Ponce de Minerva
Encyclopedia
Ponce de Minerva was a nobleman, courtier, governor, and general serving, at the same and different times, the kingdoms of León
and Castile
. Originally from Occitania
, he came as a young man to León (1127), where he was raised probably in close connexion to the royal family. His public career, first as a courtier and knight in the military retinue of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, began in 1140. By later historians he was implicated in the strife between Alfonso's successors, Sancho III of Castile
and Ferdinand II of León
, but he was generally loyal to the latter, although from 1168 to 1173 he was in voluntary exile serving Alfonso VIII of Castile
.
Ponce had a long and distinguished military career. He participated in at least twelve campaigns, more than half of them campaigns of Reconquista
fought against the Moors
, but also campaigns against Navarre
(1140), Portugal
(1141), and Castile (1162 and 1163), as well as one famous campaign against some Castilian rebels, in which he was captured. He acquired landed wealth largely through royal preferment—even in the major cities of the realm, such as León and Toledo
—and an advantageous marriage—his wife was a descendant of García Sánchez III of Navarre—and he rose to hold the highest rank in the kingdom, count
, and the highest civil post, majordomo, in both Castile and León. In 1167 he founded a monastery, Santa María de Sandoval, and he was also a donor to the Order of Calatrava
. In 1173 he re-populated half of the village of Azaña
and granted it a fuero
(charter of privileges).
("de Minerva" is Latin
for "from Minerve
") in southern France, and then a part of the County of Carcassonne, one of the possessions of Raymon Berengar III
, Count of Barcelona. He may have been related to the Counts of Toulouse
, but his genealogy has been disputed since the seventeenth century. The name of either of his parents is unknown. He arrived in León in November 1127 in the entourage of Berenguela of Barcelona
, daughter of Raymond Berengar III, who wed Alfonso VII that month at Saldaña
. He was probably a young man of about twelve years at the time.
Ponce does not appear in contemporary records until 1140, but his presence in the following of the Catalan princess is established by a charter in the archives of the convent of Santa María de Carrizo. This document, dated 13 March 1207, records a pesquisa (inquest) carried out by orders of Alfonso IX
to determine what was owed by the village of Quintanilla
to the convent in light of a donatio made by Ponce. It mentions how Ponce had come to León with Berenguela:
Because of Ponce's close connexions with the ruling dynasty of Barcelona, and the political allegiance of his birthplace to them, he is often considered, culturally, a Catalan
. His name, in contemporary Latin, was Pontius or Poncius, transformed in Castilian to Ponce, the form used here, or Poncio, and also transformed into Ponç (Catalan) or Pons (Occitan).
, and endowed by Alfonso VII with fisc
al lands: half of the village of Carrizo de la Ribera and an estate at a place called Quiro, between Carrizo and Quintanilla. To this his future father-in-law added the other half of Carrizo, which had been a part of his patrimony
. Carrizo included a palace (palacio), which was later given to the monastery there, and stood to the right of the "old gate" (portería vieja).
The charter provides no date for Ponce's betrothal or marriage, but a document dated 30 May 1140 records a grant given by the king's sister, Sancha Raimúndez, to Ponce on the occasion of his marriage: the village of Argavallones "at your marriage, because I nourished [i.e., raised] you". This document survives only in an early eighteenth-century copy that is a clear forgery, from 1716. For instance, it anachronistically cites Martin as Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela even though he was not consecrated until 1156. Of Ponce de Minerva it says:
The forged charter might have some basis in fact on two accounts. First, that Ponce was very young at the time of his arrival in León is probable in light of the contours of his subsequent career. His first appearance in a court document dates to 9 September 1140, when he witnessed an act of Alfonso VII's as alférez
, that is, armiger and standard-bearer of the royal mesnada (military retinue). This office was usually reserved for the scions of noble houses and other young and aspiring aristocrats. At the time of his advent in León in 1127 he would therefore have been placed in an aristocratic household capable of raising him, and the king's sister is known to have raised at least one other young nobleperson in her court: Urraca Rodríguez, daughter of Rodrigo González de Lara
, whom she remembered in her (undated) will as "Urraca, daughter of Count Rodrigo, whom I raised". Second, the village of Argavallones must have been acquired by Ponce sometime before his marriage, since he gave it to his bride as her arras (bridewealth), along with all his lands at Carrizo, San Pedro del Páramo (modern San Pedro de las Dueñas), and Grulleros. According to a document in the Tumbo Antiguo cartulary of Carrizo, Argavallones was located near Grulleros, just west of Villaverde de Sandoval (Sot noval). It may be supposed that the forged eighteenth-century charter was designed to replace an authentic lost charter. This document aside, the earliest reference to Ponce's marriage to Estefanía is from 13 February 1146, when Alfonso VII rewarded them with a grant of land at Villamoros de Mansilla "for the service to me which you [plural] have done and are doing".
in 1141. He definitely participated in the Siege of Coria
in 1142, as recorded in the Tumbo Negro, cartulary of the Cathedral of Zamora, and he probably also accompanied the royal forces on a razzia of the environs of Córdoba
and Granada
in 1144. This last (obscure) campaign is mentioned in a charter issued at Toledo
in November 1144 "as the emperor arrived from the fortification that he had made against Córdoba and Granada".
Ponce's rewards for these various services were extensive. There are two false documents dated to 25 January and 14 June 1141 which purport to record royal donations to Ponce. The first is the donation of Quiro, which occurred on the occasion of his betrothal according to the account of the pesquisa of 1207. The second is the donation of San Pedro del Páramo, which it is known that Ponce gave to his wife as part of her bridewealth. The above charters are classified as spurious because they name Alfonso VII as ruling in Baeza
and Almería
, places he did not conquer until 1147, and they list Martin, Archbishop of Santiago, as confirming. They nevertheless contain a kernel of truth. More securely datable is Alfonso's grant to Ponce the village of Villaverde de Sandoval, on the bank of the Porma near the possessions which he had given his wife at their marriage, in 1142.
, who had been disgraced sometime in the first half of 1142. Despite his greater responsibility in the kingdom that kept him away from court, Ponce continued to take part in all of Alfonso VII's major military actions.
In 1147, which has been described as an annus mirabilis
for the Iberian Christians because of Alfonso VII's summer campaign, Ponce was with the royal army at Calatrava
the week of 4–9 June. He was either still or again with the royal forces at Andújar
, witnessing a royal charter issued on 17 July, but there is no record of his presence at the successful sieges of Baeza and Almería later that summer, although one twentieth-century historian mistakenly believed that the "Count Ponce" of the Prefatio de Almaria, a poetic retelling of the conquest of Almería in 1147, was Ponce de Minerva.
In 1150, Ponce probably took part in the failed siege of Córdoba, since he was with the king at Jaén
immediately after the lifting of the siege. By that year he had received the tenancy of Villalís. The following year, on 30 January 1151, at Calahorra
, Alfonso awarded Ponce, called "our faithful vassal", with the village of Grulleros, which he later gave to his wife. Later that year, according to documents in the cathedral archives of Santa María de León, he was at the siege of Jaén and the second siege of Baeza, which had been lost again. In 1152, he took part in the assault on Guadix
. On 18 December that year he was one of the select magnates whom Alfonso took counsel with before modifying the fuero
s of Sahagún.
