Gonzalo Ruiz
Encyclopedia
Gonzalo Ruiz or Rodríguez (fl.
1122–1180 or 1146–1202) was the ruler of La Bureba
(or Burueba) throughout much of the mid-twelfth century. He held important positions at the courts of successive Castilian monarchs and guarded the frontier with Navarre
, to whose Jiménez rulers
he was related. He was a cultured man, with connexions to at least one, possibly two, troubadour
s. He may have written poetry himself, though in what language is not known.
(died 1146), Count of Bureba, and Elvira Ramírez, sister of García VI of Navarre
. His parents were married no later than 1137. He was grandson of count Gómez González, foremost noble and reputed lover of Urraca of León and Castile, and great-grandson of count Gonzalo Salvadores, a hero of the Lara family. Other families, notably the Girón, Sarmiento, and Sandoval, have attempted to claim him.
Gonzalo's first wife was Sancha Fernández, illegitimate daughter of Fernando Pérez de Traba and the Portuguese countess Teresa Alfonso
. She had previously married Álvaro Rodríguez and then Pedro Alfonso. She was with the comes domnus Gunsalvus (lord count Gonzalo) in April 1178, when the two of them made a donation to the Knights Hospitaller
. Gonzalo's second wife was an obscure woman named Estefanía (López?), who is only recorded in 1205. Gonzalo's only known child was a daughter, Elvira, who married Pedro Ruiz de Guzmán. Another woman, Mayor (died after 1232), who married Fernando Núñez de Lara
(before 1203), may be a daughter of Gonzalo's.
in 1144, he signed the fuero
s of Pancorbo
in 1146, and in 1148 he was at Castro surit on May 2 and Burgos on May 10. In all he appears in twelve different locations, besides León and Navarre as mentioned above. The numerous references to him in Alfonso VII's
charters of 1147 suggests that he probably took part in the campaign against Almería
that year. On 20 November 1148 he is recorded in connexion with the Lara family. In 15 February 1149 Gonzalo is referred to in a document as filius comitis, "son of the count", indicating the highest noble status for his father in Castile. From that year on he was active at the court of Sancho III, but appears to have ceased to govern La Bureba. In 1156 he was ruler of La Bureba again and no longer alférez. In January 1158 he witnessed the king's granting of Calatrava
to the newly founded Order of Calatrava
. From then until 1165, during the minority of Alfonso VIII, he disappears from the record, but probably he was preoccupied by the invasions of La Bureba by both the Leonese and the Navarrese.
From 1165 to 1170 he was active throughout the kingdom as ruler of La Bureba. According to Gerónimo Zurita, a Gonzalo Ruiz was in southern France in 1170, which is corroborated by two contemporary documents. This Gonzalo was part of a troupe of Castilian magnates and clerics charged with meeting Eleanor's entourage at Bordeaux
and escorting her to Castile, through Aragon
in the central Pyrenees
because Navarre in the west was at war with Castile. This Gonzalo Ruiz was probably the ruler of La Bureba, a merindad
on the frontier with Navarre and consisting of the towns of Bribiesca, Pancorbo, Valpuesta, and Oña
.
He was the alférez del rey
of Castile from 1149 to 1155, though a Navarrese document of September 1158 names a Gonzalo Ruiz who was the alférez of the king, seemingly of Navarre but possibly a reference to Sancho III of Castile
. A Gundisalvus Roderici regis signifer (royal standard-bearer) appears in a Leonese
document of 18 April 1171, but since this Gundisalvus Roderici appears in no other such document he is probably to be identified with the Castilian Gonzalo. The only other Gonzalo Ruiz who appears in documents of this period (1165–73) was a monk of Corias
.
On 29 November 1171, Gonzalo signed a charter as "Gonzalo Ruiz de Bureba" for the first time. In 1173 he appears to have been granted the title of conde (count), the highest rank attainable at the time. Sometime after August 1175 Gonzalo was estranged from Alfonso VIII. He was at the Leonese court from 1176 to 1180. By 10 November 1180 he had reconciled with Alfonso, but he appears infrequently at court thereafter. He took to patronising religious foundations: a Cistercian monastery at Burgos
received a donation on 13 September 1185 and the Benedictine
monastery of San Salvador de Oña
—the intellectual capital of La Bureba—received two in 1193 and 1201.
