Alfonso Ramírez (''

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

'' 1150–1185) was a Spanish nobleman of the

Kingdom of León The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in 910 when the Christian princes of Kingdom of Asturias, Asturias along the Bay of Biscay, northern coast of the peninsula ...

, who ruled the

Bierzo El Bierzo (; or ''El Bierzu''; ) 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 includ ...

intermittently between 1167 and his death. He was the son of

Ramiro Froilaz Ramiro is a Spanish and Portuguese name from the latinisation of the Gothic given name *𐍂𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌼𐌹𐍂 (*Ranamir). Notable people with the name include: Given name * Ramiro I of Asturias (c. 790–850), king of Asturias * Ramiro I ...

and Inés (Agnes), who was "descended from the kings of France" according to her epitaph. He married Teresa, a daughter of Álvaro Rodríguez and Sancha Fernández de Traba. The couple had a daughter, Inés, and a son, Rodrigo. Alfonso is first mentioned in the historical record in a document dated 22 May 1150. On 22 September, Ramiro ceded to his sons Alfonso and Froila the ''arras'' (bridal gift) he never gave their mother. By 13 May 1167 Alfonso's father had handed over part of the Bierzo to him. By 15 January 1170 he was in complete control of the Bierzo. By 20 January Alfonso could boast the title count (Latin ''comes''), the highest rank granted in the kingdom. Shortly after this the ''

tenencia In medieval and early modern Europe, a tenant-in-chief (or vassal-in-chief) was 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 opposed to holding them ...

'' of the Bierzo was revoked. He briefly governed it again in July 1178, but in September he was ''sine terra'', without land. He then governed it for the third and longest time from 18 August 1180 until 12 October 1185. He died shortly thereafter. At various times he also held the ''tenencias'' of

Valcárcel Valcárcel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Alejandro Rodríguez de Valcárcel (1917–1976), Francoist Spanish politician *Kitín Muñoz y Valcárcel (born 1958), Spanish navigator, scientist and sociological explorer *Aurel ...

(1169), Villabuena (1170), Asturias de Oviedo (1170–71),

Ciudad Rodrigo Ciudad Rodrigo () is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca (province), Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population in 2016 of 12,896. It is also the seat of a judicial district. The site of Ciudad Rodrigo, perched atop a rocky r ...

(1177–78),

Salamanca Salamanca () is a Municipality of Spain, municipality and city in Spain, capital of the Province of Salamanca, province of the same name, located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is located in the Campo Charro comarca, in the ...

(1177–78), Riaño (1181–83), Aguilar de Esla (1182),The castle of Aguilar on the river Esla is today in complete ruins, lying between the villages of Cistierna and

Sabero Sabero is a village in the province of León, Castile and León, in north-western Spain. According to the 2019 census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating popul ...

. Cf. Siro Sanz García, Tomás Cembrero and Marius van Heiningen (17 January 2011)
"Estudio del Castillo de Aguilar"
in ''Rutas en la Montaña de Cistierna (León)'', retrieved 18 December 2016. ''

Ulver Ulver (Norwegian for "wolves") is a Norwegian Experimental electronic music, experimental electronica band founded in 1993, by vocalist Kristoffer Rygg. Their early works, such as debut album ''Bergtatt – Et eeventyr i 5 capitler, Bergtatt'', ...

'' (1182–85),

Valdeorras Valdeorras is a comarca in the Galician Province of Ourense. The overall population of this local region is 25,500 (2019). Municipalities *O Barco de Valdeorras, capital of the comarca *O Bolo * Carballeda de Valdeorras * Larouco * Petín P ...

(1182–83), and Astorga (1185). He is also known to have made a donation to the

Hospitallers The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...

on 8 March 1184.

Notes

References

*This article is based on Simon Barton (1997), ''The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), especially p. 228, which contains a brief ''curriculum vitae''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso Ramirez 1185 deaths Year of birth unknown 12th-century nobility from León and Castile