During this time he was rewarded further, first with a castle
on the Tagus
. The original document recording this grant, issued at Soria
on 18 November 1153, has survived, and is one of possibly ten charters of Alfonso VII to have been authenticated with a seal
. At the same time, Ponce was rewarded with further governorships: Cea
by 1152, Castrotierra by 1153, and Gatón de Campos
by 1155. His territorial lordships, however, were generally scattered, although they were all in the province of León and relatively near to the city itself, whose government he continued to hold throughout the period. The lordship of Cea was shared with Ermengol VI of Urgell
, according to a private charter of 23 June 1152. Another charter of 27 March 1150 shows Ermengol sharing it with Lope López, suggesting that Ponce was Lope's replacement. In 1155, Ponce was with Alfonso for the capture of Andújar. The last reference to Ponce holding Cea, site of a royal castle, dates from 28 June 1156.
. The latter, where Ponce possessed some lands on the river Tagus in the regnum of Toledo
, passed to his eldest son, Sancho III
. Ponce initially gravitated to the court of Ferdinand II, where he was present from at least 9 October 1157. On this date, Ferdinand issued the earliest of his surviving charters, by which he granted some estates to Rodrigo Pérez de Traba
, who in turn donated the village of Gomariz to the monastery of Toxosoutos in Galicia
. This charter shows that Ferdinand had brought together most of the leading magnates of León in the first months of his reign; even the King of Portugal, Afonso I Henriques, was present. On 13 October the court had moved to Villalpando
, where the king rewarded his follower Velasco Menéndez. Ponce was still in attendance.
According to the thirteenth-century Toledan historian Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
, in his De rebus Hispaniae
, Ferdinand came to believe certain false rumours about Ponce de Minerva spread by his enemies at court. In response he confiscated Ponce's fiefs, and those of some other noblemen, and sent them into exile. They went to the court of Sancho III seeking redress, whereupon Sancho marched an army into León. The two kings met at Sahagún
, where, according to Rodrigo, Sancho said to his brother:
This account, however, is based on a confusion between Ponce de Minerva and his namesake Ponce de Cabrera. There is some confusion even among modern historians between these two Ponces. Derek Lomax notes that "the personalities, relationships and activities of these minor Catalan nobles are difficult to disentangle, but it is clear that they were extremely active in the politics of central Spain throughout the twelfth century, and that they built up their lordships primarily in the region of Salamanca and Valladolid."
There is abundant contemporary documentary evidence of Ponce de Cabrera's exile to Castile, while Ponce de Minerva clearly remained on good terms with Ferdinand II throughout 1158. He was with the court at Faro
in Galicia on 15 February. On 23 May Ponce was present for the ratification of the Treaty of Sahagún
, for which he stood as a surety for Ferdinand II, along with his father-in-law, a certain Abril, and Pedro Alfonso
. The Treaty stipulated that certain lands conquered by Sancho from his brother in the recent conflict were to be returned and held in fealty
(in fidelitate) from Ferdinand. The treaty named three vassals among whom these lands could be distributed: Ponce de Minerva, Ponce de Cabrera, and Osorio Martínez. To the end of the surviving record of the treaty is appended a list of those who "swore on the side of King Ferdinand", and Ponce is listed among them. Contrary to the Toledan historian's confused account, Ponce de Minerva was unswervingly loyal to Ferdinand II during the lifetime of Sancho III, although the presence of his name alongside the grieved Ponce de Cabrera and Osorio has raised suspicions. On 1 July he and the newly reconciled Ponce de Cabrera confirmed Ferdinand's grant to Rodrigo Sebastiánez, a monk of Oviedo
.
in the vicinity of León. By this month he had also been trusted with the lordship of Valderas
, and by 1161 he was governing Melgar de Arriba
(or de Suso) as well. On 15 March 1161, while the court was at Malgrat, Ferdinand again rewarded Ponce with an estate at Ferreras near León, but this time also with lands at Salio in the Picos de Europa
. On 28 March, Ponce de Cabrera was ruling "under his imperium [i.e. Ferdinand's regalian rights] in Melgar [i.e. Melgar de Abajo
(or de Yuso)] and Ponce de Minerva in the other Melgar". In 1162, Ponce de Minerva took part in Ferdinand's expedition into Castile, where he captured Toledo. In 1163, he was again with the royal Leonese army that invaded Castile.
Ponce's frequent presence at court necessitated the devolution of government in his tenancies to subordinates. Thus, in 1162, one "Juan Martínez, under the hand of the lord Ponce de Minerva, [was] holding the towers of León". By 1164 Juan was holding León without any indiaction of Ponce's superiority. In 1164, Ponce was granted an estate at Villamañán
, according to the Tumbo Antiguo (old cartulary) of Santa María de Carrizo. In September of the latter year, during the court's sojourn at Villaquejida
, Ferdinand also awarded him property at Villamandos
in the valley of the Esla, where he possessed other estates. Also in 1164, Ponce's governorship was extended over Riaño and two places called Ceón and Buraun. By 23 October he had been promoted to the rank of count
(comes or consul in Latin), the highest title in the kingdom after the king's. This promotion constituted a recognition that Ponce was one of the leading magnates of the kingdom, and one of the most powerful. Between at least 27 October 1164 and 6 May 1166 he was deprived of the government of the city of León, but by 11 November 1166 he had regained control of it.
In 1165, for a second time Ponce was with Ferdinand in Galicia to make peace with Portugal, and he was given the tenancy of Coyanza, modern Valencia de Don Juan
. In 1167, he was rewarded with the tenancy of Castroverde de Campos
, as recorded in the archives of the hospital of San Marcos de León. On 16 February he and his family founded the monastery of Santa María de Sandoval at Villaverde, which had been granted him by Alfonso VII in 1142. Sometime before 15 July 1167, Ferdinand II appointed him majordomo (maiordomus), the highest office associated with the royal court and the pre-eminent position in the realm: he had reached "the zenith of his power in León" and was "one of the most powerful lay figures of the realm". His eldest son, Ramiro Ponce, also served Ferdinand II as alférez in the 1160s.
and his mesnada (knightly retinue) had arrived in the service of Ferdinand II, whom he had assisted in the capture of the fortress of Alcántara
from the Almohads, which fortress Ferdinand granted to him as a fief on 21 November, as recorded in the archives of the Order of Santiago
that Ferdinand had founded. By that date, Ferdinand had already removed Ponce from his post as majordomo and replaced him with Ermengol. The arrival of Ermengol thus appears to have marked a shift in the king's favour from the one Catalan to the other. Ponce continued with the Leonese court from sometime after his dismissal as majordomo: he was present at León, still his tenancy, on 11 December, and in 1168 he was present at Castro Mazamud on 10 January and at Lugo
on 4 March.
Ponce's last appearance in any surviving document from León for this period is dated 9 April 1168, which is also the last royal document confirmed by his son Ramiro, who appears to have entered an exile from court at the same time as his father. By 20 September the tenancies of León and Mayorga had passed to Fernando Rodríguez de Castro
, an exile from Castile. Owing to ignorance of the exact chronology of Ponce's defection, it is unclear whether his replacement as majordomo by Ermengol and his replacement in the fiefs of León and Mayorga by Fernando were a consequence or an incitement.
