cornellana under his sole dominion.” His nephew Pedro Alfonso and his wife Maria Froilaz did likewise to establish full control over the nearby abbey of Lapedo in 1141.” Doubtless the carve-up of family lands among interested kin was sometimes accompanied by considerable wrangling. In one notable case in 1144, Aldonza Fernandez, the daughter of Count Fernando Diaz, and her husband Alvaro Gutiérrez even enlisted the help of Alfonso VII to support her claim to a share of an estate in the Asturias that had been > Leges Wsigothonum, ed. K. Zeurner, Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Leguen Nationum Genmanicanem, 1 (Hanover-Leiprig, 1902), henceforth LV, 4.2.9; E. Montanos Ferrin, La familia en la alta Edad Media espaiota (Pamplona, 1980), pp. 290-309. » AHN, Cleto, 1023/20. HC, pp. 494-6. % AHIN, Cleto, 526/13. There is a reference to the same settlement in the charter Vermudo Pérez issued on 4 Feb. 1142: Tumbos Sobrado, 11, p. 26. % A. C, Floriano Cumbresio, El monasterio de Conrellana (Oviedo, 1949). pp. 23-4; El Libro Registro de Corias, ed, Florian Cumbreito, 2 vols. (Oviedo, 1950), henceforth LR Corias 1, p. 130. » Colecién diplomética del monasteiode Belmonte, ed. A. C. Floriano Cumbreio (Oviedo, 1960), pp. 72-5. 4The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile divided up among her brothers.”* It may also have been a dispute over inheritance rights that lay at the root of the violent quarrel between Vermudo Alvarez and his mother Countess Sancha Fernandez de Traba in 1171.” In some cases—such as the partition of properties that took place in 1189 between the daughters of Count Ponce de Minerva, Maria and Sancha Ponce = lots may even have been drawn in an attempt to reduce the risk of friction within the kin group.” It is hard for us to be sure that inheritance settlements such as those we have described led unfailingly to an equitable division of the patrimony among all the heirs. Behind all the egalitarian statements of intent there may still sometimes have been a tendency to favour certain kin with a greater inheritance. Even though the Visigothic law-code had ruled that the family patrimony was to be shared out equally among the heirs, it also permitted a parent to favoura particular son or daughter with up to a third of their estate." A charter of 1095, for example, recording the grant by Elvira Osériz of some land at Villarratel near Leén to the monks of Sahagin, reveals that she had received the property from her mother in preferment over her brothers. But explicit references to overt favouritism of this kind remain exceedingly rare. At one time, aristocratic kin groups in most parts of western Europe appear to have been structured upon these cognatic principles. During the course of the tenth century, however, the nobility in some regions began slowly to conceive of ‘family’ in a different way. In France and Germany, forexample, the erosion of royal power enabled the most influential noble families to break away from the circle of the court and to establish independent authority and dynasties of their own.*? There was a gradual shift in favour of the male line and inheritance customs were altered to favour the eldest son, with the result that younger sons and daughters became increasingly marginalised from the sources of family wealth and power. In other words, to follow the terminology of the anthropologist, kin groups gradually began to be organised upon rigidly agnatic, or patrilineal, rather than cognatic lines. % ED Oviedo, pp. 395-7. See M. E. Garcia Garcla, ‘Aldonza Ferindez y Alvaro Guaérrez, nobles asturianos del siglo XI’, AM 6 (1991), 151-60. ™ See Appendix 3, no. X1¥. © Documentos del monsterio de Vilverde de Sandoval (sigos XH-XV), ed. G. Castin Lanaspa (Galamanea, 1981), pp. 70-1. "LY; 4.5.1. See A. Otero, “La mejora’, AHDE 33 (1963). 5-131. Colac diplomdtcadel monasterode Sahagiin, tried. M. Herrero de a Fuente (Leén, 1988), pp. 269-70. © These developments ave traced by G. Duby, ‘Lineage, nobility and knighthood: the Miconnais in the twelfth century ~a revision’; Duby, ‘The nobility in medieval France’; Duby, “The structure of Kinship and nobility: northern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries’, in Duby, The chivalrous ecety trans. C. Postan (London, 1977). pp. 59-80, 94-111, 134-48. CE. K. Schmid, “The structure of the nobility in te earlier middlle ages’, in Reuter, ed., Medieval nobility, pp. 55-6. 42Class, family and household One of the most celebrated manifestations of this change in the pattern of kinship was the emergence of aristocratic lineages. As the ability of the male line to transmit wealth, power and nobilitas became accepted, so men were increasingly anxious to demonstrate their noble birth and began to take a far greater interest in their ancestry.** Instead of the nebulous bilateral kin groups that had constituted ‘family’ hitherto, the aristocratic lineage was now being conceived of as ‘a kind of fellowship of males, stretching backwards and forwards over time’. This striking change in the collective consciousness of the aristocratic family was manifested in the spate of genealogical works that were commissioned between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, Designed to exalt the illustrious ancestry of certain noble lineages, the genre enjoyed a particular vogue in the period after 1150.