If he was elected at the canonical age of thirty, he would have been born in 1040 or 1041, which would in turn support the contemporary contention that he was old in 1104–5, but cast doubt on his relationship with Pedro Fróilaz.
[2] The diocese of Mondoñedo during the time of Gonzalo's episcopate has been described as "economically unremunerative and exposed to attack from the sea; the endowments ... were meagre; and the bishops were overshadowed in wealth and influence by the great monastery of Lourenzá.
In 1102 Diego Gelmírez began to dispute the archipresbyterates of Bezoucos, Trasancos, and Seaya with Gonzalo, to whose diocese they de facto pertained.
[4] Probably the acts of defiance on the part of the metropolitan of Toledo, who laid claim to the primacy of Spain, were encouraged by Count Raymond of Galicia.
[5] Gonzalo died early in 1108, and the brief vacancy that followed his death allowed Diego Gelmírez to assert his claims more successfully at Mondoñedo's expense.