Bishops' city lordships · Kingdom of Castile · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Palencia

The bishop of Palencia is lord of his city on the Carrión, a rich town of the Tierra de Campos at the junction of Castile and León.

The bishops hold the city by royal grant and give its law: Bishop Raymond II granted Palencia its fuero in 1181. The townsmen are numerous and restless, and in the next century they fight the bishop for control of the council. Palencia is also a royal favourite: Alfonso VIII was born near it and holds court there often.

Who holds it

Name
Arderico
Title
Bishop of Palencia
Since
1184 (bishop of Sigüenza 1178-1184)
Confidence
high

Bishop from 1184 until 1208, after six years at Sigüenza. His successor, Tello Téllez de Meneses (1208-1246), will found with Alfonso VIII the first studium generale of Castile at Palencia.

What it holds

  • Palencia: city lordship, with the appointment of the town's officers and the fuero granted by the bishop
  • Episcopal villages in the Tierra de Campos (not pinned individually)

How it was acquired

Royal grants to the restored see in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (dates not pinned in the sources checked); the episcopal fuero of 1181 shows the lordship in full force.

How things stand that morning

Held by the bishop, in a Castilian city close to the León frontier.

Wealth

Rents, tolls and justice of a prosperous cloth and grain town on the Carrión; tithes of the Tierra de Campos.

Threats

  • The townsmen's ambitions against the bishop's lordship
  • Border war with León if the peace of 1197 fails

Advocates and rivals

The council and townsmen of Palencia; the Castilian crown, which often stays in the city; the León border nearby.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The episcopal lordship of Palencia is well known; the dates of the founding grants are not pinned in the sources checked.

On the map: Drawn as the modern municipality of Palencia.

Primary sources for Castile

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
  • 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
  • Chronicle of Roger of Howden, Roger of Howden (about 1192 to 1201). The fullest single narrative for the year. Read online
  • The Complete History: the passages on the Maghreb and al-Andalus, Ibn al-Athir (about 1220 to 1231, at Mosul). The year entries for 595 to 597 of the Hijra (late 1198 to 1201) record the death of Yaqub al-Mansur, the accession of al-Nasir and the opening of Yahya ibn Ghaniya's war in Ifriqiya; the following years follow Yahya and the Ghuzz captain Qaraqush through Tripoli, Gabès and Mahdia to al-Nasir's reconquest in 1206, with the best eastern account of Qaraqush's career. 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
  • Deeds of Philip Augustus, Rigord (about 1186 to 1206, in stages). The French court's own chronicle for the year, from the monk of Saint-Denis who called himself the king's chronographer. Read online

13 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.

Sources and studies

  1. Roman Catholic Diocese of Palencia (en.wikipedia)

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.