Fernão Peres de Trava
Encyclopedia
Fernando or Fernán Pérez de Traba (c.1090–c.1155), also Fernão Peres de Trava in Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese
Galician-Portuguese or Old Portuguese was a West Iberian Romance language spoken in the Middle Ages, in the northwest area of the Iberian Peninsula. It was first spoken in the area bounded in the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean and the Douro River in the south but it was later extended south...

, was a nobleman and count of the 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...

 who for a time held power over all Galicia. He became the lover of Countess Teresa of Portugal, through whom he attained great influence in that realm, and was de facto ruler of Portugal between 1121 and 1128. The Poema de Almería, a Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

 poem celebrating one of Alfonso VII's major victories of the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...

, extols Fernán:

The valiant (strenuus) Count Fernando Pérez follows this armed troop [of Galicians] administering the Galician laws with royal care. His position had been strengthened by his tutoring of the Emperor's son. If one were to see him, one would judge him already a king. He is famed for his royal nobility, and because he bears a count's lineage.

Family

Fernán was the second son of Pedro Fróilaz de Traba
Pedro Fróilaz de Traba
Pedro Fróilaz de Traba was the most powerful secular magnate in the Kingdom of Galicia during the first quarter of the twelfth century. According to the Historia compostelana, he was "spirited ... warlike ... of great power .....

, founder of the House of Traba, and his first wife, Urraca Fróilaz. His family was the most powerful in Galicia at the time, and he himself held properties in the most important Galician cities: Lugo
Lugo
Lugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...

 and Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

. Fernán's first appearance in the surviving documentation dates from September 1107, just after the death of Raymond of Galicia, when his father confirmed a privilege of Alfonso VI
Alfonso VI of Castile
Alfonso VI , nicknamed the Brave or the Valiant, was King of León from 1065, King of Castile and de facto King of Galicia from 1072, and self-proclaimed "Emperor of all Spain". After the conquest of Toledo he was also self-proclaimed victoriosissimo rege in Toleto, et in Hispania et Gallecia...

 for the monastery of Caaveiro, along with his sons.

Early in the twelfth century (before 1125), Pedro gave his son a Moorish
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

 cook, probably a slave, with the Christian name Martin. Sometime early in the century Fernán took a wife, but when he became the lover of Teresa of Portugal he repudiated her. With Teresa he had two daughters: Sancha (born c. 1121), who married Álvaro Rodríguez
Álvaro Rodríguez
Álvaro Rodríguez was a Galician magnate during the reigns of Alfonso VII and Ferdinand II.Álvaro was the son of Rodrigo Vélaz and Urraca Álvarez, perhaps a daughter of Álvar Fáñez and Mayor Pérez, daughter of Pedro Ansúrez. He married Sancha, an illegitimate daughter of Fernando Pérez de Traba and...

, and Teresa, who married 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...

. Fernán's first attested wife, Sancha González, daughter of Gonzalo Ansúrez and Urraca Vermúdez, was therefore possibly his second wife. The earliest record of their marriage is from 1134, and she was still alive in 1154. With her the count had three children: Gonzalo
Gonzalo Fernández de Traba
Gonzalo Fernández de Traba was a Galician nobleman and the leader of the House of Traba. He was the eldest son and successor of Fernando Pérez de Traba by his wife Sancha González...

, María (married Ponce de Cabrera), and Urraca.

Relationship with the Archdiocese and the Crown

In Galicia, Fernán rivalled for influence the archbishop Diego Gelmirez
Diego Gelmírez
Diego Gelmírez was the second bishop and first archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. He is a prominent figure in the history of Galicia and an important historiographer of the Spain of his day...

, with whom he kept an uneasy truce. Originally, the archbishop and Fernán had been on good terms. At the time of the Galician revolt (1116) he was acting as Diego's constable
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...

