City · Kingdom of Castile · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Burgos

Head of Old Castile and the king's chief seat in the north: a walled town under its castle hill on the Arlanzón, the bishop's see, and the great halt of the Camino de Santiago between the Bureba and the Campos.

Alfonso VIII and Leonor founded the Cistercian royal nunnery of Las Huelgas just outside the walls in 1187, as their burial church and the head of Castile's Cistercian nuns, with its pilgrim Hospital del Rey.

Who holds it

Name
The king (realengo). Queen Leonor's 1170 arras assigned the city to her chamber. The castle's tenant on the day is not pinned. Bishop Marino Maté (an exempt see, under Rome) holds the cathedral and its lordships.
Title
Lord or royal tenant
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

The king (realengo). Queen Leonor's 1170 arras assigned the city to her chamber. The castle's tenant on the day is not pinned. Bishop Marino Maté (an exempt see, under Rome) holds the cathedral and its lordships.

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

How things stand that morning

Under Castilian rule on 1 January 1200. Bishop Marino Maté dies 30 September 1200 (campaign notes): a contested election in an exempt see.

Wealth

Tolls and market on the Camino; the road to the Cantabrian ports for wool, hides and iron; royal, queen's and bishop's rents.

Military

Town walls and the royal castle on the hill.

Fuero

The customary fuero of Burgos, confirmed by successive kings; the text in force in 1200 is not pinned.

Council

A concejo of the townsmen under the king's or lord's officers; its 1200 officers are not pinned.

Communities

Castilians; Franks (merchants and craftsmen along the Camino); one of the largest Jewish communities of Castile, below the castle.

Fairs and markets

Weekly market; no chartered fair pinned for 1200.

Militia

No record of its militia in 1195-1200 pinned in the sources used.

Walls and castle

Town walls and the royal castle on the hill.

Live quarrels

Bishop Marino Maté dies 30 September 1200 (campaign notes): a contested election in an exempt see.

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. 30 September 1200Bishop Marino Maté dies; the chapter elects under royal and papal pressure.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Play.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: General reference facts; the town's officers and tenant on the day are not pinned.

On the map: The tierra is shared out by nearest distance between neighbouring seeds and is only as good as the seed villages.

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.

Sources and studies

  1. Leonor Plantagenet (Spanish Wikipedia mirror: the 1170 arras)
  2. Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile (English Wikipedia)
  3. Standard reference facts (fueros, foundations) from general histories; not re-checked against the charters in this pass

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.