Toledo

Who holds it

Name

Martín López de Pisuerga

Title

Archbishop of Toledo

Since

1192 (bishop of Sigüenza from 1186)

Confidence

high

Born at Herrera de Pisuerga, son of Lope Díaz de Fitero, merino mayor of Castile. Bishop of Sigüenza from 1186, archbishop from 1192. A fighting prelate and one of Alfonso VIII's closest counsellors: he sat at the Cortes of Carrión in 1188, led a raid through the Campo de Calatrava toward Córdoba and Jaén in 1191, fought at Alarcos in 1195 and defended Toledo when the Almohads came up to it in 1197. His archdeacon Julian became bishop of Cuenca.

Alfonso VIII promised him the chancellorship in 1206, but he died first, on 28 August 1208. On 1 January 1200 he stands with his king.

What it holds

• Alcalá de Henares (Alcalá la Vieja and the new town around the church of the Holy Children): full lordship, with the town's council under an archiepiscopal fuero of 1135
• The Tierra de Alcalá: the villages of the lower Henares and the Alcarria de Alcalá, with Santorcaz and its castle (exact list in 1200 not pinned)
• Brihuega on the Tajuña, with its castle above the valley, granted in 1086
• Rights as metropolitan over Palencia, Segovia, Sigüenza, Osma and Cuenca; the claimed primacy over all Spain
• Not yet held: Talamanca (1214), Yepes (1213-1215), La Guardia (1211-1213), Cazorla (1231), Uceda (1252), Talavera (1369)

How it was acquired

Archbishop Bernard of Sédirac took Alcalá la Vieja on 3 May 1118 and the king left it and its territory to the see; Archbishop Raymond gave it a fuero in 1135. Alfonso VI gave Brihuega to Bernard in 1086. The later expansion of the lordship is the work of Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada after 1209.

How things stand that morning

Firmly held. The archbishop is in Castile and loyal to Alfonso VIII; his towns were raided but not lost in 1196-1197. The truce of 1197 with the Almohads holds.

Wealth

Rents and justice from Alcalá and its villages; the Henares grain and wine lands; the August fair of Alcalá (date of grant not pinned); tithes and the third of church tithes across a huge diocese; Toledo's cathedral property in the city.

Threats

• Almohad raids if the 1197 truce breaks: Alcalá and the Henares were raided in 1197
• Boundary and grazing quarrels with the councils of Madrid, Guadalajara and Segovia
• The primacy lawsuit at Rome against Braga, Santiago and Tarragona
• Royal demands for service and money for the frontier

Advocates and rivals

No lay advocate. The neighbouring royal towns (Madrid to the west, Guadalajara to the east, Uceda and Talamanca to the north, both royal in 1200) and their councils quarrel with Alcalá over boundaries and pasture. The Order of Santiago (Uclés, Oreja, Fuentidueña) and the Order of Calatrava (Zorita) hold the river crossings south and east. At the curia the archbishop fights Braga, Santiago and Tarragona over the primacy.

Places of note

• Alcalá la Vieja: The Muslim castle (Qalat Abd al-Salam) taken by Archbishop Bernard on 3 May 1118
• Castle of Brihuega: Archiepiscopal castle above the Tajuña, begun under Archbishop Bernard
• Castle of Santorcaz (Torremocha): Archiepiscopal castle, later the archbishops' prison; date of acquisition not pinned

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: The acquisition dates of Alcalá, Brihuega, Talamanca, Uceda and Yepes come from local histories and a study of the Yepes lordship; the exact villages of the Tierra de Alcalá in 1200 are not documented in the sources checked.

On the map: The Tierra de Alcalá is drawn as a core block; its 1200 bounds are not documented, and the later Tierra also reached south toward the Tajuña (Arganda, Campo Real). Talamanca and Uceda, often shown as archiepiscopal, were royal in 1200 and 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.