Lima (João Fernandes)

Who he is

Name

João Fernandes de Lima, 'o Bom'

Title

Rico-homem

Since

1197 (in Portugal)

Born

before 1186; last recorded 1245

Family

Son of Fernando Arias, lord of Limia and Batissela (died 1204), and Teresa Bermudes de Trava; first of his line to use the name Lima. First wife Berengária Afonso de Baião, daughter of Afonso Hermiges de Baião (married possibly in Sancho I's lifetime; date not pinned). Much later (about 1211-1223) he married Maria Pais Ribeira, Sancho I's mistress.

Confidence

medium

Alférez (1188-1191) and mayordomo (1192-1194) of Alfonso IX; tenente of Limia (1189-1194). Absent from the Leonese court 1195-1201; appears in a Portuguese royal charter of 1197 as 'João Fernandes Galego', and possibly as tenente of Valadares in 1198 and 1205. Returns to Alfonso IX about 1202-1204 (mayordomo again in 1204). Under Afonso II and Sancho II he holds Neiva, Faria, Valadares, Pena da Rainha and Riba Minho.

Overlord

Sancho I of Portugal (for now)

What it holds

• Possibly the tenência of Valadares on the Minho (1198; identification uncertain)
• His family's lands in the Limia in Galicia, held by his father Fernando Arias until 1204 and out of reach while he serves Portugal

How it was acquired

Royal favour after his break with Alfonso IX.

Allies and rivals

Allied by marriage with the Baião; a rival of the Leonese party in the Limia.

How things stand that morning

In Portugal, serving Sancho I.

Wealth

Not pinned beyond the Valadares district.

Military

His Galician household knights. No figures.

Threats

• The peace with León, which will draw him home

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Calderón Medina and the pt.wikipedia biography agree on his absence from León 1195-1201; the Valadares tenência is marked 'possibly'.

On the map: A token disc on the Minho between Monção and Melgaço, where the land of Valadares lay.

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.