Álvaro Pérez de Castro "the Castilian" (died at

Orgaz Orgaz is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2012 census, the municipality had a population of 2804 inhabitants, but it has since declined. Burial of the Count of Orgaz The town has an a ...

in 1240) was a Castilian nobleman.

Biography

He was the son of

Pedro Fernández de Castro Pedro Fernández de Castro (Algeciras, 1342), nicknamed ''el de la Guerra'' ('of the War'), was a powerful Galician noble and military figure of the House of Castro, descended by illegitimate lines from the kings of Castile-Leon- Galicia. Pedr ...

and Jimena Gomez, daughter of

Gómez González de Manzanedo Gómez González de Manzanedo (died 12 October 1182) was a Castilian magnate who governed Calahorra and defended the border with Navarre in the 1150s and 1160s. He spent three periods in the neighbouring Kingdom of León. Gómez's parentage is u ...

. He served as Mayordomo mayor and lieutenant of King

Alfonso IX of León Alfonso IX (15 August 117123 or 24 September 1230) was King of León and Galicia from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death. He took steps towards modernizing and democratizing his dominion and founded the Universit ...

on several occasions.
In 1225 Álvaro Pérez de Castro, now in the service of the Muslim rules of Jaén, participated with 160 Christian knights in the successful defence of Jaén against an army under

Ferdinand III of Castile Ferdinand III ( es, Fernando, link=no; 1199/120130 May 1252), called the Saint (''el Santo''), was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguel ...

. After the siege, Álvaro Pérez de Castro negotiated a truce between Castile and Granada, sealed with the release of 1,300 Christian prisoners. This gained him the favour of Ferdinand of Castile. From then on he served Ferdinand of Castile, who entrusted him with the possession of the strengths of Andújar and Martos and subsequently appointed him King's representative in the border fortresses of Andalusia and in the city of Cordoba, which he helped to conquer in 1236. He also commanded the Christian forces which defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Jerez, fought in 1231.

Marriages

He married for the first time in 1212 with Aurembiaix, future Countess of Urgel and the daughter of Count Ermengol VIII of Urgell, but the marriage was annulled in 1228. He married a second time with Mencía López de Haro, future queen of Portugal, daughter of

Lope Díaz II de Haro Lope Díaz II de Haro "''Cabeza Brava''" (b. 1170 – d. 15 November 1236) was a Spanish noble of the House of Haro, the sixth Lord of Biscay, and founder of the municipality of Plentzia. He was the eldest son of Diego López II de Haro and his ...

, Lord of Vizcaya, and his wife Urraca Alfonso de León, daughter of

. He died without leaving any offspring of his two marriages and was buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena, in which his father had been buried.

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez de Castro, Alvaro 1240 deaths 12th-century nobility from León and Castile Spanish untitled nobility 13th-century Castilian nobility House of Castro