Fernando Pérez de Traba
[2][3] The Poema de Almería, a Latin poem celebrating one of Alfonso VII's major victories of the Reconquista, records that "if one were to see him [Fernán], one would judge him already a king.
[5] His family was the most powerful in Galicia at the time, and he himself held properties in the most important Galician cities: Lugo and Santiago de Compostela.
[6][7] Fernán's first appearance in the surviving documentation dates from September 1107, just after the death of Raymond of Galicia, when his father confirmed a privilege of Alfonso VI for the monastery of Caaveiro, along with his sons.
[15] Fernán also mediated between his elder brother Bermudo and the archbishop in 1121, resulting in Diego bestowing gifts on the Vermudo in return for the fortress of Faro, which he claimed belonged to the diocese.
[16] In 1134 the dispute with Diego flared up once more after Fernán imprisoned one of his knights and the archdeacon of Nendos, Pedro Crescónez, whose jurisdiction covered large parts of the Traba patrimony.
With the death of queen Urraca in 1126 and the accession of Alfonso, Fernán became the leading figure in Galicia and used the opportunity to increase his power throughout the kingdom.
According to the Chronica latina regum Castellae and the De rebus Hispaniae, Fernán's influence was so decisive during the reign of Alfonso VII, that by the king's testament Galicia and León were separated from the kingdoms of Castile and Toledo.
The anonymous Chronica claims that Fernán and Manrique Pérez de Lara "aimed to sow the seed of discord" when they proposed the division of Alfonso VII's "empire".
[d] By 1 February 1121 he was using the title comes (Latin for "count"), the highest in the kingdom, even though his father was still alive and his brother Vermudo had not yet received it, a sure indication of the influence of Teresa.
[23] Fernán defended with difficulty the valley of the Minho against the onslaughts of Afonso Henriques, as recorded by the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris: Prior to [1140], the Portuguese monarch had come to Galicia several times, but always he had been driven back by Fernando Pérez and Rodrigo Vélaz and other Galician leaders.
[g] In 1139 or 1140, at Cerneja (Cernesa) in Galicia, he and Rodrigo Vélaz were defeated by Teresa's son Afonso Henriques, who by that time had proclaimed himself king of Portugal.
[2] Between 1144 and 1155 Fernán was frequently at court, and he participated in almost all of Alfonso VII's major campaigns of the Reconquista, commanding the Galician contingents on numerous occasions against the Almohads.
At Almería he led the Galician contingent, and his presence can be traced with Alfonso's army on 19 August during its departure from Baeza and again on 25 November during its triumphant return.
[i] Fernán actively supported the Cistercians, and patronised their monastery at Sobrado dos Monxes, which he and his brother Vermudo had first received from Queen Urraca on 29 July 1118, although it was deserted at the time and required its recipients to re-found a religious community there.
[j] On the occasion of this gift, the Traba brothers responded in kind by giving a hound named Ulgar and a hunting spear to the queen's son.
[k] It was one of the earliest Cistercian foundations in Spain and a daughter house of Clairvaux[27] Fernán and Vermudo may have desired that the monks contribute to settling and cultivating the surrounding zone.
This may indicate that at some point in time the abbey's archives were lost or destroyed and the monks felt it necessary to forge deeds for properties that had really been granted.
[2] He gave lands to the Templars on the coast near A Coruña, introducing this military order into the Galicia as early as 1128, before they had received official ecclesiastical approbation.
There is a forged donation by Fernán to the monastery of Caaveiro dated 4 December 1154, in which the count refers to himself as graui infirmitate detemptus, "detained by a grave illness".
[5] There are two documents in the archives of Sobrado dated to June 1160 and 1161, confirmed by a comes dompnus Fernandus senior in Monteroso et in Traua ("count Don Fernando, lord in Monterroso and in Traba") and a comes dompnus Fernandus in Traua et in Aranga et in Monteroso ("count Don Fernando in Traba and in Aranga and in Monterroso"), respectively.
