Sigüenza

Who holds it

Name

Rodrigo

Title

Bishop of Sigüenza

Since

1192

Confidence

medium

Usually listed as bishop from 1192 to 1221, after Martín López de Pisuerga moved to Toledo. Some lists put the Cistercian Martín de Finojosa, abbot of Huerta, in the see in the same years as Martín López; the succession in 1186-1192 is muddled, but Rodrigo is generally given for 1200. Little is known of his politics; Sigüenza is a suffragan of Toledo and its bishops follow the king.

What it holds

• Sigüenza: city lordship, castle and courts, upper and lower towns joined under the bishop in 1146
• The bishop's villages in the surrounding district, with Pelegrina and its castle (list in 1200 not pinned)
• A share in the salt pans of the Salado valley around Imón (the bishop's share in 1200 not pinned)

How it was acquired

Conquered by Bishop Bernard of Agen on 22 January 1123 or 1124; Alfonso VII gave the see the town and its rights in the 1130s and 1140s, a short fuero in 1140 (with Medinaceli), and in 1146 united the two towns under the bishop.

How things stand that morning

Held by the bishop, under Castilian rule and Toledo's metropolitan authority.

Wealth

Salt from the Salado valley (Imón and neighbouring pans, recorded from the twelfth century); the road between Castile and Aragon; tithes and rents of a large upland diocese; sheep and wool.

Threats

• Disputes with the townsmen over the bishop's officers and taxes
• Royal demands for frontier service

Advocates and rivals

No lay advocate. The royal towns of Atienza and Medinaceli are close neighbours; the townsmen of Sigüenza push against the bishop's officers, as everywhere.

Places of note

• Castle of Sigüenza: The bishops' castle and residence above the town
• Pelegrina: Episcopal castle over the Dulce gorge

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The city lordship and its origin are well attested; the bishop's name for 1200 rests on standard lists that are confused for 1186-1192.

On the map: Drawn as the modern municipality of Sigüenza, which is a fair stand-in for the city and its near district. The bishop's scattered villages beyond it are not drawn.

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.