** Atthe same time, this burgeoning sense of dynastic identity and solidarity was reinforced by the establishment of a central ancestral residence or castle where the kin group might congregate, by the proliferation of pantheons where members of a family might be buried together and by the adoption of those ‘purely masculine heritages of honour’: a surname and a coat of arms.*” In Leén and Castile, by contrast, stich changes in the aristocracy’s sense of family took appreciably longer to crystallize. For one thing, as we have seen, there is abundant evidence that fernale heirs continued to participate fully in family patrimonies throughout the twelfth century. Clear signs that collateral branches of famihes were losing importance do not occur until the first half of the thirteenth century, when there was an increasing tendency to favour male heirs with a thitd of the family patrimony. The first references to fully fledged primogeniture~ the mayorazgo— date from the second half of that century and even then the practice did not become widespread until after the advent of the Trastimara dynasty in the late fourteenth century. Likewise, literary creations designed to exalt the ancestry of certain great noble lineages did not put in an appearance until after 1350 and did not become widespread for a century after that.® The relative strength of the Leonese-Castilian monarchy down to the late thirteenth century and its notable reluctance to endow the lay magnates of the kingdom with hereditary benefices may have played a part in retarding % Duby, ‘The nobility in medieval France’, pp. 99ff; Duby, "The steuccure of kinship’, 134-48. © Herlihy, Medieval households, p. 82 % Duby, ‘The structure of kinship’, 134-48; Duby, ‘French genealogical literature’, in The chivalrous soritty, pp. 149-57. ¥ Duby, ‘The nobility in medieval France’, p. 163. ™ On these developments, see I. Beceiro Pita and R. Cordoba de la Llave, Parentewo, poder y rmentalidad: la nobleza casteliana siglos XIE-XV (Mackid, 1990), pp. Catt © 1, Beceiro Pita, ‘La concienciade los antepasados yla gloria del inaje en la Castilla bajomedieval’ in Pastor, ed., Relaciones de poder, pp. 329-49. 43The aristocracy in twelfth-century Lebn and Castile the awakening of a true sense of linaje.” While it would not do to label the aristocracy of the twelfth century a nobility of service pure and simple, the long periods of time that many of its greatest members spent at the royal court meant that the formation of noble lineages around a fixed household remained unlikely. Furthermore, whereas the move towards primogeniture in some other parts of Europe appears to have been primarily motivated bya desire toavoid the fragmentation of dwindling aristocratic patrimonies, the relative abundance of land in Leén and Castile may have meant that such fears took considerably longer to surface. Nevertheless, while the continuing participation in the family patrimony by all kin members, both male and female, and an absence of ancestor-focused agnatic kinship would appear to indicate a nobility still firmly ruled by ancient custom, other features of twelfth-century Leonese-Castilian kin groups recall the patrilinear tendencies that are apparent further afield. For example, honorific titles and administrative offices awarded by the crown were the exclusive prerogative of male heirs. It was also customary among some Leonese aristocratic families for their behetrlas — that is, those communities which had commended themselves to a lord ~ to be kept undivided in the male line.®* At the same time, there are the first signs of an embryonic sense of lineage among some of the great families of the realm. Early in the twelfth century, for example, some magnates began to experiment with the use of a sumame — often taken from a family estate at the centre of their domains — as a means to identify themselves. Count Pedro Gonzilez, for example, was frequently styled ‘de Lara’ in the diplomas he subscribed, while Count Gonzalo de Marafién, Garcia Garcés de Aza and his son Pedro Garcés de Lerma also used a toponymic.% By the thirteenth century, surnames also began to be adopted from the names of distinguished ancestors: thus, the descendants of Count Pedro Manrique de Lara later adopted the surname of Manrique to identify their dynasty, the Ponces of LeGn traced their descent from Ponce Vélaz, and the Osorios fiom Rodrigo Osorio. Heraldic devices made their first appearence in European aristocratic circles during the second half of the eleventh century.” Initially depicted on the personal banners of magnates, it was not long before such %® Beceiro Pita, ‘La conciencia de les antepasados’, pp. 320-30; cf. Portela and Pallares, ‘Algunos problemas’, pp. 25-30, and Portela and Pallares, ‘Aristocracia y sistema de parentesco’, 823-40. % Martinez Sopena, ‘Parentesco-y poder’, pp. $04. % Thus, in a charter sued by Queen Urraca on 1 Feb. 1524, Count Pedro was styled uenezabilis comes doninus Pers de Lara: Minguella, Sigvencza 1, pp. 347~8. His son Nuiio Pérez and grandson Pedro Manrique adopted the same toponymic: AHIN, Clero, 527/95 DC Salamanca, pp. 156-8. CEJ. de Salazar Acha, Génesis y evolucién histérica del apellido en Esparia (Madrid, 1991). ® See Crouch, The image of aristocracy, pp. 220ff. 44Class, family and household devices were being employed as symbols of family pride and power on seals, documents, tombs and, of course, on shields, where the emblems served as a means of identification on the battlefield. This symbolic expression of aristocratic lineage appears to have had its origins among the nobility of north-eastern France and the fashion rapidly spread to many other parts of western Europe. But it was not apparently until the very end of the twelfth century that the great Leonese-Castilian families began to follow suit. It was then that the Castilian Lara family began Lo adopt a coat of arms bearing four cauldrons.