Gonzalo Menéndez

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For the Argentine footballer, see Gonzalo Menéndez (footballer).
Gonzalo Menéndez
Count of Portucale
Reignc. 950-997
PredecessorHermenegildo González and Mumadona Dias
SuccessorMenendo González
IssueMenendo González
FatherHermenegildo González
MotherMumadona Dias

Gonzalo Menéndez (or Gonçalo Mendes) (fl. 950–997) was a

Count of Portugal in the Kingdom of León. He regularly carries the title count (comes), the highest in the kingdom, in surviving documents. He may have used the title magnus dux portucalensium ("great duke of the Portuguese").[1]
His name in contemporary records is usually spelled Gundisaluus Menendiz.

Gonzalo was a son of count Hermenegildo González and Mumadona Dias, and named for his grandfather, count Gonçalo Betotes [pt]. His father was dead by 950, when his widow distributed some of his lands. In the pertinent document Gonzalo is mentioned for the first time (24 July 950).

Life

Opposition to Sancho I and Ramiro III

In 966, Gonzalo assassinated

Vermudo II
over Sancho I and his son Ramiro III.

Aristocratic quarrels

A dispute between Gonzalo's mother,

Pazóo, had appropriated the monastery of Santa Comba, which belonged to a monk name Odoino, who appealed to Mummadomna for support. She sent her sons Gonzalo and Ramiro to force Guntroda to return it volens nolens (willing or not). The conflict left to open warfare between the factions led by Gonzalo and Rodrigo. In 968 or perhaps 974, Gonzalo defeated his rival in the Battle of Aguioncha
.

Sobrado.[3]

Rebellion in favour of Vermudo II

In 981, after the Christian defeat at the

diocese of Iria Flavia in the fall of 982, for Vermudo's coronation.[6]

In 985 Gonzalo—and many other Portuguese magnates—had begun to employ the title duke (dux); Gonzalo is usually listed on documents ahead of all of them.[7] In 994 he was granted the city and territory of Braga. He was killed in 997 during Almanzor's campaign against Santiago de Compostela.

Possible embassy to Córdoba

On 12 August (16 Shawwal) 971, according to the

Count of Coimbra
.

Marriage and issue

Sometime before 964, Gonzalo married Ilduara (Ildonza) Peláez, his first cousin, the daughter of his father's brother, Paio Gonçalves [pt], Count of Deza, by the latter's wife, Hermesenda Gutiérrez, daughter of Count Gutier Menéndez and sister of Saint Rudesind. She is first mentioned, though not as his wife, in 961. She was dead by 983, for in that year he appears married to a Hermesinda (Ermesenda). She was still living in 1008. All of Gonzalo's six children came by his first wife. His eldest sons, Ramiro (living 986) and Rosendo (living 1014), played little part in politics compared to his third son, the aforementioned Menendo. Besides these he had a younger son, Diego, and two daughters: Toda, who married the alférez Rodrigo Ordóñez, and Mumadona (Muniadomna), who was dead by 1013.

Notes

  1. ^ His son Menendo certainly used the title dux magnus (great duke).
  2. ^ Abdurrahman Ali El-Hajji (1965), "Christian States in Northern Spain During the Umayyad Period (138–366 A.H./A.D. 755–976): The Borders of those States, their kings, Internal Relations; Its Influence on their Relations and Motives for their Diplomatic Relations with the Muslims," Islamic Quarterly, 9(1/2), 51; Roger Collins (1983), Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400–1000 (Macmillan), 242.
  3. ^ Lucky K. Pick, "Dominissima, prudentissima: Elvira, First Queen-Regent of León", 48.
  4. ^ Alfonso Sánchez Candeira (1950), "La reina Velasquita de Lëón y su descendencia," Hispania, 10(40), 465–66. See note 40 for a list of rebels.
  5. ^ "King Vermudo, son of Lord Ordoño"
  6. ^ José-Luis Martín (1965), "Pelayo Rodríguez, obispo de Santiago (977–985)," Anuario de estudios medievales, 2, 471–72.
  7. ^ Sánchez Candeira, 473.
  8. ^ Gonzalo Martínez Díez (2005), El condado de Castilla, 711–1038: La historia frente a la leyenda (Marcial Pons Historia), 464.
Preceded by Count of Portugal
950–999 		Succeeded by
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