Lara (Gonzalo)

Who he is

Name

Gonzalo Núñez de Lara

Title

Ricohombre; tenant of the queen's arras in Asturias for León; tenant of Aguilar de Campoo

Since

Aguilar from 1196; 'tenente arras regine de Asturiis' by September 1197

Born

not pinned (third son; first appears 1180)

Family

Son of Nuño Pérez de Lara and Teresa Fernández de Traba. Marriage contract with Jimena Meléndez in December 1201 (Sobrado); later married María Díaz de Haro.

Confidence

medium

Sánchez de Mora 2003; Torres Sevilla 1999 (via English Wikipedia).

Overlord

Alfonso IX of León and Queen Berenguela for Asturias and Galicia; Alfonso VIII for Aguilar

What it holds

• Aguilar de Campoo (from 1196; tenure on the day not pinned)
• The queen's arras in Asturias (by September 1197)
• Galician tenancies at various dates 1195-1211

How it was acquired

Royal grants in both kingdoms.

Allies and rivals

Queen Berenguela's man in León; loyal to Alfonso VIII in the 1196-97 war. Cooled toward Alfonso IX when Pedro Fernández de Castro became Leonese mayordomo.

How things stand that morning

Probably in León; Aguilar may still be his.

Wealth

Asturian and Galician rents; the castle and market of Aguilar.

Military

Aguilar castle commanding the upper Pisuerga and the road from Campoo.

Threats

• Dissolution of the León marriage

Where the sources disagree

• Rodrigo Pérez de Villalobos held patrimonial rights in Aguilar and its alfoz (sold in 1212); that is inheritance, not the castle tenancy.

Evidence: Aguilar is dated only 'from 1196'; his Leonese posts are better dated.

On the map: His Leonese tenancies are drawn by the León agent.

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.