, son of Sancho III, which had moved to the fortress of Abia possibly to receive the defecting count. The court was at Sahagún on 29 August when Ponce first makes an appearance there in the surviving records. In April 1169 he played a leading role in the siege of the town of Zorita de los Canes
, which was being held by the relatives and supporters of Fernando Rodríguez de Castro against Alfonso VIII. He joined with Nuño Pérez de Lara
in the initial attack, which was a failure. Later, Ponce and Nuño went to negotiate with the castellan, Lope de Arenas, but were betrayed and arrested. There is a private document from 25 April by which these events are dated, for it was redacted "at the time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were defeated at Zorita". Alfonso VIII continued to besiege the town in which his two generals were being held until at least 14 May, when a royal charter of donation was drawn up "about (i.e., around) Zorita, at that time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were being held captive there by the most evil Lope de Arenas". The donation was made to the military Order of Calatrava
founded by his father. By 19 May, Zorita had surrendered and the two captives been freed. A royal charter issued that day "was made in Zorita, at the time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were liberated from captivity there". These last two charters indicate the part likely played by the knights of Calatrava in the capture of Zorita and the liberation of Ponce de Minerva, and it is probably therefore in gratefulness that Ponce soon after gaining his freedom made over to the Order some mills
he owned in Toledo.
Ponce's service to the Crown in the Castile lasted five years. At the time of his arrival, and even during the siege of Zorita, Alfonso VIII was a minor whose regency was held by Nuño Pérez. By the fall, however, he had come of age and begun to rule in his own right. Shortly after, on 11 November, Ponce was with his court at Burgos
. In September 1170, Ponce attended the wedding festivities of Alfonso VIII and Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England
and Eleanor of Aquitaine
. According to a document in the church archives, on 23 June 1171 Ponce divided the village of Azaña (modern Numancia de la Sagra
) between himself and the canons
of the cathedral of Santa María de Toledo
.
Ponce's support for the young king was rewarded with several lordships in western Castile, along the border with León. From 1170 he was ruling Saldaña, the town to which he had first come for the marriage of Berenguela and Alfonso VII some forty-three years prior. From 1171 he ruled Carrión
, a town associated with his allies of the Lara family, also mutual rivals of the Castros
. By 1172 he was governing the tenancy of Boadilla de Rioseco
, and by 10 May that year he had been raised to the post of majordomo of the royal household. This was probably in an effort by the king to relieve himself of some of the influence of the overbearing former regent Nuño. The last record of Ponce in that office dates to 28 June 1173, and shortly thereafter he was reconciled to Ferdinand II.
), but the rest of the land he rented out to twenty-five settlers. Each received a field (yugada), some additional land for planting vines and orchards, and eight cahices of seed for wheat. The fuero requires that any settler who wished to sell his property and leave the area had to give Ponce the first option to buy, even if he was away on campaign in the south, in which case the would-be seller had to await his return. Another clause gives an indication of his reconciliation with the King of León, for it states that if Ponce was away in the north, either "in the kingdom of Alfonso or in the kingdom of Ferdinand", then the would-be seller had to notify Ponce's majordomo of his intention to sell and wait forty days for Ponce to exercise his option to buy, after which the settler could sell the land to anyone.
The majordomo referred to in the surviving fuero may have been "a local estate manager rather than the count's household official". This person was also in charge of organising the annual boon work of the settlers and was responsible for supplying them with food and drink during that period. This boon work consisted in three operationes, as they are called in the surviving charter: two for sowing and one for either threshing or ploughing in Ponce's fields. The tenants also owed Ponce tribute or rent in the form of one cahiz each of wheat and barley per field and portions of the produce of their vineyards and orchards. They also owed yantar (hospitality). The fuero of Azaña contains one of the best surviving descriptions of this practice from the twelfth century, and it also indicates Ponce's expectation of continued itinerancy between his various properties and tenancies. The settlers were required each year to prepare a feast for him or his wife and their retinues, although their sons, daughters, or grandchildren could be sent in their place. The amount of produce to be used for these feasts is specified: three rams, one pig, twelve hens, 160 loaves of bread, and large quantities of barley and wine. If none of Ponce's kin attended in a given year, the settlers were exempted from the tribute, which is what the meal was taken to be. Ponce has been described as an "absentee landlord with a vengeance", although no different from his fellow twelfth-century European aristocrats.
In February 1174, Ponce was with the court of Alfonso VIII at Toledo for a major gathering the kingdom's leading men. In June, he and Estefanía visited the Benedictine
monastery at Sahagún, in Castile near the border with León, where they donated an estate at Villalba de la Loma
(part of the tenancy of Mayorga) in exchange for the Hospital de Don García. By October he had joined the court of Ferdinand II at Ciudad Rodrigo
, where the king officially declared their reconciliation by granting "to you, my beloved Count Ponce, and your wife, the countess Doña Estefanía" a privilege exempting the couple from taxes on all their lands and exempting all their vassals from taxes also. On 18 November, Ponce met Alfonso VIII at Fuentedueña, perhaps remaining with the court until 9 May 1175, when he was definitely in attendance at Medina del Campo
. The last records of Ponce alive date from June, when he was in León.
On 17 February 1176, Countess Estefanía granted her land at Benavides
to the monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes in Galicia "for the soul of the count Don Ponce" and that a monastery might be built there. On 10 September 1176, she founded a convent "for the soul of my husband, the lord count Ponce", at Carrizo, including in her donation the palace they had owned there. She dedicated it to the Virgin and placed it under the Cistercian Order. The archives of this convent, Santa María de Carrizo, are an important source for the lives and careers of Ponce and his wife. They contain the authentic charter of foundation of Estefanía, wherein she describes her gift to the monastery of the lands comprising her bridewealth from Ponce:
Estefanía died in 1183 or 1184 and was buried beside her husband.
Ponce acquired a vast wealth in lands after his migration to León. His principal estates all lay within fifty kilometres of the urbs regia of León, which he himself governed from 1148 to 1165 and again from 1167 to 1168. He had many estates in the valleys of the rivers Esla, Porma, Órbigo
, and Bernesga. Besides properties he received from Alfonso VII and Ferdinand II, which was a total of ten donations between 1148 and 1174, Ponce and Estefanía acquired lands at Mayorga on the Esla, and at Quintanilla and Villalba de Loma on the Porma.
(from the Latin Poncii or Pontii), married Pedro Garcés de Lerma, a Castilian, and Rodrigo Álvarez
, a Galician, respectively; both were wealthy and powerful men. Sancha, by Pedro, had a son, Gonzalo Pérez, who became the abbot of Husillos
in Castile.
Ponce's younger daughter, María, separated from her husband by mutual agreement since late 1173 or early 1174, when he founded the Order of Mountjoy, was installed as the first abbess of her mother's foundation at Carrizo in 1184, a position she held until her death in 1191. She inherited an estate at Astorga
, and there is preserved a conuenientia (pact) between her and the tenants of her estate there in the archives of Carrizo. The pact stipulates that annually on Martinmas (11 November) the inhabitants should pay a rent of two solidi
and a portion of produce for every parcel of land they owned. The document lists twenty-three peasant farmers and their land tenures, totalling eighty-eight solidi in cash per annum for the abbess.
