Marquisate of Cenete - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Marquisate of Cenete (alternatively, of Zenete, El Cenete, or El Zenete; ) is a noble

Nobility

Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...

title first granted in 1491 by Queen Isabel I of Castile

Crown of Castile

The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...

to Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza, First Count del Cid.

The name refers to the Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

n comarca

Comarca

A comarca is a traditional region or local administrative division found in parts of Spain, Portugal, Panama, Nicaragua, and Brazil. The term is derived from the term marca, meaning a "march, mark", plus the prefix co- meaning "together, jointly".The comarca is known in Aragonese as redolada and...

of Zenete

Mancomunidad de Municipios Marquesado del Zenete

The Mancomunidad de Municipios Marquesado del Zenete or Mancomunidad del Marquesado del Zenete is a voluntary grouping of municipalities, located in the province of Granada, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain...

in the province of Granada. Zenete or Cenete may derive from the Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

sened, meaning
the slope that constitutes one side of a mountain range, referring to the north side of the Sierra Nevada

Sierra Nevada (Spain)

The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the region of provinces of Granada and Almería in Spain. It contains the highest point of continental Spain, Mulhacén at 3478 m above sea level....

. Another possibility is that the name refers to the Zenata

Zenata

Zenata were an ethnic group of North Africa, who were technically an Eastern Berber group and who are found in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco....

Berber tribes, which were highly respected in medeaval Spain for their horsemanship. Jinete, the Spanish word for horseman, is derived from this people. The Marquisate was promoted to grandee

Grandee

Grandee is the word used to render in English the Iberic high aristocratic title Grande , used by the Spanish nobility; Portuguese nobility, and Brazilian nobility....

ship 15 May 1909.

The current marquess is Mencía López-Becerra de Solé y de Casanova.

One of the young children besides the senior, a sixth child, of famous literary man Iñigo López de Mendoza, (1398–1458), was the Bishop of Calahorra

Calahorra

Calahorra, , La Rioja, Spain is a municipality in the comarca of Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro. During ancient Roman times, Calahorra was a municipium known as Calagurris.-Location:...

and of Siguenza

Siguenza

The name Siguenza or Sigüenza can refer to:*The Spanish city Sigüenza and the nearby Paredes de Sigüenza*A family of Spanish origin, including the following notable individuals:...

since 1473 and later Cardinal of Toledo, the highest ecclesiastical distinction in Spain from a Pope, became to be known as Pedro González de Mendoza

Pedro González de Mendoza

Pedro González de Mendoza was a Spanish cardinal and statesman.-Biography:He was born at Guadalajara in New Castile, the chief lordship of his family. He was the fourth son of Íñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana, deceased 1458, and one of the cadet brothers of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 1...

, (1428–1495), a.k.a. Cardinal and statesman Cardenal Mendoza. While being a Roman Catholic bishop at Calahorra and therefore upposed not to have a sexiual life leading to descendency, he became attached to Doña Mencia de Lemus, a Portuguese lady-in-waiting of the queen. She bore him two sons, Rodrigo, who was once selected in a list of candidates to be the husband of Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia [luˈkrɛtsia ˈbɔrʤa] was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia...

, one of the children fathered in Rome by the later Spanish Roman Catholic Pope Alexander VI, and Diego, who was the grandfather of the princess of Eboli of the reign of Philip II (see Antonio Perez) By Inés de Tovar, a lady of a Valladolid family, he had a third son (Juan Hurtado de Mendoza y Tovar) who afterwards emigrated to France.

On the death of King Henry IV of Castile

Henry IV of Castile

Henry IV , King of the Crown of Castile, nicknamed the Impotent , was the last of the weak late medieval kings of Castile...

, (1425–1473), on 11 December 1473, the Mendoza family from Guadalajara

Guadalajara

Guadalajara may refer to:In Mexico:*Guadalajara, Jalisco, the capital of the state of Jalisco and second largest city in Mexico**Guadalajara Metropolitan Area*University of Guadalajara, a public university in Guadalajara, Jalisco...

