Gonzalo Ruiz or Rodríguez (''
fl.'' 1122–1180 ''or'' 1146–1202) was the feudal lord of
La Bureba
La Bureba is a ''comarca'' located in the northeast of the Province of Burgos in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is bounded on the north by Las Merindades, east by the Comarca del Ebro, south-east by the Montes de Oca an ...
(or Burueba) throughout much of the mid-twelfth century. He held important positions at the courts of successive
Castilian monarchs and guarded the frontier with
Navarre, to whose
Jiménez rulers he was related. He was a cultured man, with connexions to at least one, possibly two,
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...
s. He may have written poetry himself, though in what language is not known.
Ancestry and marriages
Gonzalo was a son of
Rodrigo Gómez (died 1146), Count of Bureba, and Elvira Ramírez, sister of
García Ramírez of Navarre
García Ramírez ( eu, Gartzea Remiritz), sometimes García IV, V, VI or VII ( 1112 – 21 November 1150), called the Restorer ( es, el Restaurador, eu, Basque: ''Berrezarlea''), was the King of Navarre (Pamplona) from 1134. The election of Gar ...
. His parents were married no later than 1137. He was grandson of count
Gómez González, foremost noble and reputed lover of
Urraca of León and Castile Urraca (also spelled ''Hurraca'', ''Urracha'' and ''Hurracka'' in medieval Latin) is a female first name. In Spanish, the name means magpie, derived perhaps from Latin ''furax'', meaning "thievish", in reference to the magpie's tendency to collect ...
, and great-grandson of count
Gonzalo Salvadores, a hero of the Lara family. Other families, notably the Girón, Sarmiento, and Sandoval, have attempted to claim him.
Gonzalo's first wife was Sancha Fernández, illegitimate daughter of
Fernando Pérez de Traba
Fernando (or Fernán) Pérez de Traba (''c''.1090–1 November 1155), also Fernão Peres de Trava ( or ) in Portuguese, was a nobleman and count of the Kingdom of León who for a time held power over all Galicia. He became the lover of Countess T ...
and the
Portuguese countess Teresa Alfonso. She had previously married
Álvaro Rodríguez and then
Pedro Alfonso
''Pulcher ut Absalon, virtute potens quasi Sanson, instructisque bonis, documenta tenet Salomonis''.
" edrois handsome as Absalom, as strong as Samson, and he possesses the wisdom of Solomon."
—'' Poema de Almería'', ...
. She was with the ''comes domnus Gunsalvus'' (lord count Gonzalo) in April 1178, when the two of them made a donation to the
Knights Hospitaller
The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem ( la, Ordo Fratrum Hospitalis Sancti Ioannis Hierosolymitani), commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. It was headq ...
. Gonzalo's second wife was an obscure woman named Estefanía (López?), who is only recorded in 1205. Gonzalo's only known child was a daughter, Elvira, who married Pedro Ruiz de Guzmán. Another woman, Mayor (died after 1232), who married
Fernando Núñez de Lara
Fernando Núñez de Lara ('' fl.'' 1173–1219) was a count of the House of Lara. He spent most of career in the service of the Kingdom of Castile, but at times served the neighbouring Kingdom of León as well. He was a courtier late in the reign ...
(before 1203), may be a daughter of Gonzalo's.
Political and military activities
As lord of La Bureba (''tenente Boroviam''), Gonzalo appears over fifty times in contemporary documents beginning in 1122. His sphere of activity was also very wide: he was in
Burgos
Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos.
Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of ...
in 1144, he signed the ''
fuero
(), (), () or () is a Spanish legal term and concept. The word comes from Latin , an open space used as a market, tribunal and meeting place. The same Latin root is the origin of the French terms and , and the Portuguese terms and ; all ...
s'' of
Pancorbo
Pancorbo is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE
INE, Ine or ine may refer to:
Institutions
* Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research cente ...
in 1146, and in 1148 he was at ''Castro surit'' on 2 May and Burgos on 10 May. In all he appears in twelve different locations, besides León and Navarre as mentioned above. The numerous references to him in
Alfonso VII's charters of 1147 suggests that he probably took part in the campaign against
Almería
Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city g ...
that year. On 20 November 1148 he is recorded in connexion with the Lara family. On 15 February 1149 Gonzalo is referred to in a document as ''filius comitis'', "son of the count", indicating the highest noble status for his father in Castile. From that year on he was active at the court of Sancho III, but appears to have ceased to govern La Bureba. In 1156 he was lord of La Bureba again and no longer ''alférez''. In January 1158 he witnessed the king's granting of
Calatrava to the newly founded
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava ( es, Orden de Calatrava, pt, Ordem de Calatrava) was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Orde ...