* For his part, Count Fernando Ponce had the Cabrera family symbol — a goat ~ drawn on a charter he issued in 1200, and his son Fernando Fernandez did likewise four years later.”> The Cabrera arms were also supposedly displayed on the tomb of Vela Gutiérrez and Sancha Ponce in the Leonese abbey of Nogales. Early in the eleventh century, it had been customary for members of the Leonese-Castilian aristocracy to seek burial in one of their proprietary churches or else ina monastery which they held in particular esteem. This did not necessarily mean, however, that they would have been buried with their parents or with any other of their kin, nor indeed that their offspring would in turn have chosen the same sanctuary.” Within a couple of generations, however, family burial practice had begun to change. Now, some nobles were positively going out of their way to seek burial with other members of their kin. Family pantheons were evidently beginningto be used as a means to reinforce the bonds of collective family consciousness. When Count Gonzalo Salvadérez made a grant to the Castilian abbey of Ofia on 5 September 1082 —~ shortly before he set off to campaign against the Muslims he specifically requested that if he were to perish while on campaign, his vassals were to carry his body to Ofta where they were to bury him with his relatives.” Indeed, the monastery of Offa ‘was to continue to be the chosen resting place of the counts of the Bureba and their kin throughout the twelfth century.” In similar circumstances, on the death of Count Rodrigo Martinez at the siege of Coria in 1138, his brother Osorio Martinez and his vassals carried the count’s corpse to Leén. B, Menénder Pidal de Navascués, ‘Los sellos de los sefiores de Molina’, AEM 14 (1984), 115-17. AC Zamora, 14/31; AHIN, Osuna, 12/14. E, Femindez~Xesta y Vazquez, ‘De cuindo y dénde nacis el uso de la cabra como signo distintivo, en el linaje de los vizcondes de Cabrera’, Hidalgula 33 (1985), 820. ” CE. Martinez Sopens, ‘El conde Rodrigo’, p. 68, n. 47. Coleaién diplomatica de San Salvadorde Oita, ed.J. del Alamo, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1950),, pp. 113-14. ™ Ori Count Gonzalo Salvadérez and his kin, sec F. Sagredo Fernindez, ‘Los condes de Bureba en la documentacién de la segunda mitad del siglo XI’, in ‘Estudios sobre la sociedad hispénica en la Edad Media’, Cuadernos de Historia 6 (1975), 91-119; and Sagredo Femnéndea, ‘La tenencia de Bureba en la primera mitad del sigo XII’, in Homenaje a Fray Justo Pérez de Urbel, OSB, 2 vols. Ganto Domingo de Silos, 1976-77). Pp. 197-217. 45The aristocracy in twelfth-century Ledn and Castile where they buried him in his parents’ tomb in the church next to the cathedral." On the face of it, there is a glaring contradiction between the outward manifestations of kinship that we have described. On the one hand, succession to titles and offices followed patrilineal norms and some noble farnilies seem to have been developing the very first vestiges of a sense of family pride and lineage; on the other, bilateral inheritance remained in place throughout the twelfth century and beyond. Never- theless, the simultaneous presence of agnatic and cognatic kin structures was far from exceptional. In neighbouring Portugal, for example, aristocratic ineages began to emerge from around 1150, but bilateral inheritance remained commonplace until well into the fourteenth century.'” This only serves to remind us, therefore, that the way in which the family was perceived by contemporaries varied according to the specific context. There is a danger of our imposing an unduly rigid conceptual framework upon what was, in reality, a remarkably fluid social structure. CHILDHOOD Ic is probably safe to assume that even among aristocratic families - which presumably enjoyed rather better living conditions and nutrition than the bulk of the population — the ever-present threat of disease ensured that many children did not reach adulthood at all. What is more, infertility appears to have been widespread, It has even been suggested that as many as one third of aristocratic couples may have remained childless during this period." Among the circle of twelfth-century magnates, for example, Suero Vermidez and Enderquina Gutiérrez, Rodrigo Martinez and Urraca Fernandez, and Gutierre Fernandez and Toda Diaz all failed to produce an heir. One study, based upon an admittedly limited sample of eighteen cases, has concluded that among the twelfth-century Leonese- Castilian aristocracy an average of four children per fertile couple survived to adulthood. But of course there were couples who greatly exceeded ™ CAI, ii, §44. The pantheon of Rodtigo Martinez and his kin may have been situated in the monastery of San Pedro de los Huertos, nearby to Le6n cathedral, which Rodriga’s parents, Count Martin Flainez and Countess Sancha Fernandez, had received from the royal infantas Urraca and Elvira in 1099: Martinez Sopena, ‘El conde Rodrigo’, p. 52, . 