Gutierre Fernández de Castro
More often he was occupied defending the eastern frontier from invasion by Aragon or Navarre, and for this purpose the king invested him with many royal fiefs in this region.
[1] Despite his high standing at court and his illustrious military career, Gutierre was never promoted to the rank of a count, which was the highest title borne by the Castilian aristocracy in the twelfth century.
[2] Gutierre, who could not have been born much earlier than 1100,[3] was the eldest son of Fernando García de Hita and his first wife, Tegridia, a relative of the powerful Count Pedro Ansúrez.
[9][10] Although some authors have suggested that Gutierre was an upstart, both he and his brother obtained advantageous marriages to daughters of the highest nobility years before rising to prominence at the royal court and were evidently considered high-born.
[15] On 5 November 1124, Gutierre and Toda received half of the lands owned by her grandmother, Teresa, at Quintanilla Rodano, Quintana Fortuno and Sotopalacios.
[3][20] The medievalist Agustín Ubieto Arteta maintains that Gutierre was a page or squire (Latin armiger, perhaps alférez) to King Alfonso VI (1065–1109), which is chronologically impossible.
[19] He says that he served Queen Urraca as majordomo and was a tutor to a young Alfonso VII,[19] but in this he is confusing the head of the Castro with the earlier Gutierre.
The earliest of these, Lucas of Tuy, says that shortly after 1100, King Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre attacked the church of San Isidoro de León in order to take its precious stones and gold and silver treasures, but the church was successfully defended by Gutierre Fernández, the "heir of Castile" (heredero de Castilla).
[24] His first important public duty, in 1131, was a diplomatic mission to Sayf al-Dawla, the Muslim lord of Rueda de Jalón, who wanted Alfonso's protection from the invading Almoravids of Morocco.
Traditionally, he was probably in charge of the organization of the court and perhaps also the administration of the royal demesne, but the title may have been largely honorific by the twelfth century, with day-to-day responsibilities delegated to a deputy or submaiordomus.
[31] On 22 February 1140 Gutierre and his brother Rodrigo were at Carrión de los Condes to witness the treaty between Alfonso and Count Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona.
Gutierre was probably in attendance, since he and Rodrigo Gómez led the honour guard that accompanied the new couple back to Garcías capital of Pamplona after the Leonese ceremonies.
A second set of celebrations was then held in Pamplona, as described by the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris: "King García prepared a royal feast for the Castilians and for all the knights and officers of his kingdom.
[47][48][49] A fuero promulgated by the abbot of Santa María de Husillos on 21 November 1160 refers to the authority Gutierre still possessed in Castile at that time.
[18] Like most aristocrats of his day, Gutierre used the wealth derived from his private properties and his royal tenancies to make numerous donations to churches and monasteries.
[23] On 5 April 1139, Bishop Simon III of Burgos ceded the monastery of El Moral to Gutierre, keeping for himself the right of episcopal oversight.
That same day, Gutierre and Toda granted the monastery freedom from all civil authority save the crown and introduced the Benedictine rule into it.
Estimating from the eyewitness account of Caffaro di Rustico da Caschifellone, most great lords had a following of 30–40 knights during the Almería campaign of 1147.
[f] Sancho moved his army to Calahorra by early July, before the threat had dissipated, but since no further conflict is recorded the show of force must have been sufficient to deter the king of Navarre.
[19][71] Later chroniclers record that Sancho III's favour to Gutierre provoked the war between the Laras and the Castros that plagued the minority of Alfonso VIII.
[19] Before his death, Sancho arranged that "the dominions over lands which are held from [the king] as temporal fiefs" (terrarum dominia quae ab eo tenebant feudo temporali) would be frozen for fifteen years, until the three-year-old Alfonso had attained his majority at eighteen.
[72] After Sancho's death (31 August 1158) and in accordance with his dying wish, if Rodrigo Jiménez is to be believed, the guardianship of his successor, Alfonso VIII, was entrusted to Gutierre, while the regency of the kingdom passed to Count Manrique Pérez de Lara.
[10][74] In any case, the young king eventually passed into the hands of García Garcés de Aza, and by March 1161 was in the direct care of Manrique.
[78] In this document the court met at Burgos, governed by Gutierre, to confirm a donation of Alfonso VII's late sister Sancha Raimúndez.
[66] A document from San Salvador de El Moral dated 18 November 1159 refers to Gutierre as "the king's provost" (prepositus regni), but this charter is a later copy and may not be reliable.
[79] There is some evidence that the kingdom of Castile was divided between Manrique and Gutierre after Sancho's death, as part of the agreement which transferred control over Alfonso VIII to García Garcés.
They remained until October, Ferdinand II promising not to interfere in Castilian affairs and Nuño agreeing to allow Fernando back into the kingdom.
[49] They had no surviving children—"and he had a wife named Theoda, from whom he did not receive any offspring" in Rodrigo Jiménez's words[88]—although they may have had a son who died at three years of age.
Rodrigo Jiménez reports that Manrique disinterred Gutierre after taking control of the young Alfonso VIII and threatened to posthumously try him for treason if his nephews did not surrender their tenancies to the crown.
[73] This story, repeated in the Chronica latina regum Castellae ("Latin Chronicle of the Kings of Castile") and the Primera Crónica, is impossible, since Manrique died in 1164, before Gutierre.