. From then until 1165, during the minority of Alfonso VIII, he disappears from the record, but probably he was preoccupied by the invasions of La Bureba by both the Leonese and the Navarrese.
From 1165 to 1170 he was active throughout the kingdom as lord of La Bureba. According to
Gerónimo Zurita, a Gonzalo Ruiz was in southern France in 1170, which is corroborated by two contemporary documents. This Gonzalo was part of a troupe of Castilian magnates and clerics charged with meeting Eleanor's entourage at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
and escorting her to Castile, through
Aragon in the central
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
because Navarre in the west was at war with Castile. This Gonzalo Ruiz was probably the lord of La Bureba, a ''
merindad
''Merindad'' () is a Mediaeval Spanish administrative term for a country subdivision smaller than a province but larger than a municipality. The officer in charge of a merindad was called a merino, roughly equivalent to the English ''count'' or ...
'' on the frontier with Navarre and consisting of the towns of
Briviesca
Briviesca is a municipality and a Spanish city located in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, head of the judicial district of Briviesca, capital of the comarca of La Bureba and province of Burgos, autonomous community of Castile and León. Ac ...
,
Pancorbo
Pancorbo is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE
INE, Ine or ine may refer to:
Institutions
* Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research cente ...
,
Valpuesta
Valpuesta (Latin ''Valliposita'' or ''Valle Conposita'') was a Catholic diocese in Castile in northern Spain. Today it is a titular see.
History
According to unreliable documents in the cartularies of Valpuesta, the diocese was established in ...
, and
Oña
Oña is a municipality and town located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2011 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 1,219 inhabitants.
Main sights
* Benedictine monastery of San Salvador de O ...
.
He was the ''
alférez del rey'' of Castile from 1149 to 1155, though a Navarrese document of September 1158 names a Gonzalo Ruiz who was the ''alférez'' of the king, seemingly of Navarre but possibly a reference to
Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III (c. 1134 – 31 August 1158), called the Desired (''el Deseado''), was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. He was the son of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his wife Berengaria of Barcelona, and was s ...
. A ''Gundisalvus Roderici regis signifer'' (royal standard-bearer) appears in a
Leonese document of 18 April 1171, but since this Gundisalvus Roderici appears in no other such document he is probably to be identified with the Castilian Gonzalo. The only other Gonzalo Ruiz who appears in documents of this period (1165–73) was a monk of
Corias.
On 29 November 1171, Gonzalo signed a charter as "Gonzalo Ruiz de Bureba" for the first time. In 1173 he appears to have been granted the title of ''conde'' (count), the highest rank attainable at the time. Sometime after August 1175 Gonzalo was estranged from Alfonso VIII. He was at the Leonese court from 1176 to 1180. By 10 November 1180 he had reconciled with Alfonso, but he appears infrequently at court thereafter. He took to patronising religious foundations: a
Cistercian monastery at
Burgos
Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Burgos.
Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of ...
received a donation on 13 September 1185 and the
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
monastery of
San Salvador de Oña—the intellectual capital of La Bureba—received two in 1193 and 1201.
Just as there is confusion over the beginning of the career of Gonzalo Ruiz, there are some confusions over the date of his death. According to Walter Pattison, sometime in or shortly after 1180 Gonzalo entered the monastery at Oña, which he had patronised. There he died and was buried; his tomb is still visible in the ''claustro de los caballeros'' (cloister of knights). Simon Barton cites a document from August 1202 that records Gonzalo's presence. The death of a Count Gonzalo (''Gundisalvus comes'') is recorded under 1205 in the ''
Annales Compostellani''.
Tenancies and estates
In 1182 Gonzalo mortgaged some property to the monastery of Oña for 321 pieces of gold. On 4 May 1184 he sold his estate at
Rioseras to Marín and his wife, Sancha, for 62 ''
maravedí
The ''maravedí'' () or ''maravedi'' (), (from '' Almoravid dinar''), was the name of various Iberian coins of gold and then silver between the 11th and 14th centuries and the name of different Iberian accounting units between the 11th and 19th c ...
s''. In 1197, 1199, and 1201 he sold estates to the priory of
San Pedro de Tejada. In 1200 he mortgaged some more land to the San Pedro for 82 ''maravedís''. In August 1202 he made a grant to Fernando Núñez and his wife Mayor Garcés in exchange for the estate of
Belorado. Later that month Gonzalo sold Belorado to Alfonso VIII for 2,000 ''maravedís''.
Gonzalo held several ''tenencias'' (tenancies) during his career. He was first recorded holding La Bureba on 8 March 1147, and he held it as late 1175. In 1177, while he was in exile in León, it was granted to
Diego López II de Haro, but it was returned to Gonzal by 31 December 1180. He was still in possession of it in 1183. Other tenancies he is recorded as holding are
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensiv ...
