Fernando Núñez de Lara
Encyclopedia
Fernando Núñez de Lara was a count of the House of Lara
. He spent most of career in the service of the Kingdom of Castile
, but at times served the neighbouring Kingdom of León
as well. He was a courtier
, almost permanently present at court late in the reign of Alfonso VIII
(1158–1214), whom he twice served as alférez
, the highest military post in the kingdom.
Fernando was the son of Nuño Pérez de Lara
and Teresa Fernández. Sometime before 1203 he married Mayor Garcés, daughter of García Garcés de Aza
. They were first cousins through their grandmother Eva, whose first husband, García Ordóñez
, was the father of García Garcés, and whose second husband, Pedro González de Lara
, was the father of Nuño Pérez. There is no record of any opposition to their marriage on grounds of consanguinity
, and it was typical of nobles to marry of the same rank, which sometimes necessitated ignoring ecclesiastical strictures. She gave him four children: Álvaro, Fernando, Sancha, Teresa. Sancha married Ferdinand, a younger son of Afonso II of Portugal
, and Teresa married Ponç IV of Empúries.
The breadth of Fernando's power and influence is an apparent in a lists of territories he is known to have governed. Between 1173 and 1190 Fernando held the tenencias of Aguilar de Campóo
(1173–90), Herrera
(1173–88), Amaya
(1175–90), Carrión
(1175–90), and Avia
(1176–88). Later he held those of Ubierna (1181–90), Tamariz (1181–95), Ordejón (1182–86), and Saldaña
(1183–90). Among the tenencias that he appear to have held only for brief periods were Asturias de Santillana (1173), Liébana
(1178), Monzón
(1179), Cuenca de Campos
(1181), Villaescusa
(1183), Moratinos
(1184), Toroño (1192–94), Asturias de Tineo (1193), Astudillo
(1196), and Medina del Campo
(1210). The large region of Asturias de Oviedo
, once the heartland of the kingdom, was held by Fernando on three separate occasions (1191, 1192–93, 1200), and that of Bureba, a Castilian district fronting Navarre
, twice (1187–90, 1202), his rule there being interrupted by Diego López II de Haro
.
There is evidence that Fernando sought to consolidate his lands in the region around Burgos
, the capital of Castile. His daughters sold important estates in and around Burgos to the Diocese of Burgos during the 1240s, and his wife made a donation to the Cathedral of Burgos. Later, his son Álvaro donated the church of Boadilla del Camino
in the Burgos region to the Diocese of Palencia.
On 22 January 1189 Fernando was the recipient of royal largesse for his faithful service, receiving estates at Huerta
and Carabanchel
from Alfonso VIII. His career after this date was marked less by faithfulness than by opportunism, and he frequently shifted allegiance between the Castilian court and the Leonese. Between 15 January 1191 and 17 July 1194 he is traceable at the court of Alfonso IX of León
, and then again from 24 June 1199 to 6 January 1200. On 8 December 1199 Alfonso IX granted his new wife, Berenguela of Castile
, as part of her arras
a number of castles to be held by Fernando as her vassal
. While the total number of royal castles thus given away was thirty, those to be kept by Fernando were located in the Asturias
: Aguilar
, Gozón
, Ventosa
, Buanga, Oviedo
, Santa Cruz de Tineo, and Tudela. Fernando's future stays at the Leonese court were more brief, in 1208, 1217, and 1219.
Fernando favoured the Benedictine
house of San Salvador de Oña
with a donation in 1183 and the Praemonstratensian monastery at Aguilar de Campóo in 1205. His other relations with the Church were more econonomic in nature, and often disputes. In 1208 he came to an agreement with the monastery of Sobrado
in a property dispute. In 1215 he made an exchange of properties with the diocese of Palencia. In July 1216 he sold an estate at Berlanga de Duero
to the convent of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos for 1,000 maravedís, and at the same time was involved in a legal dispute with the prior of San Juan de Burgos in the same city. Fernando also made donations to the military orders. The Order of Calatrava
, a native Castilian order, received one in 1182 and in 1193 the Hospitallers also. He had had previously, on 8 August 1183, exchanged properties with the latter. In 1203 he made a grant to the Leonese Order of Santiago
, with which previously, probably between 1184 and 1186, he had been involved in a series of lawsuits over property at Villalón.
