Magnates and their honours · Kingdom of Castile · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Aza

A Lara-related lineage of the Riaza and Duero country whose core centres were Aza, Ayllón and Roa.

By 1200 the house has passed its peak (its heads were alférez and royal guardians in the 1160s-80s) and its leading men appear at court only as witnesses: Fernando Gómez and García Ordóñez witness a sale at Belorado to the king in 1202. Saint Dominic of Caleruega (now a canon of Osma) is later claimed as kin through his mother Juana de Aza, a tradition historians doubt.

Who he is

Name
Gonzalo Gómez (at court from 1191 as son of Gómez García) with Fernando Gómez and García Ordóñez; the Lerma branch under Pedro García de Lerma
Title
Ricoshombres; heads of the Aza lineage
Since
1190s
Born
not pinned
Family
Descendants of García García (Garcés) de Aza, half-brother of the Lara counts and guardian of the boy Alfonso VIII (1160). Gómez García de Roa was alférez 1179-1182. García Ordóñez is the son of Ordoño García.
Confidence
low

García Izquierdo 2019.

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

What it holds

  • Roa on the Duero (fuero 1143; the family likely repopulated it)
  • Aza (Haza) castle on the Riaza
  • Ayllón (south of the Duero, Castile South area)
  • Estates at Coca, sold to the king in 1207

How it was acquired

Inheritance and royal service in the twelfth century.

Allies and rivals

Kin of the Laras through García García's mother.

How things stand that morning

Minor court presence; holdings in the Riaza-Duero country.

Wealth

Duero vineyards and grain; Riaza valley lands.

Military

Castles of Roa and Aza on the Duero line.

Threats

  • Decline: sales of estates follow (Coca 1207)

Places of note

  • Ayllón: Family centre south of the Duero (drawn by the Castile South agent's town records).

Where the sources disagree

  • The campaign notes mention Dominic of Caleruega at Osma; his Aza kinship is doubtful (English Wikipedia on García Garcés de Aza calls Juana's link apocryphal).

Evidence: The article says the family managed Aza, Ayllón and Roa but gives no tenancy dates for 1190-1210.

On the map: Indicative only.

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. Iván García Izquierdo, El linaje de Aza durante los siglos XIII y XIV, Espacio, Tiempo y Forma III, 32 (2019)

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