Gutier Núñez (or Gutierre Núñez) was the

Count of Burgos This is a list of counts of Castile. The County of Castile had its origin in a fortified march on the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias The Kingdom of Asturias ( la, Asturum Regnum; ast, Reinu d'Asturies) was a kingdom in the Iber ...

in the tenth century, from between 927 and 929 until 931. Based on his

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 ...

, Núñez, meaning son of Nuño, he was probably a son of

Nuño Fernández Nuño Fernández (''fl''. 920–27) was a nobleman of the Kingdom of León. He held both the counties of Burgos (from c. 920) and Castile (from before 926) in the east of the kingdom. Nuño was probably the brother of Gonzalo Fernández, who wa ...

, who is known to have been Count of Burgos in 921 and

Count of Castile This is a list of counts of Castile. The County of Castile had its origin in a fortified march on the eastern frontier of the Kingdom of Asturias. The earliest counts were not hereditary, being appointed as representatives of the Asturian king. Fr ...

in 927. At the time these were distinct counties, although sometimes held simultaneously by the same individual. Nuño is not recorded after 927 and Fernando Ansúrez had replaced him in Castile by 929. Probably Nuño had died and the counties had been separated again, Gutier succeeding him Burgos and Castile being granted to Fernando Ansúrez. Gutier appears in a document from the monastery of

San Pedro de Cardeña Castrillo del Val is a municipality located in the province of Burgos, Castile and León, Spain. It is in the valley of the River Arlanzón A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, la ...

dated 1 March 931. The document is dated when "King Alfonso as rulingin León and Count Gutier in Burgos". The king in question was

Alfonso IV of León Alfonso IV (s933), called the Monk ( es, el Monje), was King of León from 925 (or 926) and King of Galicia from 929, until he abdicated in 931. When Ordoño II died in 924 it was not one of his sons who ascended to the throne of León but rat ...

. The historians Justiniano Rodríguez Fernández and

Justo Pérez de Urbel Justo Pérez Santiago (August 7, 1895 – 1979) later known as Fray Justo Pérez de Urbel y Santiago O.S.B. was a Spanish Roman Catholic clergyman (Order of Saint Benedict) and medievalist, first abbot of the Monastery of the Holy Cross of t ...

argue that the count of Burgos was not the son of Nuño Fernández but is rather to be identified with a Galician count named Gutier (or Gutierre) Muñoz. He was a grandson of Count Gutier Menéndez, a nephew of Saint

Rudesind Saint Rudesind ( gl, San Rosendo, Rudesindo; pt, São Rosendo lat, Rudesindus) (November 26, 907 – March 1, 977) was a Galician bishop and abbot. He was also a regional administrator and military leader under his kinsmen, the Kings of León. ...

and a sister of Gotona, wife of King

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 ...

. Pérez de Urbel points out that the name Gutier is not known to have been used in Castile before the appearance of Gutier at Burgos in 931. The appointment of a Galician from the far west of the kingdom to comital office in Castile in the far east, however, would have been a highly unusual exercise of authority by Alfonso IV. Since Alfonso IV was deposed within months, it is not surprising that Gutier does not reappear as count in the east after 931. This identification of Gutier Núñez with the Galician count is difficult to accept on two grounds. First, the patronymics Núñez and Muñoz refer to two distinct names, Nuño and

Munio Munio or Muño is a masculine given name of uncertain origin, possibly Germanic languages, GermanicJaime de Salazar Acha (1985), "Una familia de la Alta Edad Media: Los Vela y su realedad histórica", ''Estudios Genealógicos y Heráldicos'' (Madri ...

, although they have often been confused and it is possible that the copyist of the Cardeña charter simply recorded the name incorrectly. Second, the Galician count died around 999, which makes him improbably (but not impossibly) old at the time of his death, since he would have already been an adult when he was count 68–72 years before his death.

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* * {{refend Counts of Castile