 (municeps). In 1121, however, he had constructed a fortress at Raneta south of Santiago, a position threatening to the apostolic see. The archbishop promptly had it destroyed. He may have been incited by the queen, who was trying to separate Diego from the Trabas to prevent an alliance of regional powers in Galicia from defying the crown. Fernán also mediated between his elder brother Vermudo and the archbishop in 1121, resulting in Diego bestowing gifts on the Vermudo in return for the fortress of Faro
Faro, Portugal
Faro is the southernmost city in Portugal. It is located in the Faro Municipality in southern Portugal. The city proper has 41,934 inhabitants and the entire municipality has 58,305. It is the seat of the Faro District and capital of the Algarve region...

, which he claimed belonged to the diocese. In 1134 the dispute with Diego flared up once more after Fernán imprisoned one of his knights and the archdeacon of Nendos
Nendos
Nendos or Nemitos was the name of a historic Galician county in northern Galicia. Its existence is documented from the 6th century in the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia, but due to its etymology, -derived from the celtic name Nemeton, there are insidious of its existence in pre-Roman times. Nendos is...

, Pedro Crescónez, whose jurisidiction covered large parts of the Traba patrimony.

During the reign of Queen Urraca, Fernán's family was generally allied with her son, the young Alfonso Raimúndez, who had been raised for a time alongside Fernán in the household of Pedro Fróilaz. The Trabas, allied with Diego, tried to make Alfonso king in Galicia in opposition to his mother. With the death of queen Urraca in 1126 and the accession of Alfonso, Fernán became the leading figure in Galicia and used the opportunity to increase his power throughout the kingdom. Together with Teresa he signed a truce with the new king (shortly after March 1126) at Ricobayo near Zamora
Zamora, Spain
Zamora is a city in Castile and León, Spain, the capital of the province of Zamora. It lies on a rocky hill in the northwest, near the frontier with Portugal and crossed by the Duero river, which is some 50 km downstream as it reaches the Portuguese frontier...

. In 1149 Alfonso entrusted to him the mentoring of his second son, the future Ferdinand II
Ferdinand II of Leon
Ferdinand II was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.-Life:Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and...

. Long after Fernán's own death, in 1178, his daughter Teresa married Ferdinand II as his second wife and her second husband. According to the Chronica latina regum Castellae
Chronica latina regum Castellae
The Chronica latina regum Castellae, known in Spanish as the Crónica latina de los reyes de Castilla, both meaning "Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile", is a medieval Latin history of the rulers of Castile from the death of Count Fernán González in 970 to the reconquest of Córdoba by King...

and the De rebus Hispaniae
De rebus Hispaniae
De rebus Hispaniae or Historia gothica is a history of the Iberian peninsula written in Latin by Archbiship of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada en the first half of the thirteenth century on behalf of King Ferdinand III of Castile....

, Fernán's influence was so decisive during the reign of Alfonso VII, that by the king's testament Galicia and León were separated from the kingdoms 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...

 and Toledo
Kingdom of Toledo
The Kingdom of Toledo was the juridical definition of a Christian medieval kingdom in what is now central Spain, created after Alfonso VI of León's capture of Toledo in 1085.-Background:...

. The anonymous Chronica claims that Fernán and Manrique Pérez de Lara
Manrique Pérez de Lara
Manrique Pérez de Lara was a magnate of the Kingdom of Castile and its regent from 1158 until his death. He was one of the most important counsellors and generals of three successive Castilian monarchs: Alfonso VII , Sancho III and Alfonso VIII...

 "aimed to sow the seed of discord" when they proposed the division of Alfonso VII's "empire".

De facto ruler of Portugal (1121–1128)

In 1116 Fernán participated in a Galician–Portuguese revolt against Queen Urraca. The revolt was led by his father on behalf of Teresa, the widow of Henry of Burgundy
Henry, Count of Portugal
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal was Count of Portugal from 1093 to his death. He was brother of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy, and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, all sons of Henry, the heir of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. His name is Henri in modern French, Henricus in Latin, Enrique in modern Spanish...

, Count of Portugal. The victories in battle at Vilasobroso and Lanhoso sealed the alliance between the Traba family and Teresa. Fernán became her governor in Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...

 and Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...