3. On burial customs among the ewelfth-century aristocracy, see also Beceiro: and Cérdoba, Parentesco, peder y mentalidad, pp. 61~2. 1 Mattaso, Ricas-homens, pp. 108-0. * Goody, The development of the family, pp. 224-5 + R, Pastor, ‘Historia de las familiasen Casilla y Leén (Siglos XXIV) y su retaci6n con Ia formacrén de los grandes dominios eclesidsticas’, CHE 43-44 (1967), 103. Pastor, ‘Historia de las familias’, p. 103. 46Class, family and household that figure: Count Pedro Froilaz de Traba, for instance, is known to have fathered at least sixteen children by his two wives; Count Lope Diaz de Haro and his consort Countess Aldonza Rodriguez produced twelve offspring; while Count Osorio Martinez and Countess Teresa Fernindez bore at least eight more. Next to nothing is known about the childhood of the offipring of aristocratic parents. During their earliest years, it was probably customary for children to be placed in the care of a trusted relative or vassal. Some time before 1102, for example, Citi Alvarez and his wife Froilo looked after the children of Count Pedro Anstrez and Countess Elo Alfonso and were rewarded for their service with a grant of land."°* For those children who survived the perils of infancy, a period of instruction probably awaited them.’* For some, this may have included a rudimentary grounding in reading and writing, for, as we shall see in due course, there 1s sore evidence to suggest that not all nobles were complete illiterates. Nevertheless, in a society where military prowess was an essential facet of the nobilitas of the aristocrat, it can hardly be doubted that as far as boys were concemed far more stress would have been laid on military training in readiness for the years of campaigning that awaited them in the future. Hunting would have formed a part of this preparation, honing their equestrian skills and familiarising them with some of the principal weapons of war.” When youths might experience their first taste of battle is far from clear. The Infante Sancho Alfonso, the heir apparent of Alfonso VI, was only fifteen years old when he met his untimely end at the battle of Uclés in 1108; and his namesake, the son of Alfonso VII, was but fourteen when he took part in the siege of Almeria in 1147."° It may also have been customary for aristocratic youths to take up arms some time after the age of fourteen. Some of them would then have taken up residence in the royal household where they would no doubt have received instruction in arms and, perhaps, in some of the principles of government. According to the Historia Compostellana, Alfonso VI raised many nobles from childhood in his household; among them, we learn from another source, was Pedro "© CD Sahagin, 11, p. 434. 1 See S. M. Belmartino, ‘Estructura de la familia y “edades sociales” en la aristocracia de Leén y Castilla segiin ls fuentes literatias e historiogriticas(siglos X-XIII)’, CHE 47-8 (1968), 295-8. For the later medieval period, see I. Becciro Pita, ‘Educacion y cultura en la nobleza (siglos XII-XVY’, AEM 21 (1991), 71-90. “7 Writingin the carly twelfth century, the author of the Historia Sileise, paraphrasing Einhard’s Vita Kani, related that Femando 1 ‘ubi ctas patiebatur, more Ispmorum equos cursare, armis et venationibus filios exercere fecit's Historia Silense, eds. J. Pérez de Urbel and A, Gonzalez Ruiz-Zorrilla (Madrid, 1959), p- 184. °™ DRH, p. 216; CD Sahagin, 1, pp. 202-3. 47The aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile Froilaz de Traba.™ During its account of the expedition that Alfonso VIT led into al-Andalus in 1133, the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris describes the reckless exploits ofa group of young knights who wentin search of booty and were subsequently routed by an Almoravid army." It is tempting to assume that a good many of these ‘sons of counts and nobles’, as they are dubbed by the chronicler, were adolescents serving their military apprenticeship in the royal household. Other young nobles would have been attached to the households of lay magnates. The Poem of Almeria makes mention of the young men who were educated and armed by Alvaro Rodriguez and Martin Fernandez de Hita respectively, and according to the poet the camp of the latter resounded with youthful tumult." Atthe end of this period of military apprenticeship, most young nobles probably underwent some sort of knighting ceremony. We know for a fact that Alfonso VII knighted his son Sancho, then aged nineteen, in February 1152 and the practice seems to have been widespread in aristocratic circles, too.'* According to the Historia Roderic, for example, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar was raised in the court of Sancho H, who girded him with the belt of knighthood." For its part, the Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris relates that the Galician miles Muiio Alfonso knighted his own son on Easter Sunday 1143." And a charter of 1187, which records a grant by Countess Aldonza Rodriguez to one Lucas Lopez in recognition of his loyal service, reveals that the beneficiary had been advanced to the dignity of knight by the countess’s late husband Count Lope Diaz.'"