Meneses

Who he is

Name

Tello Pérez de Meneses

Title

Ricohombre; tenant of Meneses

Since

Active from the 1160s; tenant of Cea in 1181

Born

not pinned (married by 1161; elderly in 1200)

Family

Wife Gontrodo García. Sons Alfonso Téllez (heir), García Téllez, Tello Téllez (a cleric, later bishop of Palencia), Suero Téllez; daughter Teresa.

Confidence

high

Barón Faraldo 2006; Salcedo Tapia 1999; Barton 1997 (via English Wikipedia).

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

What it holds

• Tenancy of Meneses
• Estates at Montealegre
• Mills and estates at Villanueva on the Cea (royal grant of 3 February 1184)
• Patronage of Matallana and of the hospitals of Villamartín and San Nicolás del Real Camino

How it was acquired

Royal grants for service; marriage; foundations.

Allies and rivals

Loyal to Alfonso VIII; tied to the Order of Santiago (hospitals) and Calatrava (Ocaña, 1177; Guadiana settlement). His son Suero later holds Montealegre, Tordehumos, Grajal and Cea.

How things stand that morning

Alive on 1 January as far as known, aged and near death.

Wealth

Tierra de Campos grain lands, mills on the Cea, pilgrim-road charities.

Military

A veteran captain; his sons are all at Las Navas (1212).

Threats

• His death and the division of the estates

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. First half of 1200Tello dies; in June 1200 his children make a gift to the abbot of Sahagún for his soul; Alfonso Téllez heads the house.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Play.

Places of note

• Matallana abbey (Cistercian): His foundation; his and his wife's tombs.
• Leper hospital of Villamartín: Founded 6 December 1196, given to the Order of Santiago.
• Cea (tenancy in 1181): León side; not his on the day.

Where the sources disagree

• Cea (tenancy 1181) and Grajal lie on the Leonese side; Montealegre's side of the border in 1200 is not pinned.

Evidence: Foundations and grants well dated; the tenancy of Meneses undated.

On the map: Estates and a small tenancy; the drawing marks where his weight lay, not a block of jurisdiction.

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.