Castro (Pedro Fernández)

Who he is

Name

Pedro Fernández de Castro

Title

Magnate (rico hombre); mayordomo mayor of León at times (named again after the post-Alarcos talks of 1196; mayordomo in 1204)

Since

Head of the Castro since his father's death in 1185

Born

About 1160; about 40

Family

Son of Fernando Rodríguez de Castro 'el Castellano' and Estefanía Alfonso 'la Desdichada', illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VII, whom his father killed in 1180. First cousin of Alfonso VIII and Alfonso IX. Wife Jimena Gómez de Manzanedo; children Álvaro Pérez de Castro (died 1240), Elo Pérez (first married to Martim Sanches, a son of Sancho I of Portugal, then in 1205 to Guerau IV de Cabrera) and Estefanía; brother Martín Fernández.

Confidence

medium

English Wikipedia life (after the Spanish genealogies); the 1196 raid from the war article.

Overlord

Alfonso IX

What it holds

• Hereditary claims in the Extremadura from Ferdinand II's grant to his father: Trujillo he gave to Alfonso VIII in 1187 (for the Order of Santiago); Montánchez and Santa Cruz are in Almohad hands
• Rights in the Infantazgo of León, inherited 1185 (thin)
• Property in and around Mayorga (all given to Sobrado in 1213)
• Lifetime use of Paradinas from the Hospitallers (arrangement of 1174 with his father)
• Fiefs from Ferdinand II before 1188: Lemos and Sarria in Galicia, lands in the Extremadura and Transierra, Asturias, and the city of León. Which royal tenancies he holds on 1 January 1200 is not pinned

How it was acquired

Inheritance (1185) and royal grants.

Allies and rivals

Enemy of Alfonso VIII since their quarrel of 1189; ally of the Almohads in 1194-96; tied to Portugal through his daughter's marriage. His father killed Count Osorio Martínez at Lobregal in 1160, grandfather of Rodrigo Pérez de Villalobos. Rival of the Laras, whom Castile backs, and of the Traba at court.

How things stand that morning

In León and at peace only because his king is; no tenancy or office pinned for 1 January 1200 (he is the likeliest mayordomo, unproven). Still under the excommunication of 1196.

Wealth

Estates in the Leonese plain (Mayorga, the Infantazgo); rents from royal tenancies when he holds them.

Military

His own household knights and vassals; an experienced commander who has served in Almohad armies and knows the Extremadura frontier. No figures.

Threats

• Alfonso VIII's hostility under a peace that favours Castile
• The excommunication
• Court rivals (Lara, Traba)

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. 1204 (later)Mayordomo of Alfonso IX again; joins the Order of Calatrava as a familiar with his family; Alfonso VIII restores confiscated properties.Depends on: The León-Castile settlement after the separation Stopped by: A new war

Places of note

• Castro estates at Mayorga: Property, not lordship
• Paradinas (Hospitaller property, life use): Identification with Paradinas de San Juan is likely but not pinned

Where the sources disagree

• The English life dates his Almohad agreement to 1194 and has him at Alarcos on the Almohad side; the 1196 raid with Alfonso IX comes from the war article.

Evidence: Career well known in outline; his tenancies and office on 1 January 1200 are not pinned.

On the map: Only his claims are drawn. His Leonese tenancies in 1200 are not pinned, so none is painted.

Primary sources for León

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.