 (bearing the title "lord of Coimbra and Portugal"). By 1 February 1121 he was using the title comes (Latin for "count"), the highest in the kingdom, even though his father was still alive and his brother Vermudo had not yet received it, a sure indication of the influence of Teresa. In 1122 Fernán received a further two castles from her and had probably already become her lover. It has been suggested that they may have married, but Fernán was publicly rebuked by the future saint Theotonius
Theotonius
Theotonius was an Augustinian canon and royal advisor. He is noted and famed in Portugal, for being the first Prior of the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Coimbra, Portugal...

 for this affair. In that same year (1122) Fernán was able to arrange the advantageous marriage of Vermudo to Urraca Enríquez, daughter of Teresa and Henry.

Teresa of Portugal had assumed the regency of the county of Portugal during the minority of her son Afonso Henriques. In 1122, after turning fourteen, Afonso knighted himself in the Cathedral of Zamora
Cathedral of Zamora, Spain
The Cathedral of Zamora is a church in Zamora, central Spain, located above the right bank of the Duero in the southern and rather higher part of the old town, and is still surrounded by its old walls and gates....

, raised an army, and proceeded to take control of his lands. Gathering the Portuguese knights to his cause against his mother and Fernán, he defeated them both at the Battle of São Mamede in 1128. From this year—which was also that of his father's death—Fernán concentrated his influence in Galicia, signing himself comes Fernandus de Gallecie ("Count Ferdinand of Galicia"), a title his father had used. He does soon reappear in Portuguese documents, indicating a normalising of relations between him and Afonso.

Role in the defence of the realm under Alfonso VII

The first tenencia Fernán received from the king was the Limia
A Limia
A Limia is a comarca in the Galician Province of Ourense. The overall population of this local region is 24,266 .-Municipalities:Baltar, Os Blancos, Calvos de Randín, Porqueira, Rairiz de Veiga, Sandiás, Sarreaus, Trasmiras, Vilar de Barrio, Vilar de Santos and Xinzo de Limia....

 in 1131. He soon received Trastámara
Trastámara
The House of Trastámara was a dynasty of kings in the Iberian Peninsula, which first governed in Castile beginning in 1369 before expanding its rule into Aragón, Navarre and Naples.They were a cadet illegitimate line of the House of Burgundy....

 (ruled 1132–45), which was long to be associated with the patrimonies of the Traba. In 1137 he was given the rule of Trasancos
Trasancos
Trasancos or Trasanquos was the name of a historic Galician county in northern Galicia. The Transanqui was a Gallaeci people in Pre-Roman and Roman times, and it is documented as county since the 6th century in the Suebic Kingdom of Galicia until the 20th century....

 and in 1140 that of Monterroso
Monterroso
Monterroso is a municipality in Lugo province in Galicia in north-west Spain.-History:Monterroso was the seat of an important tenencia in medieval Galicia...

, which he held as late as 1153. In 1140 Fernán signed Alfonso VII's charter ordering that he and his queen be buried in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral of the archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. The cathedral is the reputed burial-place of Saint James the Greater, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ. It is the destination of the Way of St...

. Fernán signed as "count Don Fernando of Traba" (comes dominus Fernandus de Traua), the only time he is ever referred to in contemporary a document with the toponym "de Traba" by which he is now universally known.

The record of Fernán's rule in Deza
Deza
Deza may refer to:* O Deza, a region in Spain* Deza, Soria, a municipality in Soria Province, Spain* Diego Deza, an inquisitor* Michel Deza, a Soviet and French mathematician...

 consists of an original royal charter of July 1144. In 1146 he held the tenencias Monforte de Lemos
Monforte de Lemos
Monforte de Lemos is a city and municipality in northwestern Spain, in the province of Lugo, Galicia. It covers an area of 200 km² and lies 62 km from Lugo. As of 2005 it had a population of 19,472. It is located in a valley between the shores of Sil River and Miño River, in the area...

 and Sarria
Sarria
Sarria is a municipality in the province of Lugo, northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Sarria is the most densely populate town on the French Way in Galicia, with 13 700 inhabitants...