On 26 February 1189, according to a document of Santa María de Sandoval, Ponce's daughters, Sancha and María, got together to divide their inheritance, which included properties in the city of León and at Oret, Ferreras, Corbillos, Molina Seca, Villarroañe, Villanueva
, Matadeón, Cifuentes, and Maraña
, all in the region around the city. They had also received lands in Toledo and Azaña in Castile, and at Toro on the river Duero in León's far west. They accomplished the division by drawing lots to avoid sharp disagreements.
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
and Castile
Kingdom of Castile
Kingdom of Castile was one of the medieval kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula. It emerged as a political autonomous entity in the 9th century. It was called County of Castile and was held in vassalage from the Kingdom of León. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region...
. Originally from Occitania
Occitania
Occitania , also sometimes lo País d'Òc, "the Oc Country"), is the region in southern Europe where Occitan was historically the main language spoken, and where it is sometimes still used, for the most part as a second language...
, he came as a young man to León (1127), where he was raised probably in close connexion to the royal family. His public career, first as a courtier and knight in the military retinue of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, began in 1140. By later historians he was implicated in the strife between Alfonso's successors, Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. During the Reconquista, in which he took an active part, he founded the Order of Calatrava...
and Ferdinand II of León
Ferdinand II of Leon
Ferdinand II was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.-Life:Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and...
, but he was generally loyal to the latter, although from 1168 to 1173 he was in voluntary exile serving Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
.
Ponce had a long and distinguished military career. He participated in at least twelve campaigns, more than half of them campaigns of Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
fought against the Moors
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation and territorial region also commonly referred to as Moorish Iberia. The name describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Muslims , at various times in the period between 711 and 1492, although the territorial boundaries...
, but also campaigns against Navarre
Kingdom of Navarre
The Kingdom of Navarre , originally the Kingdom of Pamplona, was a European kingdom which occupied lands on either side of the Pyrenees alongside the Atlantic Ocean....
(1140), Portugal
Kingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
(1141), and Castile (1162 and 1163), as well as one famous campaign against some Castilian rebels, in which he was captured. He acquired landed wealth largely through royal preferment—even in the major cities of the realm, such as León and Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
—and an advantageous marriage—his wife was a descendant of García Sánchez III of Navarre—and he rose to hold the highest rank in the kingdom, count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
, and the highest civil post, majordomo, in both Castile and León. In 1167 he founded a monastery, Santa María de Sandoval, and he was also a donor to the Order of Calatrava
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164.-Origins and Foundation:...
. In 1173 he re-populated half of the village of Azaña
Numancia de la Sagra
Numancia de la Sagra is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2006 census , the municipality has a population of 3713 inhabitants....
and granted it a fuero
Fuero
Fuero , Furs , Foro and Foru is a Spanish legal term and concept.The word comes from Latin forum, an open space used as market, tribunal and meeting place...
(charter of privileges).
Move from Occitania to León
As his toponymic indicates, Ponce was from the MinervoisMinervois
Minervois is an AOC in the Languedoc-Roussillon wine region. The red wines of the Minervois appellation are produced from Carignan , Grenache, Lledoner Pelut, Mourvedre, and Syrah grapes...
("de Minerva" is Latin
Medieval Latin
Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...
for "from Minerve
Minerve, Hérault
Minerve is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France.-History:In 1210 a group of Cathars sought refuge in the village after the massacre at Béziers during the Albigensian Crusade. The village was besieged by Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester. The...
") in southern France, and then a part of the County of Carcassonne, one of the possessions of Raymon Berengar III
Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona
Ramon Berenguer III the Great was the count of Barcelona, Girona, and Ausona from 1082 , Besalú from 1111, Cerdanya from 1117, and Provence, in the Holy Roman Empire, from 1112, all until his death in Barcelona in 1131...
, Count of Barcelona. He may have been related to the Counts of Toulouse
Counts of Toulouse
The first Counts of Toulouse were the administrators of the city and its environs under the Merovingians. No succession of such royal appointees is known, though a few names survive to the present...
, but his genealogy has been disputed since the seventeenth century. The name of either of his parents is unknown. He arrived in León in November 1127 in the entourage of Berenguela of Barcelona
Berenguela of Barcelona
Berenguela or Berengaria of Barcelona was Queen consort of Castile, León and Galicia She was the daughter of Raimon III of Barcelona and Dulce Aldonza Milhaud...
, daughter of Raymond Berengar III, who wed Alfonso VII that month at Saldaña
Saldaña, Palencia
Saldaña is the principal town of the fertile Palencia plains in Spain, and may be the town of "Eldana" mentioned by the historian Ptolemy as being conquered by the Roman Empire....
. He was probably a young man of about twelve years at the time.
Ponce does not appear in contemporary records until 1140, but his presence in the following of the Catalan princess is established by a charter in the archives of the convent of Santa María de Carrizo. This document, dated 13 March 1207, records a pesquisa (inquest) carried out by orders of Alfonso IX
Alfonso IX of Leon
Alfonso IX was king of León and Galicia from the death of his father Ferdinand II in 1188 until his own death...
to determine what was owed by the village of Quintanilla
Quintanilla
There are a number of people with the Spanish surname Quintanilla:*Antonio de Quintanilla, last governor of Chiloé*Selena Quintanilla-Perez, Grammy-Award winning singer**Abraham Quintanilla III, brother and song-writer of Selena Quintanilla-Perez...
to the convent in light of a donatio made by Ponce. It mentions how Ponce had come to León with Berenguela:
When the lord emperor [Alfonso VII] brought [to León] his wife the empress, he also brought along the count Ponce de Minerva and married him to the countess Doña Estefanía, daughter of Count Ramiro, and gave him half of Carrizo, which was royal fiscal land (realengo), and he [Ponce] gave it to her as bridewealth. . . And the other half of Carrizo belonged to Count Ramiro, and he gave it to him [Ponce] with his daughter in marriage. . .
Because of Ponce's close connexions with the ruling dynasty of Barcelona, and the political allegiance of his birthplace to them, he is often considered, culturally, a Catalan
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
. His name, in contemporary Latin, was Pontius or Poncius, transformed in Castilian to Ponce, the form used here, or Poncio, and also transformed into Ponç (Catalan) or Pons (Occitan).
Marriage to Estefanía Ramírez
The record of the royal pesquisa of 1207 also notes how Ponce was subsequently betrothed to Estefanía Ramírez, daughter of Ramiro FróilazRamiro Fróilaz
Ramiro Fróilaz was a Leonese magnate, statesman, and military leader. He was a dominant figure in the kingdom during the reigns of Alfonso VII and Ferdinand II. He was primarily a territorial governor, but also a court figure, connected to royalty both by blood and by marriage...
, and endowed by Alfonso VII with fisc
Fisc
Under the Merovingians and Carolingians, the fisc applied to the royal demesne which paid taxes, entirely in kind, from which the royal household was meant to be supported, though it rarely was...
al lands: half of the village of Carrizo de la Ribera and an estate at a place called Quiro, between Carrizo and Quintanilla. To this his future father-in-law added the other half of Carrizo, which had been a part of his patrimony
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
. Carrizo included a palace (palacio), which was later given to the monastery there, and stood to the right of the "old gate" (portería vieja).
