Lope Íñiguez (''c''. 1050 – 1093) succeeded his father Íñigo López to become the second

Lord of Biscay The Lordship of Biscay ( es, Señorío de Vizcaya, Basque: ''Bizkaiko jaurerria'') was a region under feudal rule in the region of Biscay in the Iberian Peninsula between 1040 and 1876, ruled by a political figure known as the Lord of Biscay. On ...

in 1076. Íñigo died shortly after the assassination of his overlord

Sancho IV of Navarre Sancho Garcés IV ( eu, Antso IV.a Gartzez; 1039 – 4 June 1076),Sancho IV, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. nicknamed Sancho of Peñalén ( eu, Antso Peñalengoa, es, Sancho el de Peñalén) was King of Pamplona from 1054 until his death. He was ...

and the subsequent takeover of Biscay,

Álava Álava ( in Spanish) or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Álava, former medieval Catholic bishopric and now Latin titular see. Its ca ...

, part of

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

and

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and N� ...

Alfonso VI of Castile Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

. He accepted Alfonso as his lord and his son followed suit, although after Íñigo's death the ''

tenencia In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as op ...

'' of

Nájera Nájera () is a small town, former bishopric and now Latin Catholic titular see, former capital of the Kingdom of Navarre, located in the "Rioja Alta" region of La Rioja, northern Spain, on the river Najerilla. Nájera is a stopping point on the F ...

, the most important in La Rioja, which he had held was given to

García Ordóñez García Ordóñez (died 29 May 1108), called de Nájera or de Cabra and Crispus or el Crespo de Grañón in the epic literature, was a Castilian magnate who ruled the Rioja, with his seat at Nájera, from 1080 until his death. He is famous in lit ...

, husband of Urraca, sister of the deceased Navarrese king. Nevertheless, it was Lope and Diego Álvarez de Oca whom the king had swear to uphold and guarantee 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 ...

'' of Nájera which he had granted (1076). For the loss of Nájera, Lope was compensated with the ''tenencias'' of Álava (1081) and Guipúzcoa (1082) and he was thus the first to unite the Basque provinces under one lord. The first record of his simultaneous rule in all three provinces comes from a charter of donation he made to the monastery of

San Millán de la Cogolla San Millán de la Cogolla () is a sparsely populated municipality in La Rioja, (Spain). The village is famous for its twin monasteries, Yuso and Suso (Monasterio de San Millán de Yuso and Monasterio de San Millán de Suso), which were declared a ...

in 1082, which he signed as "I, lord Lope Íñiguez, governing Biscay, Guipúzcoa and Álava". This concentration of political authority led to the suppression of the Diocese of Álava and the consignment of its province to the

Diocese of Calahorra In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

in 1087. In 1089 Lope received the title of

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

, the highest rank in the kingdom, from Alfonso. Lope's importance continued to grow, for in 1091, at his instigation, Alfonso VI donated the monastery of San Andrés de Astigarribia, which lay on the border between Biscay and Guipúzcoa, to San Millán. Lope was a regular participant in Alfonso VI's ''

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 ...

''. He probably took part in the conquest of Toledo in 1085. Forces from Álava are known to have participated in the

Battle of Sagrajas The Battle of Sagrajas (23 October 1086), also called Zalaca or Zallaqa ( ar, معركة الزلاقة, translit=Maʿrakat az-Zallāqa), was a battle between the Almoravid army led by their King Yusuf ibn Tashfin and an army led by the Ca ...

in 1086, probably under his leadership. In the spring of 1092 he probably joined with García Ordóñez in defending the Rioja from the depredations of the exile and freebooter

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain. Fighting with both Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ''al-sīd'', which would evolve into El ...

. Lope married Ticlo (Tecla) Díaz, daughter of a certain Diego Álvarez, possibly Diego Álvarez de Ayala, who ruled

Asturias de Santillana Asturias de Santillana is a historical ''comarca'' whose territory in large part corresponded to the central and western part of today's autonomous community of Cantabria, as well as the extreme east of Asturias. Most of the province of Asturias ...

, but more probably Diego Álvarez de Oca. Their marriage took place before 1079, when the couple made a donation to San Millán. Ticlo may have brought part of Las Encartaciones to Lope, thus uniting them permanently with Biscay. She gave birth to an heir, Diego I, named after her father. The names Diego and Lope would alternate in the heads of the family for generations. Ticlo bore four other children: Sancho, Toda (who married Lope González, who succeeded Lope in Álava), Sancha and Teresa (who married García Sánchez de Zurbano and later went on a pilgrimage to Rome). Shortly after Lope's death in 1093 Ticlo donated the monastery of Albóniga to San Millán for the good of his soul. She died towards 1104 and was buried in San Millán. Lope may also have been the father of Pedro López de Monforte.Barton, 281.

Notes

References

*Simon Barton. ''The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. *Ghislain Baury
"Diego López 'le bon' et Diego López 'le mauvais': comment s'est construite la mémoire d'un magnat du règne d'Alphonse VIII de Castille."
''Berceo'', 144(2003), 37–92. *Ghislain Baury
"Los ricoshombres y el rey en Castilla: El linaje Haro, 1076–1322."
''Territorio, Sociedad y Poder: Revista de Estudios Medievales'', 6(2011), 53–72. *José María Canal Sánchez-Pagín. "La Casa de Haro en León y Castilla durante el siglo XII: Nuevas conclusiones." ''Anuario de estudios medievales'', 25(1995):1, 3–38, cf. esp. pp. 10–19 for Lope Díaz I. *Ángel J. Martín Duque
"Vasconia en la Alta Edad Media: Somera aproximación histórica."
''Príncipe de Viana'', 63(2002):227, 871–908. *Gregorio Monreal Zia. "El Señorío de Vizcaya: origen, naturaleza jurídica, estructura institucional." ''Anuario de historia del derecho español'', 43(1973), 113–206. *Luis Salazar y Castro. ''Historia genealógica de la Casa de Haro''. Madrid: Dalmiro de la Válgoma y Díaz-Varela, Madrid, 1959. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lope Iniguez 1050s births 1093 deaths Lords of Biscay People of the Reconquista Year of birth uncertain