User:Kansas Bear/Pedro Fernández de Castro "Castilian"

Pedro Fernández de Castro "Castilian" (1155? - Morocco, August 18, 1214), was a Castilian nobleman, son of Fernando Rodriguez de Castro and Estefanía Alfonso la Desdichada(Stephanie "The Unfortunate").

He inherited his parents' possession of Infantazgo de Leon, and was chief butler of Fernando II of Leon and his son Alfonso IX of Leon. He was the grandson of Alfonso VII, King of Castile and Leon.

Family Origins
Son of Fernando Rodriguez de Castro "Castilian," a member of the House of Castro, and Stephanie "the Unfortunate". Pedro Fernandez was the paternal grandson of Rodrigo Fernández de Castro "the Bald" and his wife Elo Alvarez. His maternal grandparents were Alfonso VII, King of Castile and Leon, and his mistress, the Countess Urraca Fernandez de Castro. He was the nephew of King Ferdinand II of León and Sancho III of Castile, and first cousin to Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso IX of Leon.

Paternal inheritance and first performances
He was born before 1160. In 1180 his mother, Stephanie Alfonso "The Unfortuante", was murdered by his father, Fernando Rodriguez de Castro, who had believed his wife was being unfaithful with another man.

After his father died in 1185, Pedro Fernandez de Castro inherited parental property, including the lordship of Trujillo, located throughout the region of Extremadura, and Infantazgo de Leon, which Fernando II of León had donated to his parents. On the pleading of his cousin Alfonso VIII of Castile, Pedro gave him the lordship of Trujillo. Alfonso VIII gave Trujillo to the Order of Santiago in 1186, along with half of his income, for the Order to populate the territories between the rivers Tajo and Guadiana. In 1187, Pedro recorded in his will that if he died without heirs, all his castles located in the Extremadura Leon would become property of the Order of Santiago. In 1187, Pedro donated the Castle Rock Falcon to the Order of Alcantara, in favor of his uncle, Fernando Diaz, while the Order of Santiago were given the castles of La Solana and Santa Cruz Cannabis located in the present province of Ciudad Real.

Between the years 1185 and 1188, Pedro remained a loyal vassal to his cousin Alfonso VIII, but in 1189, he had a falling out with Alfonso VIII and left the kingdom of Castile. He went to serve his cousin Alfonso IX of León, father of Ferdinand III of Castile. Following in the footsteps of his father, he began to ally with the Almohad at different times, to irritate his cousin, King of Castile. His attitude in the remaining years of the twelfth century depended on the evolution of relations between the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, who were under the influence of the papacy and progressive military orders, therefore, in 1191, King Alfonso IX of Leon married Teresa of Portugal, daughter of Sancho I of Portugal, with the ostensible purpose of an alliance against Castile. In 1191, the kingdoms of Navarre, Portugal, Leon and Aragon, formed the so-called League of Huesca, whose purpose was to combat the Kingdom of Castile. Meanwhile, Pope Celestine III threatened Alfonso IX of León with excommunication, after marrying his second cousin Berenguela of Castile.

Between 1192 and 1193, Pedro lived in Castile. After suffering from a serious illness for which doctors could not remedy, he was transferred to the church of San Isidoro, near Seville. After a promise made to the saint, he recovered from his illness.

He tried to sabotage the signing of Tordehumos in 1194 and decided to leave the peninsular Christian kingdoms and go to the land of Muslims. He entered into an agreement with the Almohad and fought on their side at the Battle of Alarcos, in which Alfonso VIII's troops were defeated by the Muslims. Following the Battle of Alarcos, he mediated negotiations between King Alfonso VIII of Castile and King Alfonso IX of Leon, in the city of Toledo. After the failed meeting between the two sovereigns, Pedro Fernandez de Castro stayed in León fighting against the kingdom of Castile. During the war between Castile and León, and in order to help Castile, the Pope Celestine III excommunicated King Alfonso IX de León. Pedro Fernández de Castro and other nobles who had helped the Saracens in their fight against Castile, swore oaths of loyalty to the King of Leon. However in 1197, thanks to the marriage between Alfonso IX of León and Berengaria of Castile the fighting ended between the two kingdoms, because Berengaria's dowry provided her husband a claim to Castile.

Final years
In 1204 Pedro Fernandez de Castro again serve as the chief butler of Alfonso IX of León, and became a family in the Order of Calatrava, with his wife Jimena Gomez, and their children Álvaro Pérez de Castro "Castilian" and Elo Perez de Castro. Emblem of the Order of Calatrava, in which Pedro Fernandez de Castro became a family in 1204.

A year later, in 1205, Pedro Fernandez de Castro won the Order of Salvatierra and the Hospital Martin Martinez Santa Olalla, Rancon site, half of the vineyards they owned in Aldovea, Cortes, Santa Olalla and south the term of this last, and the estates they had Pedro Sanchez and Fair in Santa Olalla, provided to devote the income of these properties to support the hospital in Santa Eulalia. In 1204 his cousin Alfonso VIII of Castile gave back all property that had been confiscated in the past by the Crown.

In 1213 Pedro Fernandez de Castro donated to the Monastery of Santa María de Sobrado, Terrados Farm, north of the river Mayorga and Cea, his brother, Martin Fernandez de Castro, confirmed the donation a year later.

Pedro Fernandez de Castro died on August 18, 1214, while he was in the kingdom of Morocco. Sepultura Pedro Fernández de Castro "the Castilian"

After his death in Morocco, his body was taken to the Iberian Peninsula, and subsequently taken to the kingdom of Castile, where his remains were buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena. In the same monastery were subsequently buried two of his children, Álvaro Pérez de Castro "the Castilian" died in 1239, and Elo Perez de Castro.

Marriage and descent
He married for the first time Jimena Gomez, daughter of Count Gomez Gonzalez Manzanedo and his wife Countess Milia Perez de Lara. Later. He contracted a second marriage with Maria Sanchez de León, daughter of Prince Sancho Fernández de León and his wife Teresa Díaz de Haro, and granddaughter of Ferdinand II of León. From his first marriage were born three children:


 * Alvaro Perez de Castro "Castilian" († 1239). He served as chief butler and lieutenant of King Alfonso IX of Leon on several occasions. He also served Fernando III the Saint, who entrusted him with the possession of the strengths of Andújar and Martos and subsequently appointed him king's representative in the city of Cordoba and in the border fortresses of Andalusia. He commanded the Christian forces defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Jerez, fought in 1231. He married for the first time Aurembiaix, future Countess of Urgel and the daughter of Count Ermengol VIII of Urgell, but the marriage was annulled in 1228. He married a second time with Mencia López de Haro, future queen of Portugal, daughter of Lope Díaz de Haro II, Lord of Vizcaya, and his wife Urraca Alfonso de León, daughter of Alfonso IX of Leon. He died without leaving any offspring of his two marriages and was buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena, in which his father had been buried.


 * Elo Perez de Castro. He married first wife, Martin Sanchez de Portugal, Count of Castile and Leon and Galicia governor. Divorced from her first husband, remarried in 1205 with Guerau IV of Cabrera, and Cabrera Viscount of Ager, III son of Ponce de Cabrera and Marquise de Urgel. Elo The countess and her husband were the parents of, among others, the Count of Urgell Ponce. She was buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena.


 * Stephanie Perez de Castro, whom her sister, the Countess Elo, in 1221 he said 5000 income maravedíes in Aragon