, who had remained faithful to king Henry, was sought after and much courted by the new 23 years old self-proclaimed Queen of Castile, Isabel I of Castile, (1451–1504), a half sister of king Henry, against the sectors of the nobility wising to remain faithfdul to the young daughter of the king, 12 years old Juana la Beltraneja, (1462–1530). Isabel I had married, disregarding the authority, the advise and the political balances thought out by her brother the king, Prince of Aragon, later King of Aragon since 1479, Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand II of Aragon

Ferdinand the Catholic was King of Aragon , Sicily , Naples , Valencia, Sardinia, and Navarre, Count of Barcelona, jure uxoris King of Castile and then regent of that country also from 1508 to his death, in the name of...

, (1452–1516). The self-proclamation of Isabel was made in Segovia

Segovia

Segovia is a city in Spain, the capital of Segovia Province in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated north of Madrid, 30 minutes by high speed train. The municipality counts some 55,500 inhabitants.-Etymology:...

the day after her half-brother died and without even counting at the time with her husband the Aragon Prince.

Civil wars ensued in Castile, the accounts running into many hundreds of books and probably hundreds of thousands of pages since then.

To cut short, the by then Archbishop of Seville, Pedro González de Mendoza, fourth child of poet Iñigo López de Mendoza, was offered by Isabel of Castile to "create new nobility lineages" with his "beautiful children of sin" , (the Queen "dixit"), Rodrigo, Diego and their half brother Juan. Juan was known then as Juan Hurtado de Mendoza y Tovar. Juan Hurtado de Mendoza was the name of the philandering father of marquess Iñigo López de Mendoza , an Admiral of Castile who died while he visited with a daughter the house one of his lovers. The impressive name, and title in due time, was then chosen by his ecclesiastical father for Rodrigo, of Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar y Mendoza, to remember a some 400 year old "ancestor", nonetheless than famous El Cid

El Cid

Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador , was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat...

from Medieval Castilian History. He was made Count del Cid, of course.

The first marquess

Marquess

A marquess or marquis is a nobleman of hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The term is also used to translate equivalent oriental styles, as in imperial China, Japan, and Vietnam...

of Cenete or Zenete, title of 1491, awarded by the Catholic Monarchs

Catholic Monarchs

The Catholic Monarchs is the collective title used in history for Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being both descended from John I of Castile; they were given a papal dispensation to deal with...

, Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza, deceased 1523, built the Castle of La Calahorra

La Calahorra

La Calahorra is a municipality located at in the province of Granada, Spain. According to the 2009 census, the town has a population of 800 inhabitants....

, and married twice, first to Leonor de la Cerda y Aragón, deceased around 1497, and later to María de Fonseca y Toledo . His daughter Mencía de Mendoza, Second Marquise, died without issue; his other daughter María, became Third Marquise and married Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 4th Count of Saldaña, heir to the Duchy of Infantado. Thus the marquisate passed to the House of Infantado, whose members used both titles, alternating each generation between the style "Marquess of Cenete and Duke of Infantado" and "Duke of Infantado and Marquess of Cenete".

The primogeniture

Primogeniture

Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...

of the marquesses included the baronies of Ayora

Ayora

Ayora is a municipality in the comarca of Valle de Cofrentes in the Valencian Community, Spain. It lies in the inland part of the Valencian Community on the border of the provinces of Albacete and Alicante....

, Alazque, Alberique and Gavarda

Gavarda

Gavarda is a municipality in the comarca of Ribera Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain....

, places inhabited by moriscos, industrious vassals working very well silks, iron, copper and alums, with Moorish ancestry, in the Kingdom of Valencia

Kingdom of Valencia

The Kingdom of Valencia , located in the eastern shore of the Iberian Peninsula, was one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon. When the Crown of Aragon merged by dynastic union with the Crown of Castile to form the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Valencia became a component realm of the...

, as was Zenete after 1492 with the Conquest of Granada, and the seigneuries of Jadraque

Jadraque

Jadraque is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain.It is home to a large medieval castle....

, El Castillo del Cid and Alcocer

Alcocer

Alcocer is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 313 inhabitants....

, in Guadalajara.

See also