The charter provides no date for Ponce's betrothal or marriage, but a document dated 30 May 1140 records a grant given by the king's sister, Sancha Raimúndez, to Ponce on the occasion of his marriage: the village of Argavallones "at your marriage, because I nourished [i.e., raised] you". This document survives only in an early eighteenth-century copy that is a clear forgery, from 1716. For instance, it anachronistically cites Martin as Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela even though he was not consecrated until 1156. Of Ponce de Minerva it says:
The Count exchanged this mortal life in order to enjoy the prize of his heroic works, as was said, in the year 1212 of the EraSpanish eraThe Spanish era, Hispanic era or Caesar era refers to the dating system used in Hispania until the 14th century, when the Anno Domini system was adopted. It began with year one in what is 38 BC, probably the date of a new tax imposed by the Roman Republic on the subdued population of Iberia....
, leaving finished the monastery of Sandoval and the greater chapel of the church, with the rest being finished after his days by Don Diego Martínez de Villamayor, his son-in-law and a benefactor of that house, where he was buried.
The forged charter might have some basis in fact on two accounts. First, that Ponce was very young at the time of his arrival in León is probable in light of the contours of his subsequent career. His first appearance in a court document dates to 9 September 1140, when he witnessed an act of Alfonso VII's as alférez
Alférez
Alférez is a junior officer rank also used in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. The variant Alferes is used in Portugal and was formerly also used in Brazil. A naval variant, Frigate Alférez, is used in Spain, Dominican Republic and Peru. "Alférez" is often translated as ensign...
, that is, armiger and standard-bearer of the royal mesnada (military retinue). This office was usually reserved for the scions of noble houses and other young and aspiring aristocrats. At the time of his advent in León in 1127 he would therefore have been placed in an aristocratic household capable of raising him, and the king's sister is known to have raised at least one other young nobleperson in her court: Urraca Rodríguez, daughter of Rodrigo González de Lara
Rodrigo González de Lara
Rodrigo González de Lara was a Castilian nobleman of the House of Lara. Early in his career he ruled that half of Asturias allocated to Castile. He was faithful to the crown throughout the reign of Queen Urraca , during which time he was married to the queen's half-sister and ruled a large part of...
, whom she remembered in her (undated) will as "Urraca, daughter of Count Rodrigo, whom I raised". Second, the village of Argavallones must have been acquired by Ponce sometime before his marriage, since he gave it to his bride as her arras (bridewealth), along with all his lands at Carrizo, San Pedro del Páramo (modern San Pedro de las Dueñas), and Grulleros. According to a document in the Tumbo Antiguo cartulary of Carrizo, Argavallones was located near Grulleros, just west of Villaverde de Sandoval (Sot noval). It may be supposed that the forged eighteenth-century charter was designed to replace an authentic lost charter. This document aside, the earliest reference to Ponce's marriage to Estefanía is from 13 February 1146, when Alfonso VII rewarded them with a grant of land at Villamoros de Mansilla "for the service to me which you [plural] have done and are doing".
Alférez of Alfonso VII
From the time of his appointment as alférez sometime between 26 June and 9 September 1140 until his replacement sometime after 19 December 1144 and before March 1145, Ponce de Minerva was a constant presence at the royal court and on all of Alfonso VII's military campaigns. He took part in the expedition against García Ramírez of Navarre in 1140 and that against PortugalKingdom of Portugal
The Kingdom of Portugal was Portugal's general designation under the monarchy. The kingdom was located in the west of the Iberian Peninsula, Europe and existed from 1139 to 1910...
in 1141. He definitely participated in the Siege of Coria
Siege of Coria (1142)
The second Siege of Coria by the Emperor Alfonso VII of León was begun in early May 1142 and ended with the taking of the town in June. Coria had previously been reconquered just after 1085 by Alfonso VI. It was lost to the Almoravids sometime not long after Alfonso's death in 1109. Alfonso VII had...
in 1142, as recorded in the Tumbo Negro, cartulary of the Cathedral of Zamora, and he probably also accompanied the royal forces on a razzia of the environs of Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
and Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
in 1144. This last (obscure) campaign is mentioned in a charter issued at Toledo
Toledo, Spain
Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...
in November 1144 "as the emperor arrived from the fortification that he had made against Córdoba and Granada".
Ponce's rewards for these various services were extensive. There are two false documents dated to 25 January and 14 June 1141 which purport to record royal donations to Ponce. The first is the donation of Quiro, which occurred on the occasion of his betrothal according to the account of the pesquisa of 1207. The second is the donation of San Pedro del Páramo, which it is known that Ponce gave to his wife as part of her bridewealth. The above charters are classified as spurious because they name Alfonso VII as ruling in Baeza
Baeza
Baeza is a town of approximately 16,200 inhabitants in Andalusia, Spain, in the province of Jaén, perched on a cliff in the Loma de Baeza, a mountain range between the river Guadalquivir on the south and its tributary the Guadalimar on the north. It is chiefly known today as having many of the...
and Almería
Almería
Almería is a city in Andalusia, Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.-Toponym:Tradition says that the name Almería stems from the Arabic المرية Al-Mariyya: "The Mirror", comparing it to "The Mirror of the Sea"...
, places he did not conquer until 1147, and they list Martin, Archbishop of Santiago, as confirming. They nevertheless contain a kernel of truth. More securely datable is Alfonso's grant to Ponce the village of Villaverde de Sandoval, on the bank of the Porma near the possessions which he had given his wife at their marriage, in 1142.
Acquisition of governorships
A change in Ponce's career began with his long absences from court in 1145, after he had left the post of alférez. He only attended the court on a few occasions in 1144, and by that year he had received the tenancy (tenencia) of Mayorga to govern. There is no reference in any surviving royal charter to Ponce's rule in Mayorga, rather it is cited in no less than fifteen private charters dated between 23 January 1144 and 3 May 1157. By 1148 he had also received the government of the royal city (urbs regia) of León. Specifically this tenancy, called the "towers of León" (turres Legionis), consisted in the fortified royal citadel ("fotress-palace") that guarded the northern gate of the city. There are ten royal documents from the reign of Alfonso VII that show Ponce holding this "most sensitive post". Both of these tenancies had previously been held by Osorio MartínezOsorio Martínez
Osorio Martínez was a magnate from the Province of León in the Empire of Alfonso VII. He served the emperor militarily throughout his long career, which peaked in 1138–41. Besides the documentary sources, which are somewhat meagre at times after his fall from royal favour, he is mentioned in two...
, who had been disgraced sometime in the first half of 1142. Despite his greater responsibility in the kingdom that kept him away from court, Ponce continued to take part in all of Alfonso VII's major military actions.