* If we can trust the testimony of Archbishop Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, writing nearly a century after the event, the Castilian magnate Gutierre Fernandez de Castro dubbed as many as 500 knights during the course of his long and illustrious career." As far as the daughters of aristocratic parents are concemed, the silence of our sources is overwhelming. Most probably spent their childhood in their mother’s household, although Urraca Rodriguez, the orphaned daughter of Count Rodrigo Gonzalez de Lara and the Infanta Sancha Alfonso, was raised in the household of the Infanta Sancha Raimindez, 1% HC, p. 102A. Lépez Ferreiro, Don Alfonso VI, rey de Galicia, y su ayo el conde de Traba (Santiago de ‘Compostela, 1885). pp. 123-4. According to Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, the Castilian Diego Velizquez ~ one of the founder-members of the Order of Calatrava — was raised during his adolescence alongside the fature Sancho Il: DRH, p. 235- CAL, 5, §38. PA, Il. 241-2, 262-3. (On 26 Feb. 1132, Alfonso VII made grant to Pedro Gutiérrez and the monastery of San Cristébal ‘pro amore filii mei regis Santii, quem hodie militern facia’: DC Buygs I, pp. 220-30. 1 ‘Historia Roderici vel gesta Roderici Campidocti’, ed, E, Falque Rey, in Ghronica Hispana, pp. 1-98, henceforth HR, §4. CAL ii, §86. 8 CD La Rioja, uu, pp. 71-2. °° DRE, p. 237. 48Class, family and household the sister of Alfonso VIL." Their formative years were probably spent preparing them for marriage. The rudiments of household administration would have been passed down to them at this time, for a wife would have been expected to shoulder some of the administrative duties of the family domains during the lengthy absences of her husband on campaign orat the royal court. Other daughters would have had a religious career planned for them from an early age and would no doubt have spent their childhood being instructed in the Scriptures by a family chaplain. This was probably the experience of Urraca Vermtidez who was installed by her father Vermudo Pérez as abbess of the Galician abbey of Genroso in 1138;""8 and that of Inés Gonzalez, who in 1182 was entrusted to the care of the Cistercian nunnery that had been founded at Aza by her mother Countess Maria Garcés."" MARRIAGE The important role that the institution of marriage played within the framework of Leonese-Castilian aristocratic society can scarcely be overstated. Quite apart from the religious and social conventions that drew men and women together in matrimony and the obvious biological imperatives which dictated such alliances, there were powerful political and economic factors at play which could be decisive in shaping marriage policy. Although the poverty of our sources does not allow us to appreciate to the same degree the ‘delicate interplay of politics and morals’ which can be so clearly discerned in tweifth-century Normandy and England," there can be no doubt that as far as the great aristocratic families of Leén-Castile were concerned, marriage represented an important tool of dynasticambition. Ata local level, a marriage alliance with a neighbouring family of the same social rank could serve to extend or consolidate a family’s domains in a particular area, or even to recover lands that had previously been lost from the patrimony.! It was by his marriage to. Elo Alvarez, the grand-daughter of Count Pedro Ansirez, for example, that Count Ramiro Froilaz was able to extend his family’s influence into the region of the Tierra de Campos. By the same token, it appears to have " Documentacién medieval de fa catedral de Segovia (11151300), ed. 1. M. Vilar Garcia (Salamanca, 1990), pp. 197-8. See Appendix 3, n0. 11, 8 Salazar y Castro, Pruebas, pp. 677-8. “ M. Chibnall, The world of Orderie Vitalis (Coxford, 1984), p. 131. Ir a Spanish contest, there are ‘useful inteoductions to this subject by M. C. Carlé, ‘Apuntes sobre el matrimonio en la Edad ‘Media espafiola’, CHE 63-4 (198), 115-77: and Beceiro and Cérdoba, Parentesco, poder y tmentadided, pp. x2sff. © On matrimonial ‘strategies’ see Martinez Sopena, ‘Parentesco y poder’, pp. 40-$. "2 Martinez Sopena, Tier de Campos, p. 387. 9. 452. 49The aristocracy in twelfth-century Lebn and Castile been by the second marriage of their mother Countess Sancha Fernandez to Count Pedro Alfonso that Count Rodrigo Alvarez of Sarria and his brother Vermudo came to own properties on the banks of the River Esla in Leon.’ Other nobles looked further afield for their brides. In 1135, for example, Count Rodrigo Gonzilez de Lara wed Estefania Armengol, the daughter of Count Armengol V of the Catalan county of Urgel; and some time before 1156, Count Rodrigo’s nephew Manrique Pérez married Ermesinda, the daughter of Viscount Aymeric of Narbonne. Moreover, for newcomers to the kingdom, like the Catalans Ponce de Cabrera and Ponce de Minerva, marriage also served to integrate them into the circle of Leonese-Castilian magnates. Thus, the former wed Maria Ferndndez, the daughter of Count Fernando Pérez de Traba, while the latter married Estefania Ramirez of the influential Froilaz family. Marriage alliances between the nobility and members of the royal family remained few and far between. Although in the tenth century it had been commonplace for the kings of Leén to marry members of the greatest aristocratic families of the realm, by 1100 a distance had begun to develop between the monarchy and the nobility.’ Wherever possible now, the monarchs of Leén-Castile preferred to marry into other royal families and took pains to keep the nobility at arm’s length. Even so, Alfonso VI martied off his daughters Elvira and Sancha to Count Fernando Fernandez and Count Rodrigo Gonzalez de Lara respectively, while Fernando II wed first Urraca Lopez, the daughter of Count Lope Diaz de Haro and Countess Aldonza Rodriguez, and then Teresa Fernandez, the widow of Count Nufio Pérez de Lara. As far as nobles of lesser rank were concerned, an advantageous marriage could serve to boost their status and power. One such man was Arias Pérez, the Galician knight about whom the Historia Compostellana has so much to tell us.”?° During the turbulent years of the first quarter of the twelfth century his name crops up repeatedly. It was Arias Pérez, for example, who led the gennanitas, or brotherhood, of nobles from central and southern Galicia, which besieged Count Pedro Froilaz and the Infante Alfonso Raimtindez in the castle of Castrelo do Mifio near Orense in 1110; and he proved a constant thorn in the side of Archbishop Diego Gelmirez.'° Not surprisingly, the authors of the Historia Compostellana had a particularly low opinion of him, although his important position on the Galician political stage could not be '> Canal Sinchez-Pagin, "El conde don Rodrigo’, p. 120 RA: Fletcher, San! fame’ etapa the fe and tines of Die Celie: of Saag de Composela (Oxford, 1984), pp. 17, 42. 5 HC, pp. 86, 88, 92, 94-8, 111-12, 115-H 120, 137. 166, 274, 288, 293, 305, 319-20, 330) 342 345) 393-4, 421-2. © HC, pp. 92-8. 50Class, family and household denied.” It was in recognition of this role and perhaps in an attempt to reduce friction between members of the Galician aristocracy that in 1121, or perhaps the following year, Count Pedro Froilaz awarded Arias Pérez the hand of his daughter Ildaria in marriage.'** For Arias Pérez, descended from a relatively humble family, his marriage into the Traba family undeniably represented a great coup, although doubtless his distinguished father-in-law would have harboured rather more mixed feelings. ‘There can be little doubt that among the Leonese-Castilian aristocracy the arranged marriage remained the norm throughout this period. It is exceedingly rare that we are explicitly told who had concerted a particular marriage alliance, but in all likelihood the decision was customarily taken by the parents or relations of the bride and groom. Although Visigothic law had laid down that no woman could be forced to marry against her will, the dominant role of the father and his kin in arranging the marriage of his daughters was also recognised.” If the girl’s father or mother were dead, authority passed to her brothers, if they were of age, and, ifnot, toan uncle. Girls who married without the consent of their kin could even be disinherited.""° When, for example, some time before September 1150, Estefania Diaz married without the consent of her uncle Count Ramiro Froilaz and his kin, the count regarded her action as treachery and promptly seized her lands." Occasionally, however, it could be the monarch who played the decisive role in bringing about a marriage union. According to the testimony of an early thirteenth-century charter from the Leonese nunnery of Carrizo, it was Alfonso VII himself who arranged the betrothal of the Catalan Ponce de Minerva to the Leonese heiress Estefania Ramirez.’ From another source we learn that the alliance between Count Bertrin of Risnel and Elvira Pérez, the illegitimate daughter of Queen Urraca and Count Pedro Gonzalez, was likewise arranged by the emperor.” Over a century before, when Fernando Peliez refised to marry the daughter of Count Muiio Rodriguez and eloped instead with a daughter of Count Sancho Gémez, he incurred the wrath of Alfonso V of Leon — under whose auspices the marriage had been arranged — who confiscated his property."¢ % See Appendix 3, no. 1¥. ° Coleibn diplomitia del monastro de Carize, ed, Mi, C, Casado Labato, 2 vols, (Le6t, 1983) h pp. 9-2. 9 CD Sahagin, wv, pp. 319-21. Coleci6n diplomética del monasterio de Sahagsin,11,ed. M. Herrero de la Fuente (Leén, 1988), pp. 304-5. $iThe aristocracy in twelfth-century Leén and Castile Throughout the twelfth century it was customary in many parts of western Europe for the daughters of aristocratic parents to be married off at a very young age. The evidence from England and Italy suggests that it ‘was commonplace for brides to wed while still in their early teens.'** Although Leonese-Castilian sources never explicitly tell us the age at which aristocratic women contracted matrimony, various pieces of circumstantial evidence lead us to a similar conclusion. On 21 November 1129, Count Rodrigo Martinez granted an endowment charter to his bride-to-be, Urraca Fernandez." Urraca Fernandez was the daughter of Fernando Garcés and his second wife Estefania Armengol, whose own marriage settlement, drawn up in November 1119, we have already referred to,'*” Although it is likely that Fernando Garcés and Estefania had already been married for at least six or seven months before the Castilian got round to granting an endowment to his bride, there is no evidence to suggest that their wedding took place much before r1ro. If, therefore, the couple had been wed at the beginning of that year and had immediately conceived a child — that is, the future Urraca Fernandez — their daughter could still have been no more than ten years old when she was betrothed to Count Rodrigo Martinez. As far as young men were concemed, their thoughts may not have turned to marriage until their mid to late twenties. Perhaps it was felt more appropriate for adolescent nobles to delay marriage until they had successfully completed their period of military apprenticeship. Accordingly, a gap of between ten and twenty years between the ages of the bride and groom was probably by no means uncommon. We do not know, for example, when the nuptials of Garcia and Teresa Pérez took place, but they must have been married by 22 March 1130 when Alfonso VII granted them the vill of Quintanilla near Sahagn in recognition of their loyal service."