(de Oviedo),
Cabezón,
Carrión,
Liébana
Liébana is a ''Comarcas of Cantabria, comarca'' of Cantabria (Spain). It covers 575 square kilometres and is located in the far southwest of Cantabria, bordering Asturias, León (province), León and Palencia (province), Palencia. It is made up o ...
,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
,
Orna,
Osma
Burgo de Osma-Ciudad de Osma is the third-largest municipality in the province of Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It has a population of about 5,250.
It is made up of two parts:
*the smaller Ciudad de Osma (city ...
, Pancorbo,
Pernía,
Saldaña,
Sarria
Sarria is a municipality in the province of Lugo, northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Sarria is the most populous town on the French Way in Galicia, with 13,700 inhabitants. It is head of the region and the most popular ...
, and
Valdeprado. A Gonzalo Ruiz, probably the same one, received the tenancy of
Lara
Lara may refer to:
Places
* Lara (state), a state in Venezuela
*Electoral district of Lara, an electoral district in Victoria, Australia
* Lara, Antalya, an urban district in Turkey
* Lara, Victoria, a township in Australia
* Lara de los In ...
in 1193.
Relationship with the troubadours
In the song ''Chantarai d'aquest trobadors'', a famous satire by
Peire d'Alvernhe
Peire d'Alvernhe or d'Alvernha (''Pèire'' in modern Occitan; b. c. 1130) was an Auvergnat troubadour (active 1149–1170) with twenty-oneGaunt and Kay, 287. or twenty-fourEgan, 72.Aubrey, ''The Music of the Troubadours'', 8. surviving works ...
of twelve contemporary troubadours, one "Guossalbo Roitz" is listed among them. This name is the
Occitan Occitan may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain.
* Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France.
* Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...
ised form of the
Old Spanish name "Gonçalvo Roiz", which is modern Spanish "Gonzalo Ruiz". Ruiz is not a surname but a
patronymic
A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor.
Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...
meaning "son of Rodrigo (i.e. Ruy)". If Peire's satire was performed at
Puivert
Puivert (; Languedocien: ''Puègverd'') is a commune in the Aude department in the Occitanie region in southern France.
History
In the 12th century a castle ( Château de Puivert) stood on this site which had strong links to both Cathars ...
before an audience that included the satirised troubadours and the entourage of
Eleanor of England, who was passing through
Gascony on her way to marry
Alfonso VIII of Castile, then the identification of Guossalbo Roitz with Gonzalo Ruiz of Bureba becomes probable. Peire has this to say about his eleventh "victim" in lines 67 to 72:
Peire is making fun of Gonzalo's well-known military career. In fact, Peire may have learned about Gonzalo on a trip he made to Castile in the spring of 1158. If he did not meet Gonzalo at the Castilian court, where Gonzalo undoubtedly was between January and February, then he may have met him at the meeting of
Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III (c. 1134 – 31 August 1158), called the Desired (''el Deseado''), was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. He was the son of Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his wife Berengaria of Barcelona, and was s ...
,
Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona
Ramon Berenguer IV (; c. 1114 – 6 August 1162, Anglicized Raymond Berengar IV), sometimes called ''the Saint'', was the count of Barcelona who brought about the union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom of Aragon to form the Crown of Ara ...
, and
Sancho VI of Navarre
Sancho Garcés VI ( eu, Antso VI.a; 21 April 1132 - 27 June 1194), called the Wise ( eu, Jakituna, es, el Sabio) was King of Navarre from 1150 until his death in 1194. He was the first monarch to officially drop the title of ''King of Pamplona'' ...
in the summer of that year.
Gonzalo Ruiz is also the name of a dedicatee of ''Quan vei pels vergiers desplegar'', a ''
sirventes
The ''sirventes'' or ''serventes'' (), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Old Occitan lyric poetry practiced by the troubadours.
The name comes from ''sirvent'' ('serviceman'), from whose perspective the song is allegedly wr ...
'' of
Bertran de Born, usually dated to the spring of 1184. This may be the same Gonzalo referred to in Peire d'Alvernhe's song, but
Martí de Riquer i Morera
Martí de Riquer i Morera, 8th Count of Casa Dávalos (, es, Martín de Riquer y Morera) (3 May 1914 – 17 September 2013) was a Spanish literary historian and Romance philologist, a recognised international authority in the field. His writin ...
suggests instead Gonzalo Ruiz de Azagra. This identity is strengthened by a reference in the poem to Pere Rois, probably
Pedro Ruiz de Azagra
Pedro Ruiz de Azagra (died 1186) was a Navarrese nobleman and soldier who established the independent Lordship of Albarracín, which lasted until 1284. He was the second son of Rodrigo Pérez de Azagra. His elder brother was Gonzalo Ruiz and his y ...
