Menendo González

He became the tutor (1003) and ultimately father-in-law of Vermudo's successor, King Alfonso V. He maintained peaceful diplomatic relations with the Caliphate of Córdoba until 1004, after which there was a state of war.

The earliest act of Alfonso as king dates to 13 October 999, and it lists as confirmants first Count Menendo González ("Menendus Gundisaluiz, comes") and then "Duke" Sancho García of Castile ("Santius, dux, Garsea prolis").

[7] In 1000, Menendo witnessed the king's confirmation of the testament of Hilal, called Salvatus, the Mozarabic abbot of San Cipriano de Valdesalce, after the queen-regent Elvira and before five bishops of the realm.

[8] A charter dated 23 December 1001 records the settlement of a dispute concerning the monastery of Celanova by Alfonso V and "his elder, the lord Menendo, son of Gonzalo" ("senatus sui domni Ermenagildi Gundisaluiz prolis").

Another charter dated 11 January 1002 records the donation of San Andrés de Congostro to the monastery of Celanova and was confirmed by Duke Menendo.

In subscribing one royal act Menendo went so far as to call himself "he who under the authority of the aforementioned king ordains and guides all things" ("qui sub imperio iam dicti regis hec omnia ordinavit et docuit").

[3] The historian Serafín Moralejo suggests it may have been presented to Menendo by Asbagh the qadi as "a good-will gift ... a bitter one indeed and a warning, too, since the title of Sayf al-Dawla carved on its lid commemorated the raid the hajib had launched on León one year earlier.

He was mentioned in a lawsuit settled in favour of Count Munio Fernández in early 1008, but as he did not confirm the result it is probable that he was away from court in Galicia.

[17] If so, he was foiled by the queen-mother, Elvira García, who proclaimed the fourteen-year-old Alfonso V to be of age to assume the responsibilities of government.

[24] There is a Latin document of 1024 that bears the rubric Tudensis sedes post Normannorum vastationem Ecclesiae Divi Jacobi attributa: "the see of Tui was assigned to the church of Santiago after being laid waste by the Northmen".

As says Sigvat: All the details of this theory—Menendo's death in battle, the identity of Gunnvaldsborg and the timing and place of Olaf's raid—are speculative and have been recently dismissed as unfounded.