Fernando is last mentioned on 28 April 1219. For reasons unknown, he went into exile in Africa and died at Marrakesh after being received into the Hospitaller Order on his deathbed. His body was brought back for burial at the Hospitallers' hospital founded by his parents in Puente Itero. His widow was alive as late as 1232.
House of Lara
The House of Lara or Casa de Lara are a noble family, known from the medieval Kingdom of Castile.Two of its branches, those from the Duke of Nájera and from the Marquis of Aguilar de Campoo were considered Grandees of Spain...
. He spent most of career in the service of the Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
, but at times served the neighbouring Kingdom of León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
as well. He was a courtier
Courtier
A courtier is a person who is often in attendance at the court of a king or other royal personage. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
, almost permanently present at court late in the reign of Alfonso VIII
Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
(1158–1214), whom he twice served as alférez
Alférez
Alférez is a junior officer rank also used in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The variant Alferes is used in Portugal and was formerly also used in Brazil. A naval variant, Frigate Alférez, is used in Spain, Dominican Republic and Peru. "Alférez" is often translated as ensign...
, the highest military post in the kingdom.
Fernando was the son of Nuño Pérez de Lara
Nuño Pérez de Lara
Nuño Pérez de Lara was a Castilian nobleman, politician and military leader. He began his career at the court of the Emperor Alfonso VII, during whose reign he took part in the repoblación of the Extremadura and the defence of the Almohad frontier...
and Teresa Fernández. Sometime before 1203 he married Mayor Garcés, daughter of García Garcés de Aza
García Garcés de Aza
García Garcés de Aza was a Castilian magnate "renowned for his wealth and dullness", yet "a prominent figure in the later Andalusian campaigns of the Emperor between 1150 and 1157"...
. They were first cousins through their grandmother Eva, whose first husband, García Ordóñez
García Ordóñez
García Ordóñez , called de Nájera or de Cabra and in the epic literature Crispus or el Crespo de Grañón, was a Castilian magnate who ruled the Rioja from Nájera from 1080 until his death. He is famous in literature as the rival of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid, whose high position at court he...
, was the father of García Garcés, and whose second husband, Pedro González de Lara
Pedro González de Lara
Pedro González de Lara was a Castilian magnate. He served Alfonso VI as a young man, and later became the lover of Alfonso's heiress, Queen Urraca. He may have joined the First Crusade in the following of Raymond IV of Toulouse, earning the nickname el Romero...
, was the father of Nuño Pérez. There is no record of any opposition to their marriage on grounds of consanguinity
Consanguinity
Consanguinity refers to the property of being from the same kinship as another person. In that respect, consanguinity is the quality of being descended from the same ancestor as another person...
, and it was typical of nobles to marry of the same rank, which sometimes necessitated ignoring ecclesiastical strictures. She gave him four children: Álvaro, Fernando, Sancha, Teresa. Sancha married Ferdinand, a younger son of Afonso II of Portugal
Afonso II of Portugal
Afonso II , or Affonso , Alfonso or Alphonso or Alphonsus , nicknamed "the Fat" , third king of Portugal, was born in Coimbra on 23 April 1185 and died on 25 March 1223 in the same city. He was the second but eldest surviving son of Sancho I of Portugal by his wife, Dulce, Infanta of Aragon...
, and Teresa married Ponç IV of Empúries.
The breadth of Fernando's power and influence is an apparent in a lists of territories he is known to have governed. Between 1173 and 1190 Fernando held the tenencias of Aguilar de Campóo
Aguilar de Campoo
Aguilar de Campoo is a town in the province of Palencia, autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is close to the River Pisuerga.-History:In 1255 Alfonso X the Wise declared it Villa Realenga...
(1173–90), Herrera
Herrera
-Places:*Herrera de Pisuerga, a town in the province of Palencia, Spain*Herrera Province, Panama*Herrera, Spain, a municipality in the province of Sevilla*Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport*Herrera, Entre Ríos in Argentina*Herrera, Santiago del Estero in Argentina...
