Soverosa (Gil Vasques)

Who he is

Name

Gil Vasques de Soverosa

Title

Rico-homem

Since

about 1194-1196 (head of the house)

Born

about 1165; died about 1240

Family

Son of Vasco Fernandes de Soverosa (mordomo-mor before 1186, then in León as tenente of El Bierzo 1188-1189, back briefly in 1194, probably died about then) and Teresa Gonçalves de Sousa; through her a great-grandson of Egas Moniz and a cousin of Gonçalo Mendes de Sousa. His elder brother Martim Vasques died after Alarcos. His first wife, Maria Aires de Fornelos (marriage date not pinned, probably by the 1190s), was once Sancho I's mistress, so he is stepfather to the king's son Martim Sanches and daughter Urraca Sanches.

Confidence

high

Held no court office in 1205; tenente of Basto from 1207, and of Sousa and Barroso at times between 1207 and 1240; lord of the castle of Sobroso in Galicia (date not pinned). Buried at Pombeiro.

Overlord

Sancho I of Portugal

What it holds

• Many properties in the Guimarães country (the Soverosa honour came to the family through Vasco Fernandes's marriage; not located)
• The castle of Sobroso in Galicia (in León; date not pinned)
• No royal tenência pinned for 1200

How it was acquired

Inherited from his father and mother.

Allies and rivals

Cousin of the Sousa; tied to the royal bastards through his wife.

How things stand that morning

A rico-homem without office.

Wealth

Estates round Guimarães.

Military

Household knights. No figures.

Places of note

• Estates round Guimarães: Soverosa properties (not located)

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Calderón Medina's study of the Soverosa (2018) via pt.wikipedia; no tenência for 1200.

On the map: No district is drawn: he holds no tenência on 1 January 1200 and the Soverosa honour is not located.

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.