Just as there is confusion over the beginning of the career of Gonzalo Ruiz, there are some confusions over the date of his death. According to Walter Pattison, sometime in or shortly after 1180 Gonzalo entered the monastery at Oña, which he had patronised. There he died and was buried; his tomb is still visible in the claustro de los caballeros (cloister of knights). Simon Barton cites a document from August 1202 that records Gonzalo's presence. The death of a Count Gonzalo (Gundisalvus comes) is recorded under 1205 in the Annales Compostellani
.
. Later that month Gonzalo sold Belorado to Alfonso VIII for 2,000 maravedís.
Gonzalo held several tenencias (tenancies) during his career. He was first recorded holding La Bureba on 8 March 1147, and he held it as late 1175. In 1177, while he was in exile in León, it was granted to Diego López II de Haro
, but it was returned to Gonzal by 31 December 1180. He was still in possession of it in 1183. Other tenancies he is recorded as holding are Asturias
(de Oviedo)
, Cabezón
, Carrión
, Liébana
, Montenegro
, Orna, Osma, Pancorbo, Pernía, Saldaña
, Sarria
, and Valdeprado
. A Gonzalo Ruiz, probably the same one, received the tenancy of Lara in 1193.
of twelve contemporary troubadours, one "Guossalbo Roitz" is listed among them. This name is the Occitanised form of the Old Spanish name "Gonçalvo Roiz", which is modern Spanish "Gonzalo Ruiz". Ruiz is not a surname but a patronymic
meaning "son of Rodrigo (i.e. Ruy)". If Peire's satire was performed at Puivert
before an audience that included the satirised troubadours and the entourage of Eleanor of England
, who was passing through Gascony
on her way to marry Alfonso VIII of Castile
, then the identification of Guossalbo Roitz with Gonzalo Ruiz of Bureba becomes probable. Peire has this to say about his eleventh "victim" in lines 67 to 72:
Peire is making fun of Gonzalo's well-known military career. In fact, Peire may have learned about Gonzalo on a trip he made to Castile in the spring of 1158. If he did not meet Gonzalo at the Castilian court, where Gonzalo undoubtedly was between January and February, then he may have met him at the meeting of Sancho III of Castile
, Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona, and Sancho VI of Navarre
in the summer of that year.
Gonzalo Ruiz is also the name of a dedicatee of Quan vei pels vergiers desplegar, a sirventes
of Bertran de Born
, usually dated to the spring of 1184. This may be the same Gonzalo referred to in Peire d'Alvernhe's song, but Martí de Riquer i Morera
suggests instead Gonzalo Ruiz de Azagra. This identity is strengthened by a reference in the poem to Pere Rois, probably Pedro Ruiz de Azagra
, lord of Albarracín
and the brother of Gonzalo de Azagra. Bertran's tornada
goes like this:
This poem is the second of two violent outbursts by Bertran against Alfonso II of Aragon
in 1184. At that time Alfonso had allied with Richard the Lion-hearted and was at the side of the latter during the suppression of a rebellion in the Limousin
—where Bertran was Richard's vassal—and Périgord
. Fraga
, which had been conquered by Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona in 1149 (after two failed attempts by Alfonso the Battler
) and divided between the Montcadas and a Templar
barony, lay on the border of Catalonia and Aragon. Evidence from line 18 and from the song's razo
suggests that perhaps the Quan vei was intended to be brought by Guillem de Berguedà, a Catalan troubadour and friend of Bertran and mutual enemy of Alfonso II, to Fraga and there transferred to Gonzalo.
Both Bertran's poem and Peire's attest the influence of the troubadours and their poetry on Navarre by the 1170s. If Gonzalo Ruiz is de Azagra, it should be noted that his brother's daughter, Tota Pérez, was married to Diego López de Haro—with whom the lord of La Bureba had a connexion—who was a great patron of troubadours. Rigaut de Barbezill, Peire Vidal
, and Aimeric de Pegulhan all spent time at his court, as did Rodrigo Díaz de los Cameros
, his son-in-law, one of the earliest Galician-Portuguese troubadours. Riquer attaches the Castilian embassy in France circa 1170 with Gonzalo Ruiz de Azagra.
