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 {{short description, High Steward of Spain
The Mayordomo mayor (High Steward) was the Officer of the Royal Household and Heritage of the Crown of Spain in charge of the person and rooms of the King of Spain. The Office of “Mayordomo mayor” w ...
of King
Alfonso III, he was an active member of the
curia regia
The Curia Regia was the supreme court of the Kingdom of Hungary (Hungary and Croatia) between 1723 and 1949.
Charles VI in 1723 divided it into two courts: the ''Tabula Septemviralis'' (Court of the Seven) and the ''Tabula Regia Iudiciaria'' (Ro ...
. His daughter
Elvira
Elvira is a female given name. First recorded in medieval Spain, it is likely of Germanic (Gothic) origin.
Elvira may refer to:
People Nobility
* Elvira Menéndez (died 921), daughter of Hermenegildo Gutiérrez and wife of Ordoño II of Leó ...
, as the first wife of King
Ordoño II, was queen consort of
León.
Biography
Count Hermenegildo, the son of count Gutierre and his wife Elvira, appears in medieval documentation starting in 869 — when with his father-in-law, Gatón, count in
Astorga and
El Bierzo
El Bierzo (; ; gl, O Bierzo) is a ''comarca'' in the province of León, Spain. Its capital is the town of Ponferrada. Other major towns are Bembibre and Villafranca del Bierzo, the historical capital.
The territory of El Bierzo includes m ...
, settled a dispute between the king of Asturias and bishop Mauro — until his last appearance in May 912, when he confirmed a donation made by his son-in-law, king Ordoño II, to the
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
The Santiago de Compostela Archcathedral Basilica (Spanish and Galician: ) is part of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Santiago de Compostela and is an integral component of the Santiago de Compostela World Heritage Site in Galicia, Spain. The c ...
. He was one of the most loyal vassals of King Alfonso III, who named him his mayordomo mayor and compensated his efforts and services to the crown with many properties and ''
tenencias''.
Hermenegildo played an active role in military operations during the
Reconquista
The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
. In 878, he defeated the
Muslim troops who had attacked
Oporto
Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...
and then
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, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...
, repopulating these cities, as well as neighboring
Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
,
Viseu
Viseu () is a city and municipality in the Centro Region of Portugal and the capital of the district of the same name, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and center of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunipical community, with 267,633 inhabi ...
, and
Lamego
Lamego (; cel-x-proto, Lamecum) is a city and municipality in the Viseu District, in the Norte Region of the Douro in northern Portugal. Located on the shores of the Balsemão River, the municipality has a population of 26,691, in an area of 165 ...
, with people from
Galicia after expelling the Moors. His holdings there would pass to his descendants and come to be called the
County of Coimbra
The County of Coimbra ( pt, Condado de Coimbra) was a political entity consisting of the lands of Coimbra, Viseu, Lamego and Santa Maria da Feira, in modern Portugal. It arose within the Kingdom of Asturias following the reconquest of the region ...
, which was retaken again in 987 by
Almanzor
Abu ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abi ʿĀmir al-Maʿafiri ( ar, أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر المعافري), nicknamed al-Manṣūr ( ar, المنصور, "the Victorious"), which is often Latiniz ...
and it was not until 1064 that the city was permanently reconquered by the Christian armies of
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 ...
.
In 895, Hermenegildo defeated and captured the Galician noble Witiza who had taken up arms against the king of Asturias, taking him in chains before the monarch who compensated the count with many of the rebel's estates and tenencias.
Ancestry
It was claimed that Hermenegildo was descended from Count
Ardabastus, an individual supposedly descended from the
Constantinian,
Valentinian, and
Theodosian dynasties of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...
. The line is documented in a controversial and dubious deed, and while some have suggested that the genealogy it contains could still be authentic, the lack of surviving documentation from the period spanned makes independent evaluation impossible.
[ T. Robert S. Broughton, ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'' (1952).] If true, it would be a rare example of
Descent from antiquity
In European genealogy, a descent from antiquity (DFA or DfA) is a proven unbroken line of descent between specific individuals from ancient history and people living today. Descents can readily be traced back to the Early Middle Ages, but beyond ...
.
Marriage and issue
He married Ermesenda Gatónez, daughter of count Gatón. She was probably a first cousin of King Alfonso since Gatón is believed to have been the brother of
Ordoño I, or perhaps of his wife. This marriage gave rise to one of the most prominent noble families in medieval Galicia and in the County of Portugal. The offspring of this marriage were:
*
Arias Menéndez (died after 924) count, married to Ermesenda Gundesíndez. He had at least one daughter, Elvira Arias, married to her cousin Munio Gutiérrez.
*
Elvira Menéndez, who married around the year 900 the future king of Galicia and León, Ordoño II of León, and was mother of his children, including Kings
Ramiro II and
Alfonso IV of León.
*
Gutierre Menéndez
Gutierre is an old Spanish male given name. The surname Gutiérrez is derived from this name.
Notable people
Notable people with the name include:
* Gutierre Álvarez de Toledo, Spanish priest
* Gutierre de Cetina (1519–1554), Spanish poet and s ...
, count, who married Ilduara Ériz, daughter of count
Ero Fernández and countess Adosinda. This couple had several children, including 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. ...
.
* Enderquina "Palla" Menéndez, who married
Gundesindo Eriz, son of count
Ero Fernández.
* Ildonza or Aldonza Menéndez who married
Gutierre Osorio, count in
Lourenzá, with whom she had several children, including Queen
Adosinda Gutiérrez, the first wife of King
Ramiro II of León
Ramiro II (c. 900 – 1 January 951), son of Ordoño II and Elvira Menendez, was a King of León from 931 until his death. Initially titular king only of a lesser part of the kingdom, he gained the crown of León (and with it, Galicia) after su ...
, and Count
Osorio Gutiérrez, called ''el conde santo'' (the saintly count), founder of the
Monastery of Lourenzá
* Patruina Menéndez
* Gudilona Menéndez, the wife of count
Lucidio Vimáraz of Portucale, son of count
Vimara Pérez and Trudildi. Her filiation, a hypothesis by Almeida Fernández, is not documented.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hermenegildo Gutierrez
850 births
912 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
9th-century Asturian people
8th-century Visigothic people
9th-century Visigothic people
County of Coimbra