In 1147, which has been described as an annus mirabilis
Annus mirabilis
Annus mirabilis is a Latin phrase meaning "wonderful year" or "year of wonders" . It was used originally to refer to the year 1666, but is today also used to refer to different years with events of major importance...
for the Iberian Christians because of Alfonso VII's summer campaign, Ponce was with the royal army at Calatrava
Calatrava la Vieja
Calatrava la Vieja is a medieval site and original nucleus of the Order of Calatrava. It is now part of the Archaeological Parks of the Community of Castile-La Mancha. Situated at Carrión de Calatrava, Calatrava during the High Middle Ages was the only important city in the Guadiana River valley...
the week of 4–9 June. He was either still or again with the royal forces at Andújar
Andújar
Andújar is a Spanish municipality of 38,539 people in the province of Jaén, in Andalusia. The municipality is divided by the Guadalquivir River. The northern part of the municipality is where the Natural Park of the Sierra de Andújar is situated. To the south are agricultural fields and...
, witnessing a royal charter issued on 17 July, but there is no record of his presence at the successful sieges of Baeza and Almería later that summer, although one twentieth-century historian mistakenly believed that the "Count Ponce" of the Prefatio de Almaria, a poetic retelling of the conquest of Almería in 1147, was Ponce de Minerva.
In 1150, Ponce probably took part in the failed siege of Córdoba, since he was with the king at Jaén
Jaén, Spain
Jaén is a city in south-central Spain, the name is derived from the Arabic word Jayyan, . It is the capital of the province of Jaén. It is located in the autonomous community of Andalusia....
immediately after the lifting of the siege. By that year he had received the tenancy of Villalís. The following year, on 30 January 1151, at 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:...
, Alfonso awarded Ponce, called "our faithful vassal", with the village of Grulleros, which he later gave to his wife. Later that year, according to documents in the cathedral archives of Santa María de León, he was at the siege of Jaén and the second siege of Baeza, which had been lost again. In 1152, he took part in the assault on Guadix
Guadix
Guadix, a city of southern Spain, in the province of Granada; on the left bank of the river Guadix, a sub-tributary of the Guadiana Menor, and on the Madrid-Valdepeñas-Almería railway...
. On 18 December that year he was one of the select magnates whom Alfonso took counsel with before modifying the fuero
Fuero
Fuero , Furs , Foro and Foru is a Spanish legal term and concept.The word comes from Latin forum, an open space used as market, tribunal and meeting place...
s of Sahagún.
During this time he was rewarded further, first with a castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
on the Tagus
Tagus
The Tagus is the longest river on the Iberian Peninsula. It is long, in Spain, along the border between Portugal and Spain and in Portugal, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean at Lisbon. It drains an area of . The Tagus is highly utilized for most of its course...
. The original document recording this grant, issued at Soria
Soria
Soria is a city in north-central Spain, the capital of the province of Soria in the autonomous community of Castile and León. , the municipality has a population of c. 39,500 inhabitants, nearly 40% of the population of the province...
on 18 November 1153, has survived, and is one of possibly ten charters of Alfonso VII to have been authenticated with a seal
Seal (device)
A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...
. At the same time, Ponce was rewarded with further governorships: Cea
Santa María del Monte de Cea
Santa María del Monte de Cea, or simply Cea, is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 331 inhabitants.-See also:*Tierra de Campos...
by 1152, Castrotierra by 1153, and Gatón de Campos
Gatón de Campos
Gatón de Campos is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 40 inhabitants....
by 1155. His territorial lordships, however, were generally scattered, although they were all in the province of León and relatively near to the city itself, whose government he continued to hold throughout the period. The lordship of Cea was shared with Ermengol VI of Urgell
Ermengol VI of Urgell
Ermengol VI , called el de Castilla, was the Count of Urgell from 1102 to his death. He was the son and successor of Ermengol V and María Ansúrez.He was born in Valladolid, whence his nickname comes...
, according to a private charter of 23 June 1152. Another charter of 27 March 1150 shows Ermengol sharing it with Lope López, suggesting that Ponce was Lope's replacement. In 1155, Ponce was with Alfonso for the capture of Andújar. The last reference to Ponce holding Cea, site of a royal castle, dates from 28 June 1156.
Controversies of 1157–58
Under Alfonso VII Ponce was "a curial personage of stature" who "enjoyed the fullest confidence of the crown", yet despite his residence at court "he was of secondary rank" and generally his confirmation of royal acts was not sought. Of the six hundred royal charters surviving from Alfonso's reign after 1140, Ponce confirmed only 141 of them. After the death of Alfonso VII on 21 August 1157, the kingdoms of León and Castile were separated. The former, where Ponce's tenancies were located, went to Alfonso's second son, Ferdinand IIFerdinand II of Leon
Ferdinand II was King of León and Galicia from 1157 to his death.-Life:Born in Toledo, Castile, he was the son of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and of Berenguela, of the House of Barcelona. At his father's death, he received León and Galicia, while his brother Sancho received Castile and...
. The latter, where Ponce possessed some lands on the river Tagus in the regnum of Toledo
Kingdom of Toledo
The Kingdom of Toledo was the juridical definition of a Christian medieval kingdom in what is now central Spain, created after Alfonso VI of León's capture of Toledo in 1085.-Background:...
, passed to his eldest son, Sancho III
Sancho III of Castile
Sancho III was King of Castile and Toledo for one year, from 1157 to 1158. During the Reconquista, in which he took an active part, he founded the Order of Calatrava...
. Ponce initially gravitated to the court of Ferdinand II, where he was present from at least 9 October 1157. On this date, Ferdinand issued the earliest of his surviving charters, by which he granted some estates to Rodrigo Pérez de Traba
Rodrigo Pérez de Traba
Rodrigo Pérez de Traba , called el Velloso , was a Galician magnate whose career corresponds to the entire period from the coronation of Alfonso VII as co-ruler of León until his death...
, who in turn donated the village of Gomariz to the monastery of Toxosoutos in Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
. This charter shows that Ferdinand had brought together most of the leading magnates of León in the first months of his reign; even the King of Portugal, Afonso I Henriques, was present. On 13 October the court had moved to Villalpando
Villalpando
Villalpando is a municipality located in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 1,624 inhabitants. Formerly the town was reputed for its saltpans, the Salinas de Villapando....
, where the king rewarded his follower Velasco Menéndez. Ponce was still in attendance.
According to the thirteenth-century Toledan historian Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada
Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada was a Navarrese-born Castilian Roman Catholic bishop and historian....
, in his De rebus Hispaniae
De rebus Hispaniae
De rebus Hispaniae or Historia gothica is a history of the Iberian peninsula written in Latin by Archbiship of Toledo Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada en the first half of the thirteenth century on behalf of King Ferdinand III of Castile....
, Ferdinand came to believe certain false rumours about Ponce de Minerva spread by his enemies at court. In response he confiscated Ponce's fiefs, and those of some other noblemen, and sent them into exile. They went to the court of Sancho III seeking redress, whereupon Sancho marched an army into León. The two kings met at Sahagún
Sahagún
Sahagún can refer to:*Sahagún, Spain, a town and monastery in Léon, Spain. Cradle of the Mudéjar architecture*Sahagún, Córdoba, the second town in population in Córdoba Department, Colombia, also called "The Cultural City of Cordoba"People...
, where, according to Rodrigo, Sancho said to his brother:
Since our father divided the kingdom between us, both you and I are held to share the land and its produce with our magnates, with whose help our forefathers possessed the lost land and repulsed the Arabs. Therefore, as the other magnates, whom you deprived, have returned their fiefs to count Ponce de Minerva, and you would not believe the rumours against them, I am returning behind my borders.
