Portillo and its tierra

Who holds it

Name

Ermengol VIII, count of Urgell

Title

Lord of Portillo under the king of Castile (probable)

Since

not pinned

Born

1158

Family

Count of Urgell since 1184; his house holds the Ansúrez inheritance round Valladolid

Confidence

low

Alfonso Téllez de Meneses governed Portillo on his behalf about 1210 (Wikipedia life of Alfonso Téllez); nothing earlier found.

Lord in 1200

Probably Ermengol VIII, count of Urgell, as lord under the king (documented about 1210); not pinned for 1200.

Overlord

Alfonso VIII of Castile

How things stand that morning

Under the king; the Urgell lordship is probable but not pinned for 1200.

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. Grain and pine woods.

Military

Castle. 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.

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.

Communities

Castilian settlers.

Fairs and markets

None pinned.

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.

Where the sources disagree

Evidence: One dated reference (about 1210).

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.