Taken together these references to Gonzalo in two Occitan songs of the late twelfth century suggest that Gonzalo was a troubadour or at least a ioculator who could sing Occitan songs. Ramón Menéndez Pidal
, in his Poesía juglaresca (1957), argued that "Gonzalvo Ruiz y Pedro de Monzón poetizaban en castellano, o acaso el de Monzón en aragonés" ("Gonzalo Ruis and Pere de Montsó
wrote poetry in Castilian, or in the case of Montsó Aragonese
").
Floruit
Floruit , abbreviated fl. , is a Latin verb meaning "flourished", denoting the period of time during which something was active...
1122–1180 or 1146–1202) was the ruler of La Bureba
La Bureba
La Bureba is a comarca in the northeast of the Province of Burgos in Castilla–León, Spain. It is criss-crossed by several small rivers and arroyos that empty into the Ebro: the Homino, Oroncillo, Oca, and Tirón.-Geography:...
(or Burueba) throughout much of the mid-twelfth century. He held important positions at the courts of successive Castilian monarchs and guarded the frontier with Navarre
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
, to whose Jiménez rulers
Jiménez dynasty
The Jiménez or Ximenes were an Iberian ruling family from the 10th century to the 13th century. They were the first Europeanisers of Spain and brought her back within the wider European political scene while also giving her the political character and division that persisted until the end of the...
he was related. He was a cultured man, with connexions to at least one, possibly two, troubadour
Troubadour
A troubadour was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages . Since the word "troubadour" is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a trobairitz....
s. He may have written poetry himself, though in what language is not known.
Ancestry and marriages
Gonzalo was a son of Rodrigo GómezRodrigo Gómez
Rodrigo Gómez was a Castilian nobleman and military leader under Alfonso VII. He governed large parts of Asturias and northern Castile, was involved in the politics with neighbouring Navarre, to whose royal family he was related by marriage, and took part in the Reconquista...
(died 1146), Count of Bureba, and Elvira Ramírez, sister of García VI of Navarre
García VI of Navarre
García Ramírez, sometimes García IV,V, VI or VII , called the Restorer , was Lord of Monzón and Logroño, and, from 1134, King of Navarre. He "restored" the independence of the Navarrese crown after 58 years of union with the Kingdom of Aragon.-Early years:García was born in the early twelfth century...
. His parents were married no later than 1137. He was grandson of count Gómez González, foremost noble and reputed lover of Urraca of León and Castile, and great-grandson of count Gonzalo Salvadores, a hero of the Lara family. Other families, notably the Girón, Sarmiento, and Sandoval, have attempted to claim him.
Gonzalo's first wife was Sancha Fernández, illegitimate daughter of Fernando Pérez de Traba and the Portuguese countess Teresa Alfonso
Theresa, Countess of Portugal
Theresa of Portugal was the first ruler of independent Portugal...
. She had previously married Álvaro Rodríguez and then Pedro Alfonso. She was with the comes domnus Gunsalvus (lord count Gonzalo) in April 1178, when the two of them made a donation to the Knights Hospitaller
Knights Hospitaller
The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...
. Gonzalo's second wife was an obscure woman named Estefanía (López?), who is only recorded in 1205. Gonzalo's only known child was a daughter, Elvira, who married Pedro Ruiz de Guzmán. Another woman, Mayor (died after 1232), who married Fernando Núñez de Lara
Fernando Núñez de Lara
Fernando Núñez de Lara was a count of the House of Lara. He spent most of career in the service of the Kingdom of Castile, but at times served the neighbouring Kingdom of León as well...
(before 1203), may be a daughter of Gonzalo's.