° The couple subsequently appeared together in numerous documents until the death of Garcia Pérez in September 1164, after a long and fruitful career. His widow Teresa entered the Cistercian abbey that she and her husband had founded at Gradefes and ruled over it as abbess until her death in 1186,*° Now, since we have no idea of the date of birth of either Garcia or Teresa Pérez, the fact that the latter outlived her husband by no less than twenty-two years could simply be attributed to "9 Herlihy, Medieval households, pp. 103-7. Docs, Valladolid, 1, pp. 148-50. 8 See above, p. 49. 0% Martinez Sopena, ‘Parentesco y poder’, pp. 37-8. Aniong the Catalan aristocracy, many nobles postponed marriage until after their thirtieth year: J.C. Shideler, A medieval Catalan noble family: the Montcades, 1900-1250 (Berkeley, 1983), p» 59» © Calvo, Gradefés, pp. 164-5. 1© id, pp. 163-82, 220-35. $2Class, family and household good fortune. Nevertheless, there remains a strong suspicion that Teresa Pérez, like so many aristocratic women of the period, had been led to the altar at a tender age and by a husband who was considerably her senior. According to the provisions of Visigothic secular law, which still enjoyed currency in twelfth-century Leon and Castile, once a couple had consented to marry they were formally betrothed before witnesses." It was then customary for the groom or his family to grantan endowment to his prospective bride. Numerous documents recording such marriage settlements — the so-called cartas de arras — have come down to us. Most record the transfer of real estate from the patrimony of the groom to that of his bride-to-be. When, for example, on 21 November 1129 Count Rodrigo Martinez granted arras to Urraca Fernandez, he endowed his bride with estates in eleven different villages spread across the Tierra de Campos.' Other such documents reveal that proprietary churches might also change hands: among the properties awarded by Count Fernando Diaz to his wife Enderquina Muiioz in 1097 was the monastery of Santa Marina in Oviedo; while Vermudo Pérez de Traba granted three monasteries to the Infanta Urraca Enriquez of Portugal at the time of their marriage in 1122." Visigothic law stipulated that the groom was to endow his bride with up to one-tenth of his property, but he was also free to add further gifts up to a value of 1000 solidi." Thus, under the terms of the endowment charter that Anaya Rodriguez made over to Urraca ‘Téllez in April 1147, the Leonese noble granted thirteen Mootish slave girls and three good mules, as well as his residence at Villaverde and a collection of other properties. The gifts that were granted by a groom by way of arras passed to the patrimony of his bride. Any children she subsequently bore were entitled to inherit three-quarters of this endowment, but she was free to dispose of the remaining quarter as she saw fit. If, on the other hand, she died childless the arras reverted to her husband or his kin.’“* Several pieces of land originally donated in anas later found their way to religious institutions. In 1147, Maria Froilaz granted to the monastery of Lapedo her land at Salcedo in the Asturias which she had previously received in dotis from her husband Pedro Alfonso; while among the properties LV, 3.13. 1© Dots. Valladolid, 1, pp. 148-50. \© EL momasterio de San Pelayo ce Oviedo: coleciéndiplomética,s, eds. F. J. Femnindez Conde, I. Torrente Fernindez, G. de la Noval Menéndez (Oviedo, 1978), pp. 27-9; see Appendix 3, no. 1. A tcanscription of the charter of 1122 was also published by C. Vaamonde Lores, Feral y Puentedeumes excrturas rferentes a propiedades adquirides por el monastrio ce Sobrado en diches parties cw nt as igs XK, XA y XIV (La Cora, 1908), pp. 7-8. °S- CB Sgn, yp 220-1 LV, 45.2, 3.45. 53The aristocracy in twelfth-century Ledn and Castile endowed by Countess Estefania Ramirez to the abbey of Carrizo on 10 September 1176 were four villages which she had been granted at the time of her marriage by her spouse Ponce de Minerva.” ‘The carta de arras was not necessarily issued at the time of the betrothal of acouple. Femando Garcés de Hita granted arras to Estefania Armengol of Urgel on 12 November 1119; yet some months before, possibly in April or May of the same year, we can already see Queen Urraca granting properties at Uceda and Hita to the couple."