Sisnando Davides
Sisnando (or Sesnando) Davides (also Davídez, Davídiz, or Davidiz, and sometimes just David; died 25 August 1091) was a
Much information can be gleaned about Sisnando's life from the detailed narratives that begin the diplomas issued by his
Service with Seville and León
He was educated in Córdoba by Muslims. He was captured during a raid by Abbad II al-Mu'tadid of Seville and taken into the service of the latter.[1] To the Arabs he was known as Shishnando.[1] He served al-Mu'tadid as an administrator and ambassador, but he left Seville and entered the service of Ferdinand I of León in an identical capacity.[1]
In the following years the towns of Galicia from Guimarães down to Coimbra were captured from the Moors, the latter on Sisnando's advice in 1064[2][3] or 1069,[1] with Sisnando leading the siege and being granted the countship of the region south of the Douro from Lamego to the sea after his success.[4] He took the title aluazir (vizier) de Coimbra.[2]
Sisnando continued in the service of Ferdinand's successor,
Sisnando thrice (1076, 1080, and 1088) acted as an envoy from Alfonso to the
Rule of Toledo
Sisnando was appointed the first governor (amil) of Toledo after its fall in 1085 and he implemented the Alfonsine policy of tolerance to the Mozarabs and Mudéjars (Muslims) of the region.[1][8] His appointment was probably related to his Mozarabic roots.[9]
Sisnando counselled Alfonso to maintain good relations with
Within a short time of the conquest of Toledo Sisnando fell into disfavour with
Within six months of the conquest of Toledo, Sisnando was back in Coimbra, but he was in Toledo for the consecration of
Rule of Portugal
The primary reason for the re-creation of a county around Coimbra, separate from the northern
A judicial document of 1077, in the name of Pelagio Gunsaluizi, an enemy of Sisnando's, refers to Sisnando as domno de tota Sancta Maria et Colimbria ("lord of all Santa Maria and Coimbra").[15] In a document dated 25 April 1085, Sisnando made a grant to Pedro, an abbot who had recently fled to Portugal from al-Andalus. The document refers to Sisnando as magnum ducem et consulem fidelem domnum Sisenandum ("great duke and faithful consul, lord Sisnando").[15]
Formation of the diocese of Coimbra
The appearance of a second ecclesiastical center on the
Between 1076 and 1080, while he was at Zaragoza, Sisnando is said to have finally convinced Paterno to come west and take up the see of Coimbra.[2] But the document of 1 March 1088 on which this claim is made is not trustworthy and the notion that the king sent Sisnando to Zaragoza for just such a purpose as recruiting a bishop is false.[17] A Paternus was bishop of Coimbra as early as 20 November 1078.[17] He is last mentioned as bishop on 1 March 1088 and never appears as a confirmant of a royal document.
Apparently part of the royal agenda for the
Alfonso VI seems to have lost patience with the state of diocesan affairs in Coimbra and had secured the election of a new bishop at Eastertime of 1091.[16] The new bishop, Cresconius, was the former abbot of Saint Bartholomew of Tui and was essentially a royal choice. He was consecrated by the archbishop of Toledo with the assistance of the bishops of Tui and Ourense.[16] The participation of these latter, as well as later events, suggests that Cresconius would have been acceptable to Raymond of Burgundy also. But the consecration and installation of the royal candidate at Coimbra may have had to wait on the death of Sisnando.[18]
Last campaign and death
On 15 March 1087 Sisnando dictated a testament in procinctu on the occasion of his leaving for a campaign with Alfonso against Yusuf ibn Tashfin, the Almoravid general.[8] Sisnando died on 25 August 1091, after more than twenty years of semi-independent rule at Coimbra.[16] He was buried in the Old Cathedral of Coimbra and was succeeded by his son-in-law Martim Moniz de Montemor.[8][16]
The County of Coimbra disappeared as an autonomous fief in 1093, having been integrated into the
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Catlos 2004, p. 77.
- ^ a b c d e f g Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 30.
- ^ a b Reilly 1989, p. 22.
- ^ a b Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 36.
- ^ Reilly 1989, p. 118.
- ^ Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 34.
- ^ Catlos 2004, p. 86.
- ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 31.
- ^ Reilly 1989, p. 173.
- ^ Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, pp. 37–38.
- ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 41.
- ^ Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 39.
- ^ a b Reilly 1989, p. 118 n3.
- ^ Reilly 1989, p. 86 n72.
- ^ a b Menéndez Pidal & García Gómez 1947, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Reilly 1989, p. 237.
- ^ a b Reilly 1989, p. 144.
- ^ Reilly 1989, p. 238.
Sources
- Catlos, Brian A. (2004). The Victors and the Vanquished: Christians and Muslims of Catalonia and Aragon, 1050 – 1300. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth Series, 59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82234-3.
- )
- Reilly, Bernard F. (1989). The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065 – 1109. Princeton: Princeton University Press.