Cameros

Who he is

Name

Guiomar Rodríguez (of the Galician Traba), widow of Diego Jiménez de Cameros, for her sons Rodrigo Díaz and Álvaro Díaz

Title

Lady of Cameros for her sons

Since

Diego Jiménez died in 1188; Rodrigo takes over from 1201

Born

not pinned

Family

Diego Jiménez (lord 1170-82 in the records, d. 1188) of Navarrese origin; Guiomar daughter of Count Rodrigo Pérez de Traba 'el Velloso'. Sons Rodrigo Díaz (lord from 1201, d. 1220, a patron of troubadours and himself a poet) and Álvaro Díaz.

Confidence

low

Álvarez Borge 2008 p. 315 (via English Wikipedia); RAH Diccionario Biográfico (via Spanish Wikipedia).

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

What it holds

• The Cameros valleys (Camero Nuevo on the Iregua, Camero Viejo on the Leza): villages, pastures, transhumant flocks
• Patronage of Santa María de Monte Laturce

How it was acquired

Hereditary; the lordship is held continuously by the family until death (Álvarez Borge).

Allies and rivals

Later tied to the Haros by Rodrigo's marriage to Aldonza Díaz de Haro (date not pinned) and opposed to the Laras.

How things stand that morning

Held by the family under the widow's management; not pinned who signs for it.

Wealth

Sheep (the Cameros flocks winter in the south), wool, timber.

Military

Mountain valleys and the castles of the sierra; Rodrigo later leads a column at Las Navas.

Threats

• A weak minority in a war zone near Navarre

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1201Rodrigo Díaz takes over the lordship from his mother.Depends on: His coming of age. Stopped by: Death or royal intervention.

Places of note

• Yanguas (later part of the lordship): Tie in 1200 not pinned.
• Enciso: Tie in 1200 not pinned.

Where the sources disagree

• Rodrigo Díaz's tenancies of Calahorra, Jubera and Nájera, and later Soria and Logroño, belong after 1201 and after Diego López's death (1214), not to 1200.

Evidence: Lords' dates are known only from scattered references; who acts for the lordship in January 1200 is inferred.

On the map: Drawn from the later extent of the two Cameros valleys.

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.