Molina (Count Pedro)

Who he is

Name

Pedro Manrique de Lara (Count Pedro)

Title

Count (comes); lord of Molina and Mesa 'by the grace of God'; viscount of Narbonne

Since

Molina from 1164, on his father's death at the battle of Huete; count by 1 September 1166; viscount of Narbonne from 1192

Born

not pinned (first in a document 18 December 1157; often put about 1140)

Family

Son of Count Manrique Pérez de Lara, first lord of Molina (killed at Huete in 1164), and Ermessinde of Narbonne. Married (1) Sancha, daughter of García Ramírez of Navarre, so his elder sons are first cousins of Sancho VII of Navarre; (2) Margaret, a kinswoman of Henry II of England; (3) Mafalda, his wife now. Sons: García, Aimerico (named heir of Narbonne in 1194 and living there), Nuño, Gonzalo (later lord of Molina) and Rodrigo. Kinsman of the Lara brothers Álvaro, Fernando and Gonzalo Núñez.

Confidence

high

Barton, The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile (1997); Doubleday, The Lara Family (2001); Sánchez de Mora, thesis on the Lara (2003), as summarised in the Wikipedia biography.

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile, whom he serves as count and royal tenant; Molina itself he holds by inheritance and styles himself its lord by the grace of God

What it holds

• The lordship of Molina: the town, its great castle and the land of its four sexmas (Campo, Sabinar, Pedregal and Sierra), with its own fuero
• The castle of Mesa on the Mesa river, on the Aragonese edge (he is lord 'of Molina and Mesa')
• Tragacete in the Serranía of Cuenca, a family property (his widow and son sell it to Cuenca on 3 February 1202)
• As the king's tenant: the Cuenca frontier command (documented 1188-1200) and Huete (documented 1190 to at least 21 March 1198)
• The viscounty of Narbonne in Languedoc, ruled for him by his son Aimerico

How it was acquired

Molina was taken by Alfonso I of Aragon in 1128; about 1139 Count Manrique Pérez de Lara took the land and made it a lordship of his own. Pedro inherited in 1164 (his mother first invested half of it in him). Narbonne came to him in 1192 when his aunt Ermengarde gave it up.

Allies and rivals

Allies: Alfonso VIII; his Lara kinsmen (Álvaro Núñez de Lara became royal standard-bearer, alférez, in May 1199); the Cistercians of Santa María de Huerta, the family burial church, and of La Vid. Neighbours to watch: the Crown of Aragon (Peter II; Queen Sancha, his mother, holds Ariza), the lord of Albarracín on his southern edge, and the Haro (Diego López II de Haro lost the alférez office to the Laras in 1199). Through his first wife he is uncle by marriage to Sancho VII of Navarre.

How things stand that morning

Holds Molina and Mesa firmly. On the frontier he is very probably still the king's commander at Cuenca (his rule there is documented to 1200), and probably at Huete (last dated 21 March 1198). He was with the king at Huerta in April 1199 and gave land to La Vid on 30 October 1199. Narbonne is in Aimerico's hands.

Wealth

Molina's high pastures and sheep, the tolls of the road between Castile and Aragon through Molina, the rents and tolls of Narbonne, a Mediterranean trading town, and the revenues of his royal tenancies. Salt from the springs of the Molina district is likely but not pinned for 1200.

Military

The castle of Molina (one of the largest in Spain) and the castle of Mesa; Molina's own council militia under its fuero; his household knights; as royal tenant, the garrisons of Cuenca and Huete. He fought at the conquest of Cuenca (1177); a secondary source says he took part in the Alarcos campaign of 1195 (thin). No figures in the sources.

Threats

• His age: he dies early in 1202 and his inheritance splits between Narbonne (Aimerico) and Molina (Gonzalo)
• A lordship wedged between Castile and Aragon: either king may press for homage or for its castles
• The Almohad frontier beyond Cuenca if the truce of 1197 breaks

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.

In 1200

1. through 1200Remains the king's commander on the Cuenca frontier and attends Alfonso VIII's courtDepends on: health and royal favour Stopped by: illness, or a quarrel with the king or with the Haro
2. September 1200Possibly present at Ariza when Peter II of Aragon receives the castle from his mother Queen SanchaDepends on: the Aragonese handover going ahead Stopped by: anything that keeps Ariza in Sancha's hands

Later, on the likely course

1. 11 December 1201 last at court; buried at Huerta 14 January 1202His death. Gonzalo succeeds in Molina and Aimerico in Narbonne; on 3 February 1202 the widow Mafalda and Gonzalo sell Tragacete to the council of CuencaDepends on: his natural course of life Stopped by: nothing short of play changing his health or circumstances

Places of note

• Castle of Molina: the lord's fortress and seat
• Castle of Mesa: frontier castle of the lordship on the Mesa river (exact site approximate)
• Santa María de Huerta: Cistercian abbey, family burial church; the king visited in April 1199
• Tragacete: family property in the Serranía of Cuenca, sold to Cuenca in February 1202

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: His career is well charted from royal charters by Barton, Doubleday and Sánchez de Mora; the exact month his Cuenca command ended is not pinned.

On the map: The lordship is drawn from the villages of the later Señorío de Molina; its 1200 edges with Medinaceli, the villages of Daroca and Albarracín were not surveyed lines. The tenancies are shown on their towns 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.