, lord of
Albarracín
Albarracín () is a Spanish town, in the province of Teruel, part of the autonomous community of Aragon. According to the 2007 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 1075 inhabitants. Albarracín is the capital of the mountainous Sier ...
and the brother of Gonzalo de Azagra. Bertran's ''
tornada'' goes like this:
This poem is the second of two violent outbursts by Bertran against
Alfonso II of Aragon in 1184. At that time Alfonso had allied with
Richard the Lion-hearted
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...
and was at the side of the latter during the suppression of a rebellion in the
Limousin
Limousin (; oc, Lemosin ) is a former administrative region of southwest-central France. On 1 January 2016, it became part of the new administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It comprised three departments: Corrèze, Creuse, and Haute-Vienn ...
—where Bertran was Richard's vassal—and
Périgord
Périgord ( , ; ; oc, Peiregòrd / ) is a natural region and former province of France, which corresponds roughly to the current Dordogne department, now forming the northern part of the administrative region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It is div ...
.
Fraga
Fraga (; ) is the major town of the ''comarca'' of Bajo Cinca ( ca, Baix Cinca) in the province of Huesca, Aragon, Spain. It is located by the river Cinca. According to the 2014 census, Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) the municipality ...
, which had been conquered by
Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona
Ramon Berenguer IV (; c. 1114 – 6 August 1162, Anglicized Raymond Berengar IV), sometimes called ''the Saint'', was the count of Barcelona who brought about the union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom of Aragon to form the Crown of Ara ...
in 1149 (after two failed attempts by
Alfonso the Battler) and divided between the
Montcadas and a
Templar
, colors = White mantle with a red cross
, colors_label = Attire
, march =
, mascot = Two knights riding a single horse
, equipment ...
barony, lay on the border of Catalonia and Aragon. Evidence from line 18 and from the song's ''
razo
A ''razo'' (, literally "cause", "reason") was a short piece of Occitan prose detailing the circumstances of a troubadour composition. A ''razo'' normally introduced an individual poem, acting as a prose preface and explanation; it might, however ...
'' suggests that perhaps the ''Quan vei'' was intended to be brought by
Guillem de Berguedà, a Catalan troubadour and friend of Bertran and mutual enemy of Alfonso II, to Fraga and there transferred to Gonzalo.
Both Bertran's poem and Peire's attest the influence of the troubadours and their poetry on Navarre by the 1170s. If Gonzalo Ruiz is de Azagra, his brother's daughter, Tota Pérez, was married to Diego López de Haro—with whom the lord of La Bureba had a connexion—who was a great patron of troubadours.
Rigaut de Barbezill,
Peire Vidal
Peire Vidal ( fl. 12th century) was an Old Occitan troubadour. Forty-five of his songs are extant. The twelve that still have melodies bear testament to the deserved nature of his musical reputation.
There is no contemporary reference to Peire o ...
, and
Aimeric de Pegulhan
Aimeric or Aimery de Peguilhan, Peguillan, or Pégulhan (c. 1170 – c. 1230) was a troubadour (floruit, fl. 1190–1221)Gaunt and Kay, 279. born in Peguilhan (near Saint-Gaudens, Haute-Garonne, Saint-Gaudens), the son of a cloth merchant. ...
all spent time at his court, as did
Rodrigo Díaz de los Cameros, his son-in-law, one of the earliest
Galician-Portuguese troubadours
In the Middle Ages, the Galician-Portuguese lyric, also known as ''trovadorismo'' in Portugal and ''trobadorismo'' in Galicia, was a lyric poetic school or movement. All told, there are around 1680 texts in the so-called secular lyric or ''lí ...
. Riquer attaches the Castilian embassy in France circa 1170 with Gonzalo Ruiz de Azagra.
Taken together these references to Gonzalo in two Occitan songs of the late twelfth century suggest that Gonzalo was a troubadour or at least a ''
ioculator'' who could sing Occitan songs.
Ramón Menéndez Pidal
Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...
, in his ''Poesía juglaresca'' (1957), argued that "Gonzalvo Ruiz y Pedro de Monzón poetizaban en castellano, o acaso el de Monzón en aragonés" ("Gonzalo Ruis and
Pere de Montsó wrote poetry in
Castilian, or in the case of Montsó
Aragonese").
[Asperti, 50 n4. Menéndez Pidal believed that Gonzalo Ruiz was the majordomo of Alfonso VIII, not the lord of La Bureba or the brother of the lord of Albarracín.]
External links
Nobility of Asturias, Galicia, and León: Chapter 10. Family of Gonzalo García.''Medieval Lands Project''.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalo Ruiz
1205 deaths
Spanish untitled nobility
Spanish generals
Spanish diplomats
People from the Province of Burgos
Year of birth unknown
12th-century Spanish troubadours