Political and military activities
As ruler of La Bureba (tenente Boroviam), Gonzalo appears over fifty times in contemporary documents beginning in 1122. His sphere of activity was also very wide: he was in BurgosBurgos
Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...
in 1144, he signed the fuero
Fuero
Fuero , Furs , Foro and Foru is a Spanish legal term and concept.The word comes from Latin forum, an open space used as market, tribunal and meeting place...
s of Pancorbo
Pancorbo
Pancorbo is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 464 inhabitants....
in 1146, and in 1148 he was at Castro surit on May 2 and Burgos on May 10. In all he appears in twelve different locations, besides León and Navarre as mentioned above. The numerous references to him in Alfonso VII's
Alfonso VII of León
Alfonso VII , born Alfonso Raimúndez, called the Emperor , became the King of Galicia in 1111 and King of León and Castile in 1126. Alfonso first used the title Emperor of All Spain, alongside his mother Urraca, once his mother vested him with the direct rule of Toledo in 1116...
charters of 1147 suggests that he probably took part in the campaign against Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...
that year. On 20 November 1148 he is recorded in connexion with the Lara family. In 15 February 1149 Gonzalo is referred to in a document as filius comitis, "son of the count", indicating the highest noble status for his father in Castile. From that year on he was active at the court of Sancho III, but appears to have ceased to govern La Bureba. In 1156 he was ruler of La Bureba again and no longer alférez. In January 1158 he witnessed the king's granting of Calatrava
Calatrava la Vieja
Calatrava la Vieja is a medieval site and original nucleus of the Order of Calatrava. It is now part of the Archaeological Parks of the Community of Castile-La Mancha. Situated at Carrión de Calatrava, Calatrava during the High Middle Ages was the only important city in the Guadiana River valley...
to the newly founded Order of Calatrava
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164.-Origins and Foundation:...
. From then until 1165, during the minority of Alfonso VIII, he disappears from the record, but probably he was preoccupied by the invasions of La Bureba by both the Leonese and the Navarrese.
From 1165 to 1170 he was active throughout the kingdom as ruler of La Bureba. According to Gerónimo Zurita, a Gonzalo Ruiz was in southern France in 1170, which is corroborated by two contemporary documents. This Gonzalo was part of a troupe of Castilian magnates and clerics charged with meeting Eleanor's entourage at Bordeaux
Bordeaux
Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...
and escorting her to Castile, through Aragon
Kingdom of Aragon
The Kingdom of Aragon was a medieval and early modern kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, corresponding to the modern-day autonomous community of Aragon, in Spain...
in the central Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
because Navarre in the west was at war with Castile. This Gonzalo Ruiz was probably the ruler of La Bureba, a merindad
Merindad
Merindad is a Mediaeval Spanish administrative term that refers to a country subdivision smaller than a province but larger than a municipality. It was roughly approximate to the English count or bailiff...
on the frontier with Navarre and consisting of the towns of Bribiesca, Pancorbo, Valpuesta, and Oña
Oña
Oña is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2009 census , the municipality has a population of 1,256 inhabitants.It is home to the monastery of San Salvador de Oña....
.
He was the alférez del rey
Alférez
Alférez is a junior officer rank also used in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The variant Alferes is used in Portugal and was formerly also used in Brazil. A naval variant, Frigate Alférez, is used in Spain, Dominican Republic and Peru. "Alférez" is often translated as ensign...
of Castile from 1149 to 1155, though a Navarrese document of September 1158 names a Gonzalo Ruiz who was the alférez of the king, seemingly of Navarre but possibly a reference to Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. During the Reconquista, in which he took an active part, he founded the Order of Calatrava...
. A Gundisalvus Roderici regis signifer (royal standard-bearer) appears in a Leonese
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
document of 18 April 1171, but since this Gundisalvus Roderici appears in no other such document he is probably to be identified with the Castilian Gonzalo. The only other Gonzalo Ruiz who appears in documents of this period (1165–73) was a monk of Corias
Corias
Corias is one of fifteen parishes in Pravia, a municipality within the province and autonomous community of Asturias, in northern Spain.The population is 232 .-Villages and hamlets:* Corias * Las Campas...
.
