The bishops of Mondoñedo are lords of Vilamaior do Val de Brea, the town to which Queen Urraca moved their see in 1112 and to which Alfonso VII gave the rank of city in 1156.
Since 1182 the bishops have kept their seat at the young port of Ribadeo on the Eo, a move meant to draw settlers to the coast; they come back to Mondoñedo by about 1230. It is a small, poor lordship on the Cantabrian edge of Galicia.
Who holds it
- Name
- Pelayo de Cebeyra (Pelayo II)
- Title
- Bishop of Mondoñedo
- Since
- 1199
- Confidence
- medium
Bishop from 1199 to 1218, newly in office on 1 January 1200 after Rabinato (1177-1199). The see's seat has been at Ribadeo since 1182, to help settle that new port town.
What it holds
- Mondoñedo (Vilamaior do Val de Brea): the bishop's town, city since 1156
- Ribadeo: seat of the bishops since 1182 (the bishop's lordship over the town is not pinned)
How it was acquired
Urraca's transfer of the see to Vilamaior in 1112; Alfonso VII's grant of city status in 1156.
How things stand that morning
Held by the bishop, with the seat at Ribadeo.
Wealth
Small: rents of the town and its valley, coastal trade at Ribadeo.
Threats
- A new bishop settling in
Advocates and rivals
Galician coastal lords; the king, who promotes Ribadeo as a royal port.
Places of note
- Ribadeo: Seat of the bishops of Mondoñedo from 1182 to about 1230
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The seat's moves and the bishop list are attested; the lordship's content is not detailed in the sources checked.
On the map: Only Mondoñedo is drawn; Ribadeo is shown as a point because the bishop's lordship there is not pinned.
Primary sources for León
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of Toledo and other short Iberian annals (12th and 13th centuries; Anales Toledanos I to 1219). Florez's volume 23 gathers the short annals of the peninsula. Read online
- Chronicle of the World (Lucas of Tuy), Lucas de Tuy (1236, for Queen Berenguela). The Leonese counterpart to Rodrigo, written at San Isidoro for Berenguela. Read online
- Historical Monuments of Portugal: Writers (Annals of King Afonso, Chronicon Conimbricense, Chronica Gothorum and others) (12th to 15th centuries). The Portuguese annals in one volume. Read online
- Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile, Anonymous, probably Juan of Osma, chancellor of Castile (about 1223 to 1239). The chancellor's chronicle of Alfonso VIII's reign, detailed from the 1190s. Read online
- The Garden of Pages: a History of the Kings of the Maghreb and of the City of Fez, Ibn Abi Zar al-Fasi (completed in 1326 at Fez, for the Marinid sultan Abu Said Uthman). The Almohad chapters give a brisk dated narrative of al-Mansur's death and burial, al-Nasir's accession and the Banu Ghaniya troubles, with the kind of detail (coinage, public works at Fez and Rabat, prices, plagues) that a Fez compiler cared about, and the annals of Fez supply the city's governors and markets. Read online
- The Wondrous Account of the History of al-Andalus and the Maghreb, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakushi (about 1312, at Marrakesh). The Almohad section is the fullest year-by-year narrative of the caliphate around 1200: the last campaigns and the death of Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur in January 1199, the accession of his son Muhammad al-Nasir, the renewed war of the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya under Yahya ibn Ishaq and his ally Qaraqush, the Almohad losses of Mahdia and Tunis a few years later, and al-Nasir's reconquest of Ifriqiya in 1205 to 1206 followed by the appointment of Abd al-Wahid ibn Abi Hafs as governor. Read online
- History of the Affairs of Spain, Rodrigo Jimenez de Rada (completed 1243). The archbishop's history of the peninsula, written forty years on by a Navarrese who served Castile. Read online
- The Gift of the Imamate, Ibn Sahib al-Sala (Abd al-Malik ibn Muhammad al-Baji) (late twelfth century; the surviving part covers 1159 to 1173). The only Almohad court chronicle written from inside the administration, by a chancery secretary who travelled with the caliphs Abd al-Mu'min and Abu Yaqub Yusuf.
5 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.
Sources and studies
- Mondoñedo (Hispanopedia)
- Ribadeo (Hispanopedia)
- Roman Catholic Diocese of Mondoñedo-Ferrol (en.wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.