Rodrigo (d.873) was the first count of Castile, reigning from about 850 to his death. Some
Iberian MuslimAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
writers refer to a brother or brother-in-law of
Ordoño IOrdoño I was King of Asturias from 850 until his death.-Biography:He was born in Oviedo, where he spent his early life in the court of Alfonso II. He was probably associated with the crown from an early age....
, while others assign the same role to a
Ruderick without stating a relationship, and the references have been interpreted as referring to the same man. This has been used by authors such as Fernández de Béthencourt, writing in 1897, to suggest that count Rodrigo was a son of
Ramiro I of AsturiasRamiro I became King of Asturias in 842 and reigned until his death. Son of Bermudo I, he succeeded Alfonso II.First, he had to deal with the usurper Nepocian, defeating him at the Battle of the Bridge of Cornellana, by the river Narcea. Ramiro then removed the system of election which allowed his...
and his supposed second wife, 'Urraca Paterna' (actually just Paterna, Urraca being the wife of a later prince Ramiro) and half-brother of Ordoño, but Barrau-Dihago dismissed this interpretation for want of evidence.
He was created governor of the eastern march (
marca oriental) of the realm, which would later become the county of Castile, by Ordoño, possibly upon the latter's assumption of the crown.
Rodrigo (d.873) was the first count of Castile, reigning from about 850 to his death. Some
Iberian MuslimAl-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492....
writers refer to a brother or brother-in-law of
Ordoño IOrdoño I was King of Asturias from 850 until his death.-Biography:He was born in Oviedo, where he spent his early life in the court of Alfonso II. He was probably associated with the crown from an early age....
, while others assign the same role to a
Ruderick without stating a relationship, and the references have been interpreted as referring to the same man. This has been used by authors such as Fernández de Béthencourt, writing in 1897, to suggest that count Rodrigo was a son of
Ramiro I of AsturiasRamiro I became King of Asturias in 842 and reigned until his death. Son of Bermudo I, he succeeded Alfonso II.First, he had to deal with the usurper Nepocian, defeating him at the Battle of the Bridge of Cornellana, by the river Narcea. Ramiro then removed the system of election which allowed his...
and his supposed second wife, 'Urraca Paterna' (actually just Paterna, Urraca being the wife of a later prince Ramiro) and half-brother of Ordoño, but Barrau-Dihago dismissed this interpretation for want of evidence.
He was created governor of the eastern march (
marca oriental) of the realm, which would later become the county of Castile, by Ordoño, possibly upon the latter's assumption of the crown. He took part in Ordoño's
RepoblaciónThe repoblación was the ninth-century repopulating of a large region between the River Duero and the Cantabrian Cordillera which had been depopulated in the early years of the Reconquista....
, repopulating
AmayaAmaya 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.* Amaya, Spain, a small village in Spain...
in 860. He was at the side of the king in many battles of the
ReconquistaThe Reconquista was a period of 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula succeeded in retaking the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslims...
, including the siege and sack of
AlbeldaAlbelda is a municipality located in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 877 inhabitants....
in 859.
In 863, the 'brother of Ordoño' fought Muslim troops, and in 865 Rodrigo was defeated magnificently at Bureba by the troops of the emir of Córdoba, resulting in the sacking of his castles and those of other noblemen in Castile, which brought to a temporary halt the process of reconquest and repopulation of the area. Between 867 and 868, he assisted in the suppression of the
AlavésÁlava is a province of northern Spain in the southern part of the Basque Autonomous Community. The province numbers a population of 301,926 inhabitants in an area of 2,963 km²....
rebellion of the
BasqueThe Basques are the native people of the Basque Country .The Basques as an ethnic group primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country, a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-eastern Spain...
magnate Eglyón. For this service he was made count of Álava. He governed that county until 870, when Vela Jiménez is recorded as count. He last appears in a document dated 18 April 873, and is said to have died 5 November of the same year, being succeeded by his son
Diego RodríguezDiego Rodríguez Porcelos , son and successor of Rodrigo, count of Castile, was the repopulator of Burgos and Ubierna. He did not succeed his father in Álava, however; that went to Vela Jiménez....
.
His role as founding count of Castile has led to an amplification of his actual activities, with forged charters pushing his rule in the county a decade earlier than it can reliably be traced, and this process has also led to the duplication of himself and his son, in the form of an invention of earlier counts Rodrigo (supposed brother of
AureliusAurelius was the King of Asturias from 768 to his death.Born in León, he was the son of Fruela and brother of Alfonso I of Asturias. He was thus a cousin of his predecessor Fruela the Cruel...
and
Vermudo IBermudo I , called the Deacon or the Monk, was the King of Asturias from 788 or 789 until his abdication in 791. He was a son of Fruela, brother of Alfonso I, and a brother of Aurelius...
) and Diego.
Sources
- Barrau-Dihigo, L. Recherches sur l'histoire politique du royaume Asturien (718-910). Revue Hispanique. 52: 1-360 (1921).
- Pérez de Urbel, Justo. "Los Primeros Siglos de la Reconquista (Años 711-1038)" in España Christiana: Comienzo de la Reconquista (711-1038), vol. 6 of Historia de España [dirigida por Don Ramón Menéndez Pidal] (1964), 204-210.