On 29 November 1171, Gonzalo signed a charter as "Gonzalo Ruiz de Bureba" for the first time. In 1173 he appears to have been granted the title of conde (count), the highest rank attainable at the time. Sometime after August 1175 Gonzalo was estranged from Alfonso VIII. He was at the Leonese court from 1176 to 1180. By 10 November 1180 he had reconciled with Alfonso, but he appears infrequently at court thereafter. He took to patronising religious foundations: a Cistercian monastery at Burgos
Burgos
Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...
received a donation on 13 September 1185 and the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery of San Salvador de Oña
San Salvador de Oña
San Salvador de Oña is a monastery in Oña, in the province of Burgos, central Spain.It was founded in 1011 by Sancho García, count of Castile, for his daughter Tigridia. In 1033 it was assigned to the Cistercian Order. In 1506 it went to the Benedictines of Valladolid. It was damaged during the...
—the intellectual capital of La Bureba—received two in 1193 and 1201.
Just as there is confusion over the beginning of the career of Gonzalo Ruiz, there are some confusions over the date of his death. According to Walter Pattison, sometime in or shortly after 1180 Gonzalo entered the monastery at Oña, which he had patronised. There he died and was buried; his tomb is still visible in the claustro de los caballeros (cloister of knights). Simon Barton cites a document from August 1202 that records Gonzalo's presence. The death of a Count Gonzalo (Gundisalvus comes) is recorded under 1205 in the Annales Compostellani
Annales Compostellani
The Annales Compostellani or Anales castellanos terceros are a set of Latin annals found in, and named after, Santiago de Compostela...
.
Tenancies and estates
In 1182 Gonzalo mortgaged some property to the monastery of Oña for 321 pieces of gold. On 4 May 1184 he sold his estate at Rioseras to Marín and his wife, Sancha, for 62 maravedís. In 1197, 1199, and 1201 he sold estates to the priory of San Pedro de Tejada. In 1200 he mortgaged some more land to the San Pedro for 82 maravedís. In August 1202 he made a grant to Fernando Núñez and his wife Mayor Garcés in exchange for the estate of BeloradoBelorado
Belorado is a village and municipality in Spain, belonging to the Province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon. It has a population of approximately 2,100 inhabitants. As well is known for being a city in the Way of Saint James....
. Later that month Gonzalo sold Belorado to Alfonso VIII for 2,000 maravedís.
Gonzalo held several tenencias (tenancies) during his career. He was first recorded holding La Bureba on 8 March 1147, and he held it as late 1175. In 1177, while he was in exile in León, it was granted to Diego López II de Haro
Diego López II de Haro
Diego López II de Haro called the Good or the Bad . Son of Lope Diaz I de Haro, count of Nájera and of countess Aldonza. He was a first rank magnate in the kingdom of Castile under King Alfonso VIII...
, but it was returned to Gonzal by 31 December 1180. He was still in possession of it in 1183. Other tenancies he is recorded as holding are Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
(de Oviedo)
Oviedo
Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
, Cabezón
Cabezon
Cabezón is the Spanish word for "stubborn" or "big-headed". Cabezon or cabezón may refer to:In Chile, cabezon means intelligent.-Fish species:* Cabezone , a species of fish in the Cottidae family...
, Carrión
Carrion
Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles...
, Liébana
Liébana
Liébana is a comarca of Cantabria .It covers 570 square kilometers and is located in the southwest of Cantabria, bordering Asturias, León and Palencia...
, Montenegro
Montenegro, Spain
Montenegro is located at in Andalucía, Spain; and currently has only 5 adult inhabitants. It is part of the municipality of Alpujarra de la Sierra.It is on the old GR 7 trading route that runs from Algeciras to Greece....
, Orna, Osma, Pancorbo, Pernía, Saldaña
Saldaña
-Places:*Saldana Municipality*Saldaña, Palencia*Saldaña, Colombia*Saldaña de Burgos*Saldaña River...
, Sarria
Sarria
Sarria is a municipality in the province of Lugo, northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Sarria is the most densely populate town on the French Way in Galicia, with 13 700 inhabitants...
, and Valdeprado
Valdeprado
Valdeprado is a municipality located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 21 inhabitants....
