Diego López II de Haro

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For other people of the same name, see Diego López de Haro.

Diego López II de Haro
Lord of Biscay
Reign1170–1214
PredecessorLope Díaz I de Haro
SuccessorLope Díaz II de Haro
Bornc. 1152
Died16 September 1214
BuriedSanta María la Real of Nájera
Noble familyHaro
Spouse(s)María Manrique de Lara
Toda Pérez de Azagra
Issue
among others...		Lope Díaz II de Haro
FatherLope Díaz I de Haro
MotherAldonza Rodríguez

Diego López II de Haro called the Good or the Bad (c. 1152 – 16 September 1214). Son of

Alfonso VIII (1158–1214). He played a decisive role in the rise of the Haro dynasty, as well as in the construction of the nobiliary identity of his group, who was to dominate the Castilian political society during the whole 13th century. A publicity strife around this key figure between his successors and the monarchy, in a moment of deep political troubles, led to the elaboration of his dark image and his golden legend at the end of the 13th century, and the invention of his opposite nicknames.[1]

Role at Alfonso VIII's court and exile strategy

He did not attend the royal court with any regularity before 1178, maybe because of the influence exerted by the magnates of the Lara family. Between 1179 and 1183, he went into exile in Navarra. He went back to the Castilian court in a strong position, obtaining the office of alférez, standard bearer, one of the two most prestigious with that of great major-domo. The rise of his parents in the neighboring kingdom of León let him catch sight of better opportunities in 1187, when his sister

Alfonso VIII
.

Governments

His first exile of 1179-1183 allowed his to recover the territories his father had ruled, La Rioja, Old Castile and Trasmiera. He also obtained Asturias (of Santillana) and the Bureba. After his second exile, he extended even more his area of influence in Northeastern Castile, to the point of ruling "from Almazán to the sea" (1196). In 1204, in order to urge him to come back in Castile,

Alfonso VIII acknowledged his ownership of the whole of Bizcaya, a Basque territory his ancestors had ruled back in the 11th century. This instrument may have meant the definitive conversion of this government into an inalienable fief, that would be the territorial basis of the Haro during the whole 13th century. He added Durando in 1212, a gift of the king no long after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. He took a decisive step towards the patrimonialization of many of those governments, sharing them with his elder son, Lope Díaz II de Haro
. Lope thus received the governments of Old Castile in 1210, Asturias de Santillana in 1211, and Álava en 1213.

Construction of dynastic identity

Diego López II strengthened the part of the head of family among his clan, permitting the shift from the "horizontal" conception of kinship to the "vertical" system of dynasty. He was the first of his family to use an apellido or family name, that notaries start to attribute to him in documents from 1184 on.

Mythified character

Arms of the House of Haro.

Diego López II's memory quickly underwent attacks. As soon as 1216, during the regency of the Lara brothers, when

Alfonso VIII, appeared towards the end of the 13th century. During 1340, the books of the Portuguese count Pedro de Barcelos, the Crónica Geral de 1344 and the Livros de linhagens definitely turned the biography of Diego López II into a myth. This author relates episodes allegedly historical, but similar to well known literary themes from Brittany (Arthurian romances) and French epic. He converted him into an ambiguous character, in a pseudo-historical attempt to synthesize his dark image and his golden legend. In the middle of the 15th century, Lope García de Salázar
, in his Crónica de Vizcaya, finally imagined the nickname "the Bad" to explain the contradictions in his biography. His memory suffered later other deformations, according to the interests of the 16th-century genealogists working for the nobility, and, from the 17th century on, of Basque historians. This time, it was the myth of the "independent seigneury" of Biscaya that was at stake between Basque fuerists and later nationalists, and their contradictors, until the first half of the 20th century.

Marriage and children

He married first with Maria Manrique de Lara, fourth daughter of Manrique Perez de Lara, I señor de Molina. Their son was:

He married secondly with Toda Pérez de Azagra, daughter of Pedro Rodriguez de Azagra and Toda (or Tota) Perez, and had several children:

Diego López II de Haro
Born: circa 1152 Died: 16 September 1214
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Lord of Biscay

1170–1214 		Succeeded by

Bibliography

  • Salazar y Castro, Luis (1959): Historia genealógica de la Casa de Haro, Dalmiro de la Válgoma y Díaz-Varela, Madrid.
  • Baury, Ghislain, « Diego López 'le bon' et Diego López 'le mauvais' : comment s'est construite la mémoire d'un magnat du règne d'Alphonse VIII de Castille », Berceo, n°144, 2003, p. 37-92, [1].
  • Baury, Ghislain, « Los ricoshombres y el rey en Castilla : El linaje Haro, 1076-1322 », Territorio, Sociedad y Poder : Revista de Estudios Medievales, 6, 2011, p. 53-72, [2].

Notes

  1. ^ Ghislain Baury, "Diego López 'le bon' et Diego López 'le mauvais' : comment s'est construite la mémoire d'un magnat du règne d'Alphonse VIII de Castille", Berceo, n. 144, 2003, p. 37-92. http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=698041
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