Frontier town · Kingdom of Portugal · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Guarda

Sancho I's new town on a granite height at the head of the Mondego, chartered five weeks before the game opens.

It was not founded from nothing (the charter's wording and finds at the Torreão show an earlier settlement). Its name says its job: to guard the Beira against León's Riba-Côa and against the Muslims. The bishop of Egitânia (Idanha) is to move his see here, which happens a few years later.

Who holds it

Name
Sancho I (the crown); the alcaide on 1 January 1200 is not pinned
Title
Royal town under the king's alcaide or tenente
Confidence
medium

Lord in 1200

The crown, through a tenente whose name on 1 January 1200 is not pinned (Lourenço Soares de Ribadouro holds it later).

Overlord

Sancho I of Portugal

What the town holds

  • The new town and castle
  • A large frontier termo (not bounded in the sources checked)

How things stand that morning

Just chartered; settlers arriving.

Wealth

Pasture and the frontier roads.

Military

Walls being built; the Torre Velha seat of the tenente. No figures.

Threats

  • Leonese raids from Riba-Côa until the peace

Fuero

Foral of Sancho I, 27 November 1199, to the settlers 'of the city of Aguarda, present and future'.

Council

A new concelho of settlers.

Communities

Settlers; others not pinned.

Militia

Frontier cavaleiros-vilãos and foot. No figures.

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. 1200 onwardSettlement and walling of the new town; preparation of the transfer of the see of Egitânia.Depends on: Peace on the Leonese frontier and the bishop's willingness. Stopped by: War with León or a papal refusal.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: Foral date from the FCSH study; campaign notes say the see is being moved (1199).

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.

5 more in the sources library for France and Iberia.

Sources and studies

  1. Study of the 1199 foral and early fabric of Guarda (FCSH digital humanities lab)
  2. Sancho I de Portugal (pt.wikipedia)

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