# Indeed, as we have seen, half of the estate at Uceda was included among the anas that Fernando Garcés subsequently awarded to his wife. Count Ramiro Froilaz never gotround to granting arras to his first wife at all and later, on 22 September 1150, sought to make amends for the fact to his sons Alfonse and Froila.'” Given that the arras invariably amounted to a quite considerable outlay in resources, it was not surprising that the groom’s kin might sometimes volunteer to contribute to the bridewealth. Among the properties that Vermudo Pérez de Traba made over to Urraca Enriquez on 2 July 1122, for example, were some that had been granted to him for the specific purpose by his father Count Pedro Froilaz."®° And when the Catalan Ponce de Minerva was betrothed to Estefania Ramirez some time before 1146, he received half of the Leonese vill of Carrizo, as well as another estate at nearby Quito, from Alfonso VII, and the other half of Carrizo from his future father-in-law Count Ramiro Froilaz, so that he might grant them to his bride in arras.!5' The Infanta Sancha Raimindez may also have granted Ponce her vill at Argauallones with the same purpose in mind, although asit stands the charter recording the giftisa blatant forgery." The custom of granting arras remained commonplace in Leén and Castile until the fourteenth century."? Elsewhere in Europe, however, the ‘burdens of matrimony’ had already begun to shift back to the bride and her family." In France, England and Italy it became increasingly common during the course of the twelfth century for a girl to bring a dowry to marriage. The practice was not altogether unheard of in Leon 18 CD Belmonte, pp. 92-4; CD Carrizo, 1, pp. 43-5- ™ Docs. Valladolid, 1, pp. 141-2; J. L. Martin Rodriguez, Orfgenes de la Orden Militar de Santiago (11701195) (Barcelona, 1974), pp. 171-2: cf. Reilly, Urraca, p. 136. \ See Appendix 3, n0. 1. ™ See Appendix }, n CD Carizo, 1, pp. 90-2. * ‘Documentos del monasterio de Carrizo de la Ribera (Leén) en la Coleceién Salazar de la Real Academia de la Historia’, ed. J. M. Canal Sinchez-Pagin, AL 32 (1978), 390-1, Forgery ornot, the estate at Arjevallones was named in 1176 by Countess Estefania among the properties that her hhusband Ponce de Minerva had granted her in arras: CD Carrizo, 1, pp. 43-5. © Beceiro and Cordoba, Parenteso, poder y mentaidad, pp. 173ff + SeeD..O. Hughes, From brideprice to dowry in Mediterranean Europe’, Journal of Family History 3 (1978), 262-96; Herlihy, Medieval households, pp. 98-100. 34Class, family and household and Castile either. On 14 March 1164, for example, Femando II granted the monastery of Deomundi and the church of Baestarios in Galicia to Fernando Odoariz and his wife Teresa Mujtiz to compensate the couple for the 150 silver pieces which they had given to Pedro Ariasat the time of his marriage to their daughter Ildaria Fernandez. Pedro Arias had subsequently abandoned his bride, taking the substantial dowry with him." When Countess Elvira Pérez made over the vills of Nogal and Olmillos, near the pilgrims’ road in Castile, to the abbey of Sahagiin in January 1168, she revealed that she had received the lands from her half-brother Alfonso VII on the occasion of her marriage to Count Bertrin of Risnel.1** The anxiety of aristocratic families to prevent the fragmentation of their patrimonies and to reinforce ties with other powerful kin groups sometimes led to endogamy. Yet, while inbreeding appears to have been rife among, for example, the nobility of tenth- and eleventh-century Galicia, from around 1050 the church began to take an increasingly dim view of consanguineous marriages. The practice was condemned at church councils in Len and Castile during the twelfth century, as well as in the letter that was addressed by Pope Paschal II to the ‘magnates, knights, and other laymen in Spain and Galicia’ in 1rog.'*’ As faras we can tell, the aristocracy appears to have taken the warnings to heart. Although towards the end of the century Alfonso [X of Leén himself twice got into hot water with the church authorities for marrying brides to whom he was related, there does appear to have been a notable decline in consanguineous marriages in this period. But preachas the church might about the need to avoid marriage within the prohibited degrees of kinship, in practice inbreeding may sometimes have been rather difficult to avoid. The high nobility of Leén and Castile was made up of a relatively small number of families. Finding a suitable marriage partner of similar rank who was not already a blood relative may not always have been easy."** Thus, although Count Fernando Nujiez and Mayor Garcés could both claim descent from their grandmother Countess Eva, this did not stop them contracting 8 AEIN, Cédices, 1043B, fol. 20r. 1 CD Sahagin, WW, pp. 319-21. Portela and Pallarcs, “Elementos para el andlisis’,p. 26; A. Garcia y Garcfa, “Contiios y sinodos en cl ordenamiento juridico del Reino de Leén’, in El eino de Len en la alta Edad Media, 1, Cortes, conntos y ures (Len, 1988), pp. 481, 489-905 HC, pp. 79-80. Fora wider discussion of medieval attitudes to incest, see G. Duby, Medieval mariage: two models from nwelfh-century France, teans. E. Forster Baltimore, 1978), passing ef. C.1N,L. Brooke, The medieval idea of marrage (Ostord, 1980), Pp. 134-6. On the efforts that were made by some members of the French nobility to avoid incestuous rmartiages, see C. B. Bouchard, ‘Consanguinity and noble mactiages in the tenth and eleventh, centuries’, Speculum 56 (1981), 268-87. For the Spanish dimension, see Beceira and Cérdoba, Parentesc, poder y mentalidad, pp. 148f% SS