Suero Vermúdez
Suero Vermúdez (or Bermúdez) (died 12 August 1138) was an Asturian nobleman, territorial governor, and military leader.
[2] According to a document dated 28 March 1098, Suero was then serving Count Raymond of Galicia as armiger or standard-bearer (alférez).
During the rest of the reign of Alfonso VI Suero held only one other tenencia: Rábade, where he is known to have been ruling between 23 January and 5 March 1104.
[2] Suero married Enderquina Gutiérrez, daughter of Gutierre Rodríguez and an important member of the Castilian aristocracy.
[2] On 27 June 1114 the couple made a gift of land at Torre de Babia to a certain vassal of theirs, Pelayo Fróilaz, for his loyal service.
[11] On 9 February 1116 Suero is cited in one charter as ruling the city and towers of León, the old imperiale culmen (imperial summit).
[25] All the lands Cluny received amounted to "fifty-six different properties scattered across a vast area, as well as four monasteria [monastic centres], six churches and a castle (castellum).
The donation was confirmed by Urraca, Alfonso VII, the queen's daughter Sancha Raimúdez, Diego Gelmírez, Pelayo of Oviedo, Diego of León, Peter III of Lugo, the prior of the monastery of San Zoilo de Carrión, and a "curious mixture of [lay] Galicians and Asturians".
[29] In 1130 a synod held at Carrión dealt with the claims of Cluny to the monastery of Cornellana, disputes which had arisen from Suero and Enderquina's reversal of a prior grant.
[30] This grant had been one of the largest Cluny had received in Spain, and they argued to the Papal legate Uberto Lanfranchi at Carrión that in 1128 they had been "unjustly despoiled".
[31] Bernard Reilly has suggested that it was around 1120 that Urraca began extending Suero's authority north out of the province of León and the Bierzo and into western Asturias.
[32] After Alfonso VII succeeded Urraca, Suero immediately pledged loyalty to the new king at Zamora on 11 March 1126, three days after the death of the queen.
[35] At that time, according to the Chronica, the authority of Suero Vermúdez covered "Astorga, Luna, Gordón, with part of the Bierzo, as well as Babia, Laciana and the whole valley as far as the banks of the River Eo and as far as Cabruñana" (Astoricam, Lunam, Gordonem cum Bergidi parte, necnon Vadabiam et Flacianam totumque vallem usque ad ripam fluminis, quod dicitur Oua, et usque ad Cubrunianam).
The majority of Suero's territory lay in the western Cantabrian Mountains, but he also had considerable lands in the Tierra de Campos in León.
[36] In 1128 Suero and Enderquina not inaccurately boasted that their lands stretched from the Duero to the Bay of Biscay and from the Llorio in the west to the Deva in the east.
[38] Another indication of Suero's wealth is the size of his household, since in 1119 he was employing a notary (notarius) named Juan to draw up his documents.
Later that year Suero and fellow Asturian Gonzalo Peláez were sent by the king to Almazán to negotiate with Alfonso the Battler, who still laid claim to the Leonese-Castilian throne.
[42] In 1131 a monk of Corias was bringing a large load of wheat from León to Laciana through the lands governed by Suero when he was stopped by two of the count's officials and assessed a toll.
Subsequently, Suero was forced by the monks of Corias to make an enquiry, appointing two of his knights, Pedro Garcés and Juan Pérez, with the task.
Their finding was that a similar dispute had occurred between Corias and Suero's brother Gutierre during the reign of Alfonso VI, and that the king had ruled the monks owed no portazgo (tolls on cartage) within the tenencia of Laciana.
[44] In 1133 Alfonso VII led a military expedition into the Asturias to reduce the rebel Gonzalo Peláez, who four years earlier had been sent on a diplomatic mission with Suero.
Suero had probably taken part in a similar expedition against Gonzalo the previous year, and was absent from court for most of 1132–34 despite the usual frequency of his visits.