This account, however, is based on a confusion between Ponce de Minerva and his namesake Ponce de Cabrera. There is some confusion even among modern historians between these two Ponces. Derek Lomax notes that "the personalities, relationships and activities of these minor Catalan nobles are difficult to disentangle, but it is clear that they were extremely active in the politics of central Spain throughout the twelfth century, and that they built up their lordships primarily in the region of Salamanca and Valladolid."
There is abundant contemporary documentary evidence of Ponce de Cabrera's exile to Castile, while Ponce de Minerva clearly remained on good terms with Ferdinand II throughout 1158. He was with the court at Faro
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...
in Galicia on 15 February. On 23 May Ponce was present for the ratification of the Treaty of Sahagún
Treaty of Sahagún (1158)
The Treaty of Sahagún ended a state of war between the Castile and León, establishing pacem et ueram amiciciam between their respective monarchs, Sancho III and Ferdinand II, who called themselves boni fratres et boni amici...
, for which he stood as a surety for Ferdinand II, along with his father-in-law, a certain Abril, and Pedro Alfonso
Pedro Alfonso
Pedro Alfonso or Alfónsez was an Asturian magnate, dominating the region from 1139 until his death. He had vast landholdings in the Asturias, the province of León, and Toledo, including in the cities of León and Toledo, the most important cities of the realm. His commercial dealings, too, were...
. The Treaty stipulated that certain lands conquered by Sancho from his brother in the recent conflict were to be returned and held in fealty
Fealty
An oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas , is a pledge of allegiance of one person to another. Typically the oath is made upon a religious object such as a Bible or saint's relic, often contained within an altar, thus binding the oath-taker before God.In medieval Europe, fealty was sworn between...
(in fidelitate) from Ferdinand. The treaty named three vassals among whom these lands could be distributed: Ponce de Minerva, Ponce de Cabrera, and Osorio Martínez. To the end of the surviving record of the treaty is appended a list of those who "swore on the side of King Ferdinand", and Ponce is listed among them. Contrary to the Toledan historian's confused account, Ponce de Minerva was unswervingly loyal to Ferdinand II during the lifetime of Sancho III, although the presence of his name alongside the grieved Ponce de Cabrera and Osorio has raised suspicions. On 1 July he and the newly reconciled Ponce de Cabrera confirmed Ferdinand's grant to Rodrigo Sebastiánez, a monk of Oviedo
Oviedo
Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city....
.
Counsellor of Ferdinand II
Ponce de Minerva was throughout this period one of Ferdinand's most trusted advisors and a major recipient of his largesse. In 1159, he was among those who accompanied Ferdinand II into Galicia when he made peace with the Portuguese. On 14 June, while the court was staying at Sahagún, he and his wife were rewarded "for good service" (pro bono servitio) with a grant of land at Santa María del PáramoSanta María del Páramo
Santa María del Páramo is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2010 census , the municipality has a population of 3.179 inhabitants....
in the vicinity of León. By this month he had also been trusted with the lordship of Valderas
Valderas
Valderas is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 2,049 inhabitants.-See also:* Leonese language...
, and by 1161 he was governing Melgar de Arriba
Melgar de Arriba
Melgar de Arriba is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 271 inhabitants....
(or de Suso) as well. On 15 March 1161, while the court was at Malgrat, Ferdinand again rewarded Ponce with an estate at Ferreras near León, but this time also with lands at Salio in the Picos de Europa
Picos de Europa
The Picos de Europa is a range of mountains 20 km inland from the northern coast of Spain, located in the Autonomous Communities of Asturias, Cantabria and Castile and León, forming part of the Cantabrian Mountains...
. On 28 March, Ponce de Cabrera was ruling "under his imperium [i.e. Ferdinand's regalian rights] in Melgar [i.e. Melgar de Abajo
Melgar de Abajo
Melgar de Abajo is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2010 census , the municipality has a population of 145 inhabitants.- Demography :...
(or de Yuso)] and Ponce de Minerva in the other Melgar". In 1162, Ponce de Minerva took part in Ferdinand's expedition into Castile, where he captured Toledo. In 1163, he was again with the royal Leonese army that invaded Castile.
Ponce's frequent presence at court necessitated the devolution of government in his tenancies to subordinates. Thus, in 1162, one "Juan Martínez, under the hand of the lord Ponce de Minerva, [was] holding the towers of León". By 1164 Juan was holding León without any indiaction of Ponce's superiority. In 1164, Ponce was granted an estate at Villamañán
Villamañán
Villamañán is a town located in the south-west of the province of León, Spain, in the area known as Esla, in the autonomous community of Castile and León in Spain....
, according to the Tumbo Antiguo (old cartulary) of Santa María de Carrizo. In September of the latter year, during the court's sojourn at Villaquejida
Villaquejida
Villaquejida is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 1,040 inhabitants.-Demographics:Estimation...
, Ferdinand also awarded him property at Villamandos
Villamandos
Villamandos is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 374 inhabitants....
in the valley of the Esla, where he possessed other estates. Also in 1164, Ponce's governorship was extended over Riaño and two places called Ceón and Buraun. By 23 October he had been promoted to the rank of count
Count
A count or countess is an aristocratic nobleman in European countries. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The adjective form of the word is...
(comes or consul in Latin), the highest title in the kingdom after the king's. This promotion constituted a recognition that Ponce was one of the leading magnates of the kingdom, and one of the most powerful. Between at least 27 October 1164 and 6 May 1166 he was deprived of the government of the city of León, but by 11 November 1166 he had regained control of it.
In 1165, for a second time Ponce was with Ferdinand in Galicia to make peace with Portugal, and he was given the tenancy of Coyanza, modern Valencia de Don Juan
Valencia de Don Juan
Valencia de Don Juan is a municipality located in the province of León, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 4,165 inhabitants.It's well known by its medieval castle....
. In 1167, he was rewarded with the tenancy of Castroverde de Campos
Castroverde de Campos
Castroverde de Campos is a municipality located in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2009 census , the municipality has a population of 364 inhabitants....
, as recorded in the archives of the hospital of San Marcos de León. On 16 February he and his family founded the monastery of Santa María de Sandoval at Villaverde, which had been granted him by Alfonso VII in 1142. Sometime before 15 July 1167, Ferdinand II appointed him majordomo (maiordomus), the highest office associated with the royal court and the pre-eminent position in the realm: he had reached "the zenith of his power in León" and was "one of the most powerful lay figures of the realm". His eldest son, Ramiro Ponce, also served Ferdinand II as alférez in the 1160s.