(1173–88), Amaya
Amaya
Amaya can refer to:* Amaya , a professional Middle Eastern dancer* Amaya o los vascos en el siglo VIII, a novel by Francisco Navarro-Villoslada** Amaya , a 1920 opera by Jesús Guridi based in the novel...
(1175–90), Carrión
Carrion
Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles...
(1175–90), and Avia
Avia
Avia is a Czech aircraft and automotive company notable for producing biplane fighter aircraft, especially the B-534, and trucks.- History :...
(1176–88). Later he held those of Ubierna (1181–90), Tamariz (1181–95), Ordejón (1182–86), and Saldaña
Saldaña
-Places:*Saldana Municipality*Saldaña, Palencia*Saldaña, Colombia*Saldaña de Burgos*Saldaña River...
(1183–90). Among the tenencias that he appear to have held only for brief periods were Asturias de Santillana (1173), Liébana
Liébana
Liébana is a comarca of Cantabria .It covers 570 square kilometers and is located in the southwest of Cantabria, bordering Asturias, León and Palencia...
(1178), Monzón
Monzón
Monzón is a small town in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It has a population of 17,050. It is located in the northeast and adjoins the rivers Cinca and Sosa.-Historical overview:...
(1179), Cuenca de Campos
Cuenca de Campos
Cuenca de Campos is a municipality in Valladolid ....
(1181), Villaescusa
Villaescusa
Villaescusa can refer to:* Villaescusa, Cantabria, Spain* Villaescusa de Haro, Cuenca, Spain* Villaescusa de Palositos, Guadalajara, Spain* Villaescusa, Zamora, Spain* Villaescusa de Roa, Burgos, Spain* Villaescusa la Sombría, Burgos, Spain...
(1183), Moratinos
Moratinos
Moratinos may refer to*Moratinos, Palencia, a municipality in the province of Palencia, Spain.*José Lebrún Moratinos , Archbishop of Caracas, Venezuela in 1980-1995.*Miguel Ángel Moratinos a Spanish diplomat and politician....
(1184), Toroño (1192–94), Asturias de Tineo (1193), Astudillo
Astudillo
Astudillo is a Spanish surname, it could refer to:*Martín Astudillo , Argentine footballer*Pedro "Pete" Astudillo, Texan songwriter*Cristian Dale Astudillo, a Philippine basketball player....
(1196), and Medina del Campo
Medina del Campo
Medina del Campo is a town located in the middle of the Spanish Meseta Central, in the province of Valladolid, Castile-Leon autonomous region, 45 km from Valladolid. It is the capital of a farming area, far away from the great economic centres.-History:...
(1210). The large region of Asturias de Oviedo
Asturias de Oviedo
Asturias de Oviedo is one of the historical comarcas in the Kingdom of Asturias. It extended from the Eo River in the west to the Deva River in the east, and from the Bay of Biscay in the north to the Cordillera Cantábrica in the south...
, once the heartland of the kingdom, was held by Fernando on three separate occasions (1191, 1192–93, 1200), and that of Bureba, a Castilian district fronting Navarre
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
, twice (1187–90, 1202), his rule there being interrupted by Diego López II de Haro
Diego López II de Haro
Diego López II de Haro called the Good or the Bad . Son of Lope Diaz I de Haro, count of Nájera and of countess Aldonza. He was a first rank magnate in the kingdom of Castile under King Alfonso VIII...
.
There is evidence that Fernando sought to consolidate his lands in the region around Burgos
Burgos
Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...
, the capital of Castile. His daughters sold important estates in and around Burgos to the Diocese of Burgos during the 1240s, and his wife made a donation to the Cathedral of Burgos. Later, his son Álvaro donated the church of Boadilla del Camino
Boadilla del Camino
Boadilla del Camino is a municipality located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 166 inhabitants....
in the Burgos region to the Diocese of Palencia.
