Lara (Álvaro)

Who he is

Name

Álvaro Núñez de Lara

Title

Alférez (royal standard-bearer); later count

Since

Alférez since May 1199

Born

about 1170

Family

Son of Count Nuño Pérez de Lara (killed at Cuenca, 1177) and Teresa Fernández de Traba, later wife of Ferdinand II of León. Brothers Fernando and Gonzalo (both in León's service on 1 January 1200). Cousin of the Molina line (Pedro Manrique) and of Bishop Manrique de Lara of León. Later married Urraca Díaz de Haro (Baury puts the tie in 1208).

Confidence

high

Sánchez de Mora 2003; Martínez Díez 2007 (via English Wikipedia).

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

What it holds

• The office of alférez: leads the king's household troops and carries the royal standard
• A share of the Lara patrimony round Lara de los Infantes (not pinned in detail)

How it was acquired

Office by royal grant, May 1199. Family estates by inheritance; Lara itself was first a royal tenancy (Gonzalo Núñez held it 1081-1095), so the family's 'lordship' there is a mix of estates and influence rather than a hereditary title.

Allies and rivals

Rival of Diego López II de Haro. Allied to his brothers, who serve Queen Berenguela in León, and through them to the Castilian party at the Leonese court.

How things stand that morning

At court as alférez; the rising man.

Wealth

Royal money fiefs and the profits of office; family estates in the Lara sierra and in Tierra de Campos (he later gave Boadilla del Camino).

Military

Commands the royal household knights under the king; his own mesnada.

Threats

• Haro resentment
• Royal favour turning

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. 1201Hands the office of alférez to his brother Fernando, who returns from León.Depends on: Family arrangement and the king's consent. Stopped by: The king choosing otherwise.

Places of note

• Lara, castle and alfoz: The house's name-place; who holds the castle in 1200 is not pinned.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Office and dates are firm; his tenancies on the day are not pinned. The Lara block is drawn as the family's name-district, not as a proven tenancy.

On the map: Small and 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.