Pedro Ansúrez

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The 16th century tomb for Pedro Ansúrez in the Cathedral of Valladolid - his coat of arms was adopted by the Counts of Urgell.

Pedro Ansúrez († 1117/1118) was a Spanish nobleman in the late 11th and early 12th centuries who held a prominent position at the courts of the Leonese-Castilian monarch Alfonso VI. (1065-1109) and Urraca (1109-1126).

Life

As the younger son of Count Assur Díaz, Pedro belonged to the Banu Gómez family clan , whose land holdings stretched around Saldaña and Liébana along the Río Carrión , on the border of the kingdoms of León and Castile . Pedro first appeared as a documented witness on July 24, 1067, here already in the high position of majordomus of King Alfonso VI. of León, and on May 1, 1071 he was first given the title of Count . He was considered a close confidante of the king since his youth and was probably the same age as the king. Pedro was the largest landowner in the Tierra de Campos as lord of the land between Zamora and Tordesillas along the Duero . He significantly expanded the largely depopulated Valladolid on the Río Pisuerga as his residence and took care of its repopulation ( repoblación ) , which is why he is regarded as the actual founder of this city. In the presence of the royal court, the Colegiata de Santa María was inaugurated here on May 21, 1095, the construction of which was a personal concern of Pedro.

From King Alfonso VI. Pedro was appointed tutor of the young Infanta Urraca, shortly after her marriage to Raymond of Burgundy in 1097. Seven years later (1104) he was then forced to exile from the Kingdom of León-Castile under unspecified circumstances. The later written tradition of Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada gives an intrigue of the Infanta Urraca as the reason for this, but this is considered to be untrustworthy. A conflict over the succession to the throne is considered to be the decisive factor, in which Pedro, as part of his wards and their husbands, is probably in dispute with Alfonso VI. came who had chosen the later son Sancho Alfónsez as his successor instead of his daughter . Pedro found exile in the Catalan county of Urgell and immediately took over the government for his underage grandson Ermengol VI. whose father was killed in an offensive by the Moors . In league with Count Raimund Berengar III. from Barcelona he immediately organized a counter-offensive and in the autumn of 1105 captured the strategically important fortress town of Balaguer , bringing the territorial expansion of Urgel to a conclusion.

The death of the Infante Sancho Alfónsez in 1108 made it possible for Pedro to return to the Leonese court, since Urraca had now moved up to the first place in the succession. After the death of Alfonso VI. he was on July 22, 1109 in León one of the documentary witnesses of the first document issued by Queen Urraca, which he signed as "Count of Carrión" (Carrionensium comes) . In October 1109 he was in Monzón de Campos at the wedding of the queen with Alfonso I of Aragon and probably took part in the victorious battle of Valtierra against the Moors on January 24, 1110 . In the last years of his life, Pedro was a loyal follower and advisor to the Queen, whom he supported in her arguments with her husband and insubordinate vassals. In their documents, he usually appears as the first witness, which documents his outstanding position. On December 9th, 1117 he testified to the proclamation of the young Alfonso VII as imperator by his mother. This is also the last written note on his person, which is why his death is scheduled between December 1117 and spring 1118.

Sarcophagus of Alfonso Pérez, son of Pedro Ansúrez, who was buried in San Benito in Sahagún .

Marriages and offspring

Pedro Ansúrez was married a total of three times, with only the children from his second marriage to Eilo Alfonso († 1110/1114) reaching adulthood. These were among others:

  • Alfonso Pérez († December 8, 1093).
  • Mayor Pérez († after April 23, 1148); 1. ∞ with Álvar Fáñez († 1114), dux of Toledo; 2. ∞ with Martín Pérez de Tordesillas.
  • Urraca Pérez († before September 17, 1114).
  • María Pérez; ∞ with Count Ermengol V. von Urgell († 1102).

literature

  • Justiniano Rodriguez Fernández: Pedro Ansúrez. León, Imprenta Provincial. 1966.
  • Simon Barton: The Count, the Bishop and the Abbot: Armengol VI of Urgel and the Abbey of Valladolid , In: The English Historical Review , Vol. 111 (1996), pp. 85-103.
  • Bernard F. Reilly: The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca. 1109-1126. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1982, ISBN 0-691-05274-3 ( online ).
  • Bernard F. Reilly: The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI 1065-1109. Princeton University Press, 1988 ( online ).
  • Bernard F. Reilly: The Rediscovery of Count Pedro Ansúrez. In: Cross, Crescent and Conversion. Studies on Medieval Spain and Christendom in Memory of Richard Fletcher, ed. by Simon Barton, Peter Linehan (2008), pp. 109–126.

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Reilly (1988), §4, pp. 54-55.
  2. ↑ Archivo de la Catedral de León, Códice 11, ff. 24r – 25r. Colección diplomatica del Monasterio de Sahagún, Vol. 2, ed. by Marta Herrero de la Fuente in: Fuentes y Estudios de Historia Leonesa, Vol. 37 (1988), No. 699, p. 420.
  3. ↑ Crónica Najerense, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1966), p. 113.
  4. ↑ See Reilly (1988), §11, p. 229.
  5. ↑ See Reilly (1988), §12, p. 250.
  6. ↑ See Reilly (1982), §1, p. 14.
  7. ↑ See Reilly (1988), §16, pp. 331-335.
  8. ↑ See Reilly (1988), §15, pp. 319-320.
  9. ↑ Colección documental del Archivo de la Catedral de Léon (775-1230), Vol. 5, ed. by José María Fernández Catón, in: Fuentes y Estudios de Historia Leonesa, Vol. 46 (1990), No. 1327, p. 3. Cf. Reilly (1982), §2, p. 56.
  10. ↑ See Reilly (1982), §2, pp. 59 and 65.
  11. ↑ Colección diplomatica del Monasterio de Sahagún, Vol. 4, ed. by José Antonio Fernández Flórez, in: Fuentes y Estudios de Historia Leonesa, Vol. 38 (1991), pp. 51-52.
  12. ↑ See Reilly (1982), §4, pp. 126–127 and Rodriguez Fernández (1966), p. 84.
  13. ↑ Eilo is last mentioned in 1110 with her husband in a donation to Santa María in Pamplona. Colección diplomática de la catedral de Pamplona I (829-1243), ed. by José Goñi Gaztambide (1997), no. 117, p. 127. On September 17, 1114, Pedro Ansúrez commemorated her in memoriam in a donation to Santa María in Valladolid. Documentos de la Iglesia Colegial de Santa María la Mayor de Valladolid I, ed. by Manuel Mañueco Villalobos, José Zurita Nieto (1917), no.XVII, p. 91.

Web links

Commons : Pedro Ansúrez  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Pedro Ansúrez
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish nobleman, follower of King Alfonso VI. of León-Castile and Queen Urraca of León-Castile
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH 1117 or 1118