Alonso Meléndez de Guzmán (b. ? - d. 1342) was a Spanish noble from León of the House of Guzmán. Alonso was the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago from 1338 to 1342.

Family origins

He was the son of Pedro Núñez de Guzmán y González and his wife Juana Ponce de León y Meneses. His paternal grandparents were Alvar Pérez de Guzmán and his wife María González Girón. His maternal grandparents were Urraca Gutiérrez de Meneses and Fernán Pérez Ponce de León I of Asturias, and also the head adelantado of the

Andalucía Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

border region. Alonso's sister was

Leonor de Guzmán Leonor or Léonor is a short form of the given name Eleanor. People bearing the name include: *Leonor Beleza (born 1948), Portuguese politician *Leonor Briones (born 1940), Filipino academic and civil servant *Leonor de Cisneros (died 1568), Sp ...

, the lover of

Alfonso XI of Castile Alfonso XI (13 August 131126 March 1350), called the Avenger (''el Justiciero''), was King of Castile and León. He was the son of Ferdinand IV of Castile and his wife Constance of Portugal. Upon his father's death in 1312, several disputes en ...

. His other sister, Juana de Guzmán married

Enrique Enríquez "el Mozo" Enrique () is the Spanish variant of the given name Heinrich of Germanic origin. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Enric (Catalan), Enrico (Italian), Henrik (Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian), Heinrich (German), Hendrik, Henk ...

Villalba de los Barros Villalba de los Barros is a municipality located in the province of Badajoz, Extremadura, Spain. According to the 2014 census, Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) the municipality has a population of 1588 inhabitants. References Extern ...

and head adelantado of Andalucia who was famous for commanding the Castilian army at the

Battle of Linuesa The Battle of Linuesa was an action fought on 21 December 1361 in the city of Huesa, Kingdom of Jaén (present-day Province of Jaén, Spain). The battle was fought between the Kingdom of Castile and the forces of the Emirate of Granada. The ...

Biography

He was named by the personal intervention of King

as head of the Order of Santiago. This appointment provoked disputes as previously, all order Grand Masters had been elected. Alonso de Guzman fought with king Peter I of Aragon, also known as "Peter the Cruel", in the reconquista of the

Kingdom of Algeciras The Taifa of Algeciras () was a medieval Muslim taifa kingdom in what is now southern Spain and Gibraltar, that existed from 1035 to 1058. History The ''taifa'' was created in 1013, in the wake of the disintegration of the caliphate of Córdoba ...

but was later assassinated by the king who named the infant

Fadrique Alfonso de Castilla Fadrique Alfonso of Castile, 1st Señor de Haro (1334–1358), 25th Master of the Order of Santiago (1342–1358), was the fifth illegitimate child of Alfonso XI of Castile and Eleanor of Guzman. He was born in Seville. Biography Fadrique was ...

Grand Master. Faderique was only eight years old at the time of his appointment.

References

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Bibliography

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Digitalización
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melendez De Guzman, Alonso Year of birth missing 1342 deaths Spanish untitled nobility Grand Masters of the Order of Santiago Knights of Santiago