Fall from favour and exile
At some point in 1168, for reasons unknown, Ponce went into exile in Castile. In the summer of 1167, Count Ermengol VII of UrgellErmengol VII of Urgell
Ermengol VII was the Count of Urgell from 1154 to his death. He was called el de Valencia.The son of Ermengol VI and his first wife, Arsenda of Cabrera, in 1157, Ermengol VII married Dulce, daughter of Roger III of Foix and Jimena de Osona, who acted as his regent during his absences in Castile...
and his mesnada (knightly retinue) had arrived in the service of Ferdinand II, whom he had assisted in the capture of the fortress of Alcántara
Alcántara
Alcántara is a municipality in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain, on the Tagus, near Portugal. The toponym is from the Arabic word al-QanTarah meaning "the bridge".-History:...
from the Almohads, which fortress Ferdinand granted to him as a fief on 21 November, as recorded in the archives of the Order of Santiago
Order of Santiago
The Order of Santiago was founded in the 12th century, and owes its name to the national patron of Galicia and Spain, Santiago , under whose banner the Christians of Galicia and Asturias began in the 9th century to combat and drive back the Muslims of the Iberian Peninsula.-History:Santiago de...
that Ferdinand had founded. By that date, Ferdinand had already removed Ponce from his post as majordomo and replaced him with Ermengol. The arrival of Ermengol thus appears to have marked a shift in the king's favour from the one Catalan to the other. Ponce continued with the Leonese court from sometime after his dismissal as majordomo: he was present at León, still his tenancy, on 11 December, and in 1168 he was present at Castro Mazamud on 10 January and at Lugo
Lugo
Lugo is a city in northwestern Spain, in the autonomous community of Galicia. It is the capital of the province of Lugo. The municipality had a population of 97,635 in 2010, which makes is the fourth most populated city in Galicia.-Population:...
on 4 March.
Ponce's last appearance in any surviving document from León for this period is dated 9 April 1168, which is also the last royal document confirmed by his son Ramiro, who appears to have entered an exile from court at the same time as his father. By 20 September the tenancies of León and Mayorga had passed to Fernando Rodríguez de Castro
Fernando Rodríguez de Castro
Fernando Rodríguez de Castro was a Castilian nobleman, statesman and military leader who made his career in León. He was the leader of the House of Castro during the civil wars that followed the death of Sancho III of Castile and the succession of the infant Alfonso VIII...
, an exile from Castile. Owing to ignorance of the exact chronology of Ponce's defection, it is unclear whether his replacement as majordomo by Ermengol and his replacement in the fiefs of León and Mayorga by Fernando were a consequence or an incitement.
Service to the Crown in Castile
Ponce, following his fall from favour, went to the court of Alfonso VIII of CastileAlfonso VIII of Castile
Alfonso VIII , called the Noble or el de las Navas, was the King of Castile from 1158 to his death and King of Toledo. He is most remembered for his part in the Reconquista and the downfall of the Almohad Caliphate...
, son of Sancho III, which had moved to the fortress of Abia possibly to receive the defecting count. The court was at Sahagún on 29 August when Ponce first makes an appearance there in the surviving records. In April 1169 he played a leading role in the siege of the town of Zorita de los Canes
Zorita de los Canes
Zorita de los Canes is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 98 inhabitants....
, which was being held by the relatives and supporters of Fernando Rodríguez de Castro against Alfonso VIII. He joined with Nuño Pérez de Lara
Nuño Pérez de Lara
Nuño Pérez de Lara was a Castilian nobleman, politician and military leader. He began his career at the court of the Emperor Alfonso VII, during whose reign he took part in the repoblación of the Extremadura and the defence of the Almohad frontier...
in the initial attack, which was a failure. Later, Ponce and Nuño went to negotiate with the castellan, Lope de Arenas, but were betrayed and arrested. There is a private document from 25 April by which these events are dated, for it was redacted "at the time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were defeated at Zorita". Alfonso VIII continued to besiege the town in which his two generals were being held until at least 14 May, when a royal charter of donation was drawn up "about (i.e., around) Zorita, at that time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were being held captive there by the most evil Lope de Arenas". The donation was made to the military Order of Calatrava
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava was the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Order of Calatrava as a Militia was given by Pope Alexander III on September 26, 1164.-Origins and Foundation:...
founded by his father. By 19 May, Zorita had surrendered and the two captives been freed. A royal charter issued that day "was made in Zorita, at the time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were liberated from captivity there". These last two charters indicate the part likely played by the knights of Calatrava in the capture of Zorita and the liberation of Ponce de Minerva, and it is probably therefore in gratefulness that Ponce soon after gaining his freedom made over to the Order some mills
Mill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
he owned in Toledo.
Ponce's service to the Crown in the Castile lasted five years. At the time of his arrival, and even during the siege of Zorita, Alfonso VIII was a minor whose regency was held by Nuño Pérez. By the fall, however, he had come of age and begun to rule in his own right. Shortly after, on 11 November, Ponce was with his court at Burgos
Burgos
Burgos is a city of northern Spain, historic capital of Castile. It is situated at the edge of the central plateau, with about 178,966 inhabitants in the city proper and another 20,000 in its suburbs. It is the capital of the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León...
. In September 1170, Ponce attended the wedding festivities of Alfonso VIII and Eleanor, daughter of Henry II of England
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
and Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages. As well as being Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right, she was queen consort of France and of England...
. According to a document in the church archives, on 23 June 1171 Ponce divided the village of Azaña (modern Numancia de la Sagra
Numancia de la Sagra
Numancia de la Sagra is a municipality located in the province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2006 census , the municipality has a population of 3713 inhabitants....
) between himself and the canons
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
of the cathedral of Santa María de Toledo
Cathedral of Toledo
The Primate Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Toledo, Spain, seat of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toledo....
.
Ponce's support for the young king was rewarded with several lordships in western Castile, along the border with León. From 1170 he was ruling Saldaña, the town to which he had first come for the marriage of Berenguela and Alfonso VII some forty-three years prior. From 1171 he ruled Carrión
Carrión de los Condes
Carrión de los Condes is a municipality in the province of Palencia, part of the Autonomous Community of Castile and León, Spain.It is 40 kilometers from Palencia, on the Way of Saint James.-History:...
, a town associated with his allies of the Lara family, also mutual rivals of the Castros
Castro family
Castro is a notable family of central Jalisco, a state of Mexico. The family originated in the town of Barranca de Santa Clara, Jalisco, with Doroteo Castro and Eduarda Rodríguez as the head patriarchs. One of their children, Ignacio Castro Rodríguez, married María Sabina Villalvaso Corona. Ignacio...
. By 1172 he was governing the tenancy of Boadilla de Rioseco
Boadilla de Rioseco
Boadilla de Rioseco is a municipality located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 158 inhabitants....
, and by 10 May that year he had been raised to the post of majordomo of the royal household. This was probably in an effort by the king to relieve himself of some of the influence of the overbearing former regent Nuño. The last record of Ponce in that office dates to 28 June 1173, and shortly thereafter he was reconciled to Ferdinand II.
Fuero of Azaña
In September 1173 Ponce was still in Castile when he granted some land at Azaña to some settlers: "In the name of God and his grace, I, Count Ponce, give to the settlers that half of Azaña that fell to me". The "charter of rights and obligations" (called a fuero) that he gave to the settlers exists as a thirteenth-century copy in a cartulary of the cathedral of Toledo. Ponce kept a few fields—two sernas and two prados—for himself (demesneDemesne
In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
), but the rest of the land he rented out to twenty-five settlers. Each received a field (yugada), some additional land for planting vines and orchards, and eight cahices of seed for wheat. The fuero requires that any settler who wished to sell