. In 1139 or 1140, at Cerneja (Cernesa) in Galicia, he and Rodrigo Vélaz
Rodrigo Vélaz
Rodrigo Vélaz was the "count of Galicia, who held Sarria" according to the near-contemporary Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris. During his long public career he was the dominant figure in mountainous eastern Galicia while the House of Traba dominated its western seaboard. He served under three...

 were defeated by Teresa's son Afonso Henriques, who by that time had proclaimed himself king of Portugal. The Battle of Cerneja
Battle of Cerneja
The Battle of Cerneja took place at Cernesa , an unidentified site in Galicia, in 1139/40, between the County of Portugal and the Kingdom of León....

 is recorded in the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris:

Once more Alfonso, King of Portugal, gathered his army and went to Limia. When this news reached Galicia, Fernando Pérez and Rodrigo Vélaz and other of the Emperor's Galician nobles were summoned immediately. They marched out with their troops against the Portuguese King and met him at Cernesa. After the battle lines were drawn up, they began to fight. Because of their sins the Counts fled and were defeated.

Between 1144 and 1155 Fernán was frequently at court, and he participated in almost all of Alfonso VII's major campaigns of the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...

, commanding the Galician contingents on numerous occasions against the Almohads. The major exception was the conquest of Calatrava
Calatrava
-Spain:* Calatrava la Vieja , Spanish medieval town* Calatrava la Nueva, Spanish medieval castle and convent-Philippines:* Calatrava, Negros Occidental, a municipality in the Philippines...

 in January 1147. The chronicles do record his valour in the conquest of Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...

 later that year, where he led the Galician contingent, and in the conquest of Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...

 the year prior (1146). He defended with difficulty the valley of the Minho
Minho River
The Minho or Miño is the longest river in Galicia, Spain, with an extension of 340 km.Both names come from Latin Minius...

 against the onslaughts of Afonso Henriques, as recorded by the Chronica Adefonsi:

Prior to [1140], the Portuguese monarch had come to Galicia several times, but always he had been driven back by Fernando Pérez and Rodrigo Vélaz and other Galician leaders. Often he was forced to return to Portugal dishonored.

In June 1137 he probably participated in the recapture of Túy
Tui, Galicia
Tui , in Spanish Tuy, is a town in Galicia , in the province of Pontevedra. It is located on the left bank of the Minho River, facing the Portuguese town of Valença....

, although the Historia compostellana alleges that the Galician magnates whose responsibility the defence of the frontier with Portugal was were too slow in answering the royal summons and had to be bribed by Diego Gelmírez to join the royal army. Fernán appears to have been the only Galician to follow the king to the Navarrese frontier later that year. He was with the royal army at Logroño
Logroño
Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants...

 on 3 October, though by 20 October Rodrigo Vélaz had also joined the army on the Ebro
Ebro
The Ebro or Ebre is one of the most important rivers in the Iberian Peninsula. It is the biggest river by discharge volume in Spain.The Ebro flows through the following cities:*Reinosa in Cantabria.*Miranda de Ebro in Castile and León....

.

Patronage and pilgrimage

Fernán actively supported the Cistercians, and patronised their monastery at Sobrado dos Monxes, which he and his brother Vermudo had first received from Queen Urraca on 29 July 1118, although it was deserted at the time and required its recipients to re-found a religious community there. On the occasion of this gift, the Traba brothers responded in kind by giving a hound named Ulgar and a hunting spear to the queen's son. The gift of Sobrado was confirmed by Alfonso VII on 29 May 1135, but it was not until 14 February 1142 that the Trabas installed a Cistercian abbot, Peter, and some monks, referred to as "all the holy men of God and Saint Benedict
Benedict of Nursia
Saint Benedict of Nursia is a Christian saint, honored by the Roman Catholic Church as the patron saint of Europe and students.Benedict founded twelve communities for monks at Subiaco, about to the east of Rome, before moving to Monte Cassino in the mountains of southern Italy. There is no...

, living according to the custom of the Cistercians". It was one of the earliest Cistercian foundations in Spain and a daughter house of Clairvaux. Fernán and Vermudo may have desired that the monks contribute to settling and cultivating the surrounding zone. Fernán also made a donation to the Cistercian foundation of Monfero Abbey in 1145.

