Cuenca and its tierra

Who holds it

Name

Pedro Manrique de Lara

Title

King's tenant of the Cuenca frontier (count; lord of Molina)

Since

1188

Born

not pinned (first documented 1157)

Family

Son of Count Manrique Pérez de Lara; see the Molina lord record

Confidence

high

Ruled the region of Cuenca 1188-1200 (Barton and Sánchez de Mora, via Wikipedia).

Lord in 1200

The king; Count Pedro Manrique de Lara, lord of Molina, commands the Cuenca frontier for him (documented 1188-1200). Bishop Julián (since 1196).

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

How things stand that morning

Royal frontier city, firmly held, under Count Pedro's command; the truce keeps the Almohads of Requena quiet.

Wealth

Sheep and wool, with flocks moving each year between the summer grass of the sierras and the winter pastures of the Tajo and La Mancha (transhumance). The Mesta, the royal guild of the herders, is a creation of 1273 and does not exist yet. Pine timber of the Serranía, and the booty and ransoms of the frontier.

Military

The castle on the rock and the walls above the gorges; frontier militia. Attacked in 1197 and held. Alarcos (19 July 1195): Alfonso VIII fought with his household, the magnates and town militias; the sources used here do not say whether this town's militia was in the field.

Threats

• Almohad raids from Requena and the Júcar if the truce fails
• Count Pedro's age: the command changes hands within two years

Fuero

The Fuero de Cuenca of Alfonso VIII, usually dated about 1189-1190 (some scholars place it later): the model frontier code, setting out the council, the militia, raids and booty, and the place of Jews and Muslims in great detail.

Council

One concejo for the town and its villages (a comunidad de villa y tierra): the vecinos of the town and the aldeas share one council that meets in the town, chooses its judge (juez) and alcaldes each year by parish (collación), and governs common pasture, woods, justice, walls and the host. The villages are grouped in districts (sexmos, cuartos or ochavos); most of these district names are recorded later than 1200. Cuenca's fuero sets out the yearly choice of the juez and alcaldes by parish in detail.

Communities

Castilian and Aragonese settlers; Jews and Muslims, both provided for in the fuero.

Fairs and markets

Market; none pinned for 1200.

Militia

Town militia (milicia concejil): non-noble horsemen (caballeros villanos) who keep a horse and arms in return for tax privileges and a share of office, plus foot. It rides in the king's host and in its own raids (cabalgadas) toward the Tajo and the Guadiana. Cuenca's fuero has the fullest rules of any for the host, the raid (cabalgada) and the share of booty.

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 1200The truce of June 1197 between Alfonso VIII and the Almohads holds; no royal campaign south of the TajoDepends on: both sides keeping the ten-year truce (the new caliph Muhammad al-Nasir, caliph since January 1199, is taken up with securing his rule and with the Banu Ghaniya in Ifriqiya and the Balearics) Stopped by: a Castilian or Almohad breach, or a large raid by the military orders that the other side treats as war

Later, on the likely course

1. 3 February 1202The council buys Tragacete from Count Pedro's widow and sonDepends on: Pedro's death (early 1202) Stopped by: a change in the count's life or the heirs' plans

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Conquest, see and fuero well known (fuero date debated); tenant documented to 1200.

On the map: Tierra drawn as seeds from the villages of the comunidad as recorded in the 13th to 15th centuries (Martínez Díez); the 1200 edges were not surveyed lines, and some villages were still being founded or quarrelled over. Treat the outline as approximate.

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.