Alfonso Núñez (''

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

'' 1101–1135) was a Galician nobleman and military leader. He was the eldest son of Nuño Velázquez and Fronilde Sánchez, daughter of Count

Sancho Ordóñez Sancho Ordóñez ( 895 – 929) was King of Galicia from 926 and until his death in 929, and may briefly have been King of León in 925–26. He was the eldest son of Ordoño II, who inherited Galicia in a partition of the Kingdom of Asturias wit ...

. From at least 28 January 1090 Nuño's power lay in the region of

Limia ''Limia'' is a genus of livebearing fishes belonging to the Cyprinodontiform family Poeciliidae, which includes other livebearers such as platys, swordtails (genus ''Xiphophorous''), guppies and mollies (genus ''Poecilia''). They are found i ...

. On 13 June 1104, he appears with his parents and siblings Menendo, Sancho, and Elvira in a donation to the monastery of

Sahagún Sahagún () is a town and municipality of Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León and the province of León. It is the main populated place in the Leonese part of the Tierra de Campos natural region. Sahagún contains some ...

. Between 1 April 1101 and 24 October 1102 Alfonso served as the ''

alférez In medieval Iberia, an ''alférez'' (, ) or ''alferes'' (, ) was a high-ranking official in the household of a king or magnate. The term is derived from the Arabic ('' al-fāris''), meaning "horseman" or "cavalier", and it was commonly Latinised ...

'' of

Raymond of Galicia Raymond of Burgundy (c. 1070 – 24 May 1107) was the ruler of Galicia as vassal of Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the Emperor of All Spain, from about 1090 until his death. He was the fourth son of Count William I of Burgundy and Stephanie. He ...

. He was one of the few Galician magnates loyal to

Queen Urraca Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mothe ...

during her conflict with her son by Raymond,

Alfonso Raimúndez Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

, which may be surprising in light of Alfonso Núñez's known political connexions with Raymond. Between May 1112 and 1 June 1125 Alfonso held the ''

tenencia In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as op ...

'' of Limia, as had his father. His importance to Urraca in Galicia is exemplified by the ''

Historia compostellana The (fully titled in la, De rebus gestis D. Didaci Gelmirez, primi Compostellani Archiepiscopi) is an anonymously-written historical chronicle based on the relation of events by a writer in the immediate circle of Diego Gelmírez, second bisho ...

'', which lists him first after Urraca's son when naming the leaders of the army which she assembled among "all the consuls and princes of Galicia" for making war on Alfonso I of Aragon and Navarre in the spring of 1118. The only record of Alfonso's wife is from a document of 5 July 1118 in the archives of

Celanova Celanova is a town and municipality located in the province of Ourense, Galicia, Northern Spain. Situated near the border with Portugal, the municipality is bordered by Ramirás, Cartelle, A Merca, A Bola, Verea and Quintela de Leirado. The A ...

, which also happens to be the first record of Alfonso bearing the title ''comes'' (count), the highest title of nobility in the land.Bernard F. Reilly (1982
''The Kingdom of León-Castilla under Queen Urraca, 1109–1126''
(Princeton: Princeton University Press), 290–91, suspects he may have held this title from the beginning of his rule in Limia, though in the first record of such he is styled ''dominans in lymia'', simply "ruling in Limia". His wife's name appears to have been María. She gave him two daughters: Fronilde and Teresa. In 1126 or 1127 he made a grant to

Braga Cathedral The Cathedral of Braga ( pt, Sé de Braga) is a Roman Catholic church in the northern city of Braga, Portugal. Due to its long history and artistic significance, it is also one of the most important buildings in the country. It is the seat of the ...

. He is last mentioned in a document of 18 May 1135.

Notes

References

*This article is based on Simon Barton (1997), ''The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), especially p. 227, which contains a brief ''curriculum vitae''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunez, Alfonso 1130s deaths Year of birth unknown Galician nobility 12th-century nobility from León and Castile