There are three donations by Fernán to the canons regular
Canons Regular
Canons Regular are members of certain bodies of Canons living in community under the Augustinian Rule , and sharing their property in common...

 of Caaveiro dated 1 April 1104, 26 February 1135, and 4 December 1154, all forgeries. The cartulary of Caaveiro retains an unusually high number of forged documents and few authentic twelfth-century specimens. This may indicate that at some point in time the abbey's archives were lost or destroyed and the monks felt it necessary to forge deeds for properties it had really been granted. There is the possibility, therefore, that Fernán or his family was a regular donor to Caaveiro.

Fernán twice visited Jerusalem after the Second Crusade
Second Crusade
The Second Crusade was the second major crusade launched from Europe. The Second Crusade was started in response to the fall of the County of Edessa the previous year to the forces of Zengi. The county had been founded during the First Crusade by Baldwin of Boulogne in 1098...

, the second time in 1153. He gave lands to the Templars on the coast near A Coruña
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...

, introducing this military order into the Galicia as early as 1128, before they had received official ecclesiastical approbation. In 1152 he made a donation to 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...

 monastery of Xuvia
Monastery of Xuvia
The Monastery of Xuvia, also known as San Martiño de Xuvia or San Martín de Jubia, is located in the Parish of the same name in the city of Narón...

. It is from this late period of his life that a certain document originates that records a donation of his to the favoured monastery of Sobrado, dated 1 May 1153. It is written in a francesa script, while Fernán's signature appears in a completely different script that resembles Visigothic
Visigothic script
Visigothic script was a type of medieval script that originated in the Visigothic kingdom in Hispania...

. It may have been written by Fernán himself, in which case it represents the only evidence that he received any education besides the standard military one for young noblemen. He was brought up at a time when the francesa script had not yet crowded out the Visigothic, and the document of 1153 may indicate that he was taught in his youth how to write his name.

Death and legacy

In 1151 Fernán was holding the tenencia of Bubal in Galicia and in 1152 that of Solís
Solís (Corvera)
Solís is one of seven parishes in the Corvera de Asturias municipality, within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in northern Spain.The population is 442 .-Villages:*Agüera *Alvares...

 in western 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...

. The date of Fernán's death is very uncertain. He was last at court in Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...

 on 8 November 1154 and he never reappears in court records. By 4 February 1155, at Valladolid
Valladolid
Valladolid is a historic city and municipality in north-central Spain, situated at the confluence of the Pisuerga and Esgueva rivers, and located within three wine-making regions: Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Cigales...

, his son Gonzalo was signing royal charters as comes Gundisaluus (Count Gonzalo), implying a succession in the comital title. There is a forged donation by Fernán to the monastery of Caaveiro dated 4 December 1154, in which the count refers to himself as graui infirmitate detemptus, "detained by a grave illness". The charter may have a basis in fact. There are also two charters of donation dated 1 July 1155 by Fernán and his brother Vermudo to the monastery Fernán had founded at Sobrado dos Monxes. If authentic, these charters would push his date of death back a half-year. Finally, there are two documents in the archives of Sobrado dated to June 1160 and 1161, confirmed by a comes dompnus Fernandus senior in Monteroso et in Traua ("count Don Fernando, lord in Monterroso and in Traba") and a comes dompnus Fernandus in Traua et in Aranga et in Monteroso ("count Don Fernando in Traba and in Aranga and in Monterroso"), respectively. These are probably copyists' errors for Gundesaluus Fernandi, the name of his son. Whatever his date of death, Fernán was buried in the cloister of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Fernán raised the scion of at least one other aristocratic family in his household. The count Froila Ramírez
Froila Ramírez
Froila or Fruela Ramírez was a Leonese nobleman and a scion of the Flagínez clan. His power and influence lay chiefly in the heart of the province of León and its west, but it extended into Galicia and the Asturias.-Private activity:...

 was raised at his court and in 1170, whether before their marriage or after is not know, he granted the monastery of Morás
Moras
Moras is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France....

to his wife, Fernán's granddaughter, Urraca González, "out of love for your grandfather, Count Don Fernando, who raised me, and because of faithful service when I was accepted by your father, Count Don Gonzalo".
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