Pedro Ruiz de Azagra (died 1186) was a
Navarrese
Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...
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
Gonzalo Ruiz or Rodríguez ('' fl.'' 1122–1180 ''or'' 1146–1202) was the feudal lord of La Bureba (or Burueba) throughout much of the mid-twelfth century. He held important positions at the courts of successive Castilian monarchs and g ...
and his younger brother, later successor, was Fernán Ruiz.
Pedro married Toda (or Tota) Pérez, the daughter of another Navarrese nobleman, Pedro de Arazuri. These two Pedros left Navarre about the same time, probably because they did not accept the succession of
Sancho VI in 1154, after the death of his (elected) father,
García Ramírez.
[Suárez Fernández, 606.] He ended up in the service of
Muhammad ibn Mardanis
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...
, ruler of the ''
taifa
The ''taifas'' (singular ''taifa'', from ar, طائفة ''ṭā'ifa'', plural طوائف ''ṭawā'if'', a party, band or faction) were the independent Muslim principalities and kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal and Spain), re ...
s'' of
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
and
Murcia
Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country. It has a population of 460,349 inhabitants in 2021 (about one ...
. Between 1166 and 1168
[Buresi, 214–5.] (or perhaps as late as 1169–70), Ibn Mardanis entrusted to him the lordship 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 ...
to defend his ''taifas northern borders from the expansionist
Alfonso II of Aragon
Alfonso II (1–25 March 1157Benito Vicente de Cuéllar (1995)«Los "condes-reyes" de Barcelona y la "adquisición" del reino de Aragón por la dinastía bellónida» p. 630-631; in ''Hidalguía''. XLIII (252) pp. 619–632."Alfonso II el Casto, hi ...
. Pedro immediately began Christianising his lordship, refounding churches and erecting a bishopric. His refusal to recognise Aragonese sovereignty extended to his bishop, Martin, who refused to recognise the supremacy of the
Bishop of Zaragoza
The Archdiocese of Saragossa ( la, Archidioecesis Caesaraugustana) is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory located in north-eastern Spain, in the province of Zaragoza (Saragossa in English), part of the autonomous community of Aragón. The a ...
, though ordered to do so by the pope.
[ Pedro also colonised the region of Albarracín, mostly with settlers from Navarre.][
Pedro was generally on friendly terms with Navarre and with ]Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII (11 November 11555 October 1214), called the Noble (''El Noble'') or the one of Las Navas (''el de las Navas''), was King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. After having suffered a great defeat with his own army at ...
. In August 1170, he and his brother Gonzalo were part of an embassy sent by Alfonso VIII to meet his fiancée, Eleanor
Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
The name was introd ...
, in 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 prefectur ...
and conduct her back to him.[Asperti, 53.] Yet even when his father-in-law aligned with Castile, Pedro remained neutral.[ In 1172, Cerebrun, the ]Archbishop of Toledo
This is a list of Bishops and Archbishops of Toledo ( la, Archidioecesis Metropolitae Toletana). in Castile and the primate of Spain, consecrated the bishop of Santa María de Albarracín and attached it to his diocese.[ In 1176, Pedro first called himself a "vassal of Saint Mary", a title to be employed by most of his successors, claiming no ]suzerain
Suzerainty () is the rights and obligations of a person, state or other polity who controls the foreign policy and relations of a tributary state, while allowing the tributary state to have internal autonomy. While the subordinate party is calle ...
on Earth, only the Virgin Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...
in heaven.
A certain "Peire Rois" mentioned in the poem ''Quan vei pels vergiers despleiar'', 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 ...
'' by Bertran de Born, is probably Pedro. Composed probably in 1184, the song is Bertran's second anti-Aragonese screed.[
Pedro left no sons and was succeeded by his younger brother Fernán. He did leave behind a daughter, named Toda after her mother, and who married ]Diego López II de Haro
Diego López II de Haro called ''the Good'' or ''the Bad'' (c. 1152 – 16 September 1214). Son of Lope Diaz I de Haro, count of Nájera (b. 1126–1170) and of countess Aldonza. He was a first rank magnate in the kingdom of Castile under King ...
and died on 16 January 1216.[Her marriage is recorded in the fourteenth-century ''Nobiliario'' of Pedro de Barcelos and in the '' Annales Compostellani'', where the death of ''Toda Perez uxor Didaci Lupi de Faro'' is recorded on ''XVII Kal Feb'' in 1216.]
Notes
References
*Asperti, Stefano (2001). "Per «Gossalbo Roitz»." ''Convergences médiévales: épopée, lyrique, roman. Mélanges offerts à Madeleine Tyssens''. Nadine Henrard, Paola Moreno, and Martine Thiry-Stassin, edd. Paris: De Boeck Université.
*Buresi, Pascal (2004). ''La frontière entre chrétienté et Islam dans la pénisule Ibérique: du Tage à la Sierra Morena (fin XIe-milieu XIIIe siècle)''. Editions Publibook.
*Doubleday, Simon R. (2001). ''The Lara Family: Crown and Nobility in Medieval Spain''. Harvard University Press.
*Ladero Quesada, Miguel Ángel (2001). "Sobre la evolución de las fronteras medievales hispánicas (siglos XI a XIV)." ''Identidad y representación de la frontera en la España medieval, siglos XI–XIV: seminario celebrado en la Casa de Velázquez y la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 14–15 de diciembre de 1998''. Carlos de Ayala Martínez, Pascal Buresi, Philippe Josserand, edd. Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, pp. 5–50.
* Suárez Fernández, Luis (1976). ''Historia de España antigua y media''. Ediciones Rialp.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azagra, Pedro Ruiz De
1186 deaths
Year of birth unknown