[1][2] The origins of the diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo have been studied in depth in two papers by Fidel Fita.

[4] They controlled it until 1161, when it was annexed to the royal domain by king Ferdinand II, who built a castle for the defence of the frontier and founded the diocese as well as two monasteries.

The move provoked hostility: the Salamancans revolted in 1162[5] and Portugal, threatened by a new royal fortress so near its border, invaded in 1163.

On 13 February Ferdinand issued a charter (called the fuero eclesiástico) for the new diocese, in which he gave the metropolitan Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela full authority to appoint the bishop without reference to the cathedral chapter.

[7] The Almohads attacked the city (Alsibdat in Arabic sources) in 1174, the same year that a dispute over the boundary between the diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo and that of Salamanca was settled.