On 22 January 1189 Fernando was the recipient of royal largesse for his faithful service, receiving estates at Huerta
Huerta
A huerta or horta , from Latin hortis, "garden", is a fertile area, or a field in a fertile area, common in Spain and Portugal, in which a variety of common vegetables and fruit trees, are cultivated for family consumption and sale...
and Carabanchel
Carabanchel
Carabanchel is a district in the south western suburbs of Madrid, Spain.-Overview:The area was the scene of fierce fighting during the Spanish Civil War -especially in November 1936, during the Battle of Madrid, when Nationalist troops tried to fight their way into the area. Unacustomed to street...
from Alfonso VIII. His career after this date was marked less by faithfulness than by opportunism, and he frequently shifted allegiance between the Castilian court and the Leonese. Between 15 January 1191 and 17 July 1194 he is traceable at the court of Alfonso IX of León
Alfonso IX of Leon
Alfonso IX was king of León and Galicia from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death...
, and then again from 24 June 1199 to 6 January 1200. On 8 December 1199 Alfonso IX granted his new wife, Berenguela of Castile
Berenguela of Castile
Berengaria was Queen regnant of Castile in 1217 and Queen consort of León from 1197 to 1204.-Family origins:...
, as part of her arras
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
a number of castles to be held by Fernando as her vassal
Vassal
A vassal or feudatory is a person who has entered into a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. The obligations often included military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain privileges, usually including the grant of land held...
. While the total number of royal castles thus given away was thirty, those to be kept by Fernando were located in the Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
: Aguilar
Aguilar
-People:*Antonio Aguilar Barraza , Mexican singer*António Maria de Aguilar , Portuguese rugby player*Baron Diego Pereira d'Aguilar , Spanish Marrano*Christina Aguilar , Thai pop singer...
, Gozón
Gozón
Gozón is a municipality in the Autonomous Community of the Principality of Asturias, Spain. The Cantabrian Sea lies on its northern edge, and it is bordered to the south by Corvera de Asturias, to the west by Avilés, and to the east by Carreño....
, Ventosa
Ventosa
Ventosa is one of eleven parishes in Candamo, a municipality within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in northern Spain.It is in size with a population of 367 .-Villages:...
, Buanga, Oviedo
Oviedo
Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
, Santa Cruz de Tineo, and Tudela. Fernando's future stays at the Leonese court were more brief, in 1208, 1217, and 1219.
Fernando favoured the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
house of San Salvador de Oña
San Salvador de Oña
San Salvador de Oña is a monastery in Oña, in the province of Burgos, central Spain.It was founded in 1011 by Sancho García, count of Castile, for his daughter Tigridia. In 1033 it was assigned to the Cistercian Order. In 1506 it went to the Benedictines of Valladolid. It was damaged during the...
with a donation in 1183 and the Praemonstratensian monastery at Aguilar de Campóo in 1205. His other relations with the Church were more econonomic in nature, and often disputes. In 1208 he came to an agreement with the monastery of Sobrado
Sobrado
Sobrado is a municipality in the Spanish province of A Coruña. It has a population of 2,402 and an area of 121 km². Sobrado is well known because of Sobrado Abbey, a Trappist monastery...
in a property dispute. In 1215 he made an exchange of properties with the diocese of Palencia. In July 1216 he sold an estate at Berlanga de Duero
Berlanga de Duero
Berlanga de Duero is a municipality located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 1,099 inhabitants.-External links:* ** *...
to the convent of Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas in Burgos for 1,000 maravedís, and at the same time was involved in a legal dispute with the prior of San Juan de Burgos in the same city. Fernando also made donations to the military orders. The Order of Calatrava
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164.-Origins and Foundation:...
, a native Castilian order, received one in 1182 and in 1193 the Hospitallers also. He had had previously, on 8 August 1183, exchanged properties with the latter. In 1203 he made a grant to the Leonese Order of Santiago
Order of Santiago
The Order of Santiago was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of Galicia and Spain, Santiago , under whose banner the Christians of Galicia and Asturias began in the 9th century to combat and drive back the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula.-History:Santiago de...
, with which previously, probably between 1184 and 1186, he had been involved in a series of lawsuits over property at Villalón.
Fernando is last mentioned on 28 April 1219. For reasons unknown, he went into exile in Africa and died at Marrakesh after being received into the Hospitaller Order on his deathbed. His body was brought back for burial at the Hospitallers' hospital founded by his parents in Puente Itero. His widow was alive as late as 1232.