. A Gonzalo Ruiz, probably the same one, received the tenancy of Lara in 1193.
Relationship with the troubadours
In the song Chantarai d'aquest trobadors, a famous satire by Peire d'AlvernhePeire d'Alvernhe
Peire d'Alvernhe or d'Alvernha was an Auvergnat troubadour with twenty-one or twenty-four surviving works. He composed in an "esoteric" and "formally complex" style known as the trobar clus...
of twelve contemporary troubadours, one "Guossalbo Roitz" is listed among them. This name is the Occitanised form of the Old Spanish name "Gonçalvo Roiz", which is modern Spanish "Gonzalo Ruiz". Ruiz is not a surname but a patronymic
Patronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
meaning "son of Rodrigo (i.e. Ruy)". If Peire's satire was performed at Puivert
Puivert
Puivert is a commune in the Aude department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France.-History:In the 12th century a castle stood on this site which had strong links to both Cathars and troubadours...
before an audience that included the satirised troubadours and the entourage of Eleanor of England
Leonora of England
Eleanor of England was Queen of Castile and Toledo as wife of Alfonso VIII of Castile. She was a daughter of Henry II of England and his wife, Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine.-Early life:...
, who was passing through Gascony
Gascony
Gascony is an area of southwest France that was part of the "Province of Guyenne and Gascony" prior to the French Revolution. The region is vaguely defined and the distinction between Guyenne and Gascony is unclear; sometimes they are considered to overlap, and sometimes Gascony is considered a...
on her way to marry Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
, then the identification of Guossalbo Roitz with Gonzalo Ruiz of Bureba becomes probable. Peire has this to say about his eleventh "victim" in lines 67 to 72:
|
|
Peire is making fun of Gonzalo's well-known military career. In fact, Peire may have learned about Gonzalo on a trip he made to Castile in the spring of 1158. If he did not meet Gonzalo at the Castilian court, where Gonzalo undoubtedly was between January and February, then he may have met him at the meeting of Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. During the Reconquista, in which he took an active part, he founded the Order of Calatrava...
, Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona, and Sancho VI of Navarre
Sancho VI of Navarre
Sancho VI Garcés , called the Wise , was the king of Navarre from 1150 until his death in 1194....
in the summer of that year.
Gonzalo Ruiz is also the name of a dedicatee of Quan vei pels vergiers desplegar, a sirventes
Sirventes
The sirventes or serventes is a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. In early Catalan it became a sirventesch and was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, where it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type...
of Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born
Bertran de Born was a baron from the Limousin in France, and one of the major Occitan troubadours of the twelfth century.-Life and works:...
, usually dated to the spring of 1184. This may be the same Gonzalo referred to in Peire d'Alvernhe's song, but Martí de Riquer i Morera
Martí de Riquer i Morera
Martí de Riquer i Morera , 8th Count of Casa Dávalos and Grandee of Spain, PhD, is a Spanish Catalan Romance linguist, a recognised international authority in the field...
suggests instead Gonzalo Ruiz de Azagra. This identity is strengthened by a reference in the poem to Pere Rois, probably Pedro Ruiz de Azagra
Pedro Ruiz de Azagra
Pedro Ruiz de Azagra was a Navarrese nobleman and soldier who established the independent Lordship of Albarracín, which lasted until 1284. He was the second son of Rodrigo Pérez de Azagra...
, lord of Albarracín
Albarracín
Albarracín is Spanish town, in the province of Teruel, part of the autonomous community of Aragon. According to the 2007 census , the municipality had a population of 1075 inhabitants...
and the brother of Gonzalo de Azagra. Bertran's tornada
Tornada (Occitan literary term)
In Occitan lyric poetry, a tornada refers to a final, shorter stanza which is addressed to a patron, lady, or friend. They often contain useful information about the piece's composition and the troubadour's circle....
goes like this:
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This poem is the second of two violent outbursts by Bertran against Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II or Alfons I ; Huesca, 1-25 March 1157 – 25 April 1196), called the Chaste or the Troubadour, was the King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona from 1164 until his death. He was the son of Ramon Berenguer IV of Barcelona and Petronilla of Aragon and the first King of Aragon who was...
in 1184. At that time Alfonso had allied with Richard the Lion-hearted and was at the side of the latter during the suppression of a rebellion in the Limousin
Limousin (province)
Limousin is one of the traditional provinces of France around the city of Limoges. Limousin lies in the foothills of the western edge of the Massif Central, with cold weather in the winter...
