The County of Coimbra ( pt, Condado de Coimbra) was a political entity consisting of the lands of

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

, Viseu,

Lamego Lamego (; cel-x-proto, Lamecum) is a city and municipality in the Viseu District, in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of the Douro Subregion, Douro in northern Portugal. Located on the shores of the Balsemão River, the municipality has a ...

and

Santa Maria da Feira Santa Maria da Feira () is a city and a municipality in Aveiro District in Portugal, 23 km from central Porto. The population in 2011 was 139,309,Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. It arose within the

Kingdom of Asturias The Kingdom of Asturias ( la, Asturum Regnum; ast, Reinu d'Asturies) was a kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula founded by the Visigothic nobleman Pelagius. It was the first Christian political entity established after the Umayyad conquest of V ...

following the reconquest of the region, when the lands were granted to

Hermenegildo Gutiérrez Hermenegildo Gutiérrez (Hermenegildo Guterres in Portuguese) (c. 850 – after May 912), was a distinguished Galician noble who lived during the 9th and 10th centuries. As the Mayordomo mayor of King Alfonso III, he was an active member of the cu ...

, who over the next four decades was largely responsible for the resettlement of the depopulated province. He and his immediate successors were counts, and held Coimbra, but were not explicitly counts of Coimbra, although they are sometimes referred to as such retrospectively. The first nobleman specifically to be called count of Coimbra was Gonzalo Muñoz, who was probably a scion of the family of Hermenegildo. Becoming count around 959, he was one of the most powerful noblemen in the western part of the kingdom until he rose in rebellion against King Bermudo II of León and was probably killed during the region's subjugation. The degree to which his successors were alienated from their monarch can be seen when, following the region's recapture in 987 by the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

Al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور‎; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) w ...

, Gonzalo's sons joined that general in his sack of Santiago de Compostela in 997. The city of Coimbra was permanently secured by the Christians in 1064, having been taken by the troops of King

Ferdinand I of León Ferdinand I ( 1015 – 24 December 1065), called the Great (''el Magno''), was the count of Castile from his uncle's death in 1029 and the king of León after defeating his brother-in-law in 1037. According to tradition, he was the first to have h ...

, led by the

mozarab The Mozarabs ( es, mozárabes ; pt, moçárabes ; ca, mossàrabs ; from ar, مستعرب, musta‘rab, lit=Arabized) is a modern historical term for the Iberian Christians, including Christianized Iberian Jews, who lived under Muslim rule in A ...

Sisnando Davides Sisnando (or Sesnando) Davides (also Davídez, Davídiz, or Davidiz, and sometimes just David; died 25 August 1091) was a Mozarab nobleman and military leader of the Reconquista, born in Tentúgal, near Coimbra. He was a contemporary and acquain ...

who would then be named its count. It ceased to be an independent political entity when it was incorporated in the territory of the

Second County of Portugal The County of Portugal ( pt, Condado de Portugal, Condado Portucalense, Condado de Portucale; in documents of the period the name used was Portugalia) refers to two successive medieval counties in the region around Braga and Porto, today corresp ...

at the time of the latter's restoration in 1096 under Henry of Burgundy, and subsequently formed part of the newly founded

Kingdom of Portugal The Kingdom of Portugal ( la, Regnum Portugalliae, pt, Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy in the western Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese Republic. Existing to various extents between 1139 and 1910, it was also kno ...

under Henry's son, Afonso I.

List of counts

;Early holders of Coimbra who were counts *

(878-920); (Conqueror of Coimbra) ''Dux Bellorum'' of Coimbra. * Arias Menéndez (920-924), son of Hermenegildo *

Gutier Menéndez Gutier Menéndez (''c''. 865 – 934) was the most powerful Galicia (Spain), Galician magnate of his time in the Kingdom of León. Related to the royal family through marriages, he acted as a powerbroker in the civil wars that followed the disput ...

(924-934), son of Hermenegildo * Munio Gutiérrez (934-959), son of Gutierre, son-in-law of Arias ;Counts of Coimbra, first creation * Gonzalo Muñoz (959-981), probably son of Munio * Munio González (983-987), son of Gonzalo ;Counts of Coimbra, second creation *

(1064/1075–1091) * Martín Muñoz (1091–1093), son-in-law of Sisnando {{Portugal topics, state=collapsed Kingdom of León History of Coimbra History of Portugal by polity 9th century in Portugal 10th century in Portugal 11th century in Portugal States and territories established in the 870s States and territories disestablished in 1093 9th-century establishments in Portugal 11th-century disestablishments in Portugal Reconquista 878 establishments