The Baião are an old Douro kindred whose honras lie in the Terra de Baião on the north bank of the Douro.
On 1 January 1200 their head is Afonso Hermiges; his sons only reach court in 1202 and 1205, and the royal tenência of Baião itself was in Fernão Fernandes de Bragança's hands in 1197. A second-rank house on the eve of its rise: Ponço and Lopo become great tenentes under Afonso II and Sancho II.
Who he is
- Name
- Afonso Hermiges de Baião
- Title
- Rico-homem, head of the Baião kin
- Since
- not pinned
- Born
- not pinned
- Family
- Father of Ponço Afonso (at court from 1202; died about 1235), Lopo Afonso (at court from 1205) and Berengária Afonso, first wife of João Fernandes de Lima.
- Confidence
- low
Known chiefly through his children; his own offices and dates are not given in the sources checked.
Overlord
Sancho I of Portugal
What it holds
- Family honras in the Terra de Baião (not bounded)
- Not theirs in 1197: the royal tenência of Baião
How it was acquired
Inherited honras.
Allies and rivals
Allied by marriage with the Lima (João Fernandes); later with the Riba de Vizela.
How things stand that morning
Holds family honras; no royal office pinned.
Wealth
Douro farmland and vineyards.
Military
Household knights. No figures.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Inferred from the careers of his sons and son-in-law.
On the map: A token disc at Baião.
Primary sources for Portugal
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
- Ponço Afonso de Baião (pt.wikipedia)
- João Fernandes de Lima (pt.wikipedia)
- Inés Calderón Medina, 'Beyond the Border: the aristocratic mobility between the kingdoms of Portugal and León (1157-1230)', e-Journal of Portuguese History
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.