—where Bertran was Richard's vassal—and Périgord
Périgord
The Périgord is a former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. It is divided into four regions, the Périgord Noir , the Périgord Blanc , the Périgord Vert and the Périgord Pourpre...
. Fraga
Fraga
Fraga is the major town of the comarca of Bajo Cinca in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is located by the river Cinca.King Alfonso I of Aragon died at its walls in 1134 while trying to conquer it...
, which had been conquered by Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona in 1149 (after two failed attempts by Alfonso the Battler
Alfonso the Battler
Alfonso I , called the Battler or the Warrior , was the king of Aragon and Navarre from 1104 until his death in 1134. He was the second son of King Sancho Ramírez and successor of his brother Peter I...
) and divided between the Montcadas and a Templar
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
barony, lay on the border of Catalonia and Aragon. Evidence from line 18 and from the song's razo
Razo
Raso is an islet of 8 square kilometers in the Barlavento archipelago of Cape Verde. Raso is flanked by the smaller Branco islet on the west and by São Nicolau island on its eastern side. Raso is uninhabited and is now the only home of the Raso Lark. The Brown Booby and Red-billed Tropicbird visit...
suggests that perhaps the Quan vei was intended to be brought by Guillem de Berguedà, a Catalan troubadour and friend of Bertran and mutual enemy of Alfonso II, to Fraga and there transferred to Gonzalo.
Both Bertran's poem and Peire's attest the influence of the troubadours and their poetry on Navarre by the 1170s. If Gonzalo Ruiz is de Azagra, it should be noted that his brother's daughter, Tota Pérez, was married to Diego López de Haro—with whom the lord of La Bureba had a connexion—who was a great patron of troubadours. Rigaut de Barbezill, Peire Vidal
Peire Vidal
Peire Vidal was a troubadour. According to his biography, he was born in Toulouse, the son of a furrier, and the greatest of singers....
, and Aimeric de Pegulhan all spent time at his court, as did Rodrigo Díaz de los Cameros
Rodrigo Díaz de los Cameros
Rodrigo Díaz de los Cameros was a Castilian magnate and one of the earliest Galician-Portuguese troubadours. He was the son of Diego Ximénez of La Rioja, the lord of Cameros, and Guiomar Rodríguez...
, his son-in-law, one of the earliest Galician-Portuguese troubadours. Riquer attaches the Castilian embassy in France circa 1170 with Gonzalo Ruiz de Azagra.
Taken together these references to Gonzalo in two Occitan songs of the late twelfth century suggest that Gonzalo was a troubadour or at least a ioculator who could sing Occitan songs. Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal was a Spanish philologist and historian. He worked extensively on the history of the Spanish language and Spanish folklore and folk poetry. One of his main topics was the history and legend of The Cid....
, in his Poesía juglaresca (1957), argued that "Gonzalvo Ruiz y Pedro de Monzón poetizaban en castellano, o acaso el de Monzón en aragonés" ("Gonzalo Ruis and Pere de Montsó
Pere de Montsó
Pere de Montsó , also Peire de Monzo, was an Aragonese troubadour, though none of his compositions survive. He was probably from Monzón near the border with Catalonia, but he may have hailed from Monzón de Campos in Castile, as Ramón Menéndez Pidal believed. He is the subject of the eighth stanza...
wrote poetry in Castilian, or in the case of Montsó Aragonese
Aragonese language
Aragonese is a Romance language now spoken in a number of local varieties by between 10,000 and 30,000 people over the valleys of the Aragón River, Sobrarbe and Ribagorza in Aragon, Spain...
").
External links
- Nobility of Asturias, Galicia, and León: Chapter 10. Family of Gonzalo García. Foundation for Medieval Genealogy: Medieval Lands Project.