Rodrigo Jiménez (or Ximénez) de Rada (c. 1170 – 10 June 1247)[n. 1] was a Roman Catholic bishop and historian, who held an important religious and political role in the Kingdom of Castile during the reigns of Alfonso VIII and Ferdinand III, a period in which the Castilian monarchy consolidated its political hegemony over the rest of polities in the Iberian Peninsula.

Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada was born circa 1170 in Puente la Reina, Kingdom of Navarre.

[3] He was born from a Navarrese noble family and was educated by his uncle, Martín de la Finojosa, abbot of Saint Mary of Huerta and bishop of Sigüenza.

His archbishopric gained a lot of possessions throughout the Guadalquivir valley, especially around Quesada and received further generous donations from kings and lords.

As archbishop of Toledo, he promoted the building of the cathedral and placed the first stone in 1226 (it was not completed until 1493), restored the dioceses of Baeza and Córdoba after the Christian conquest of those cities and defended the primacy of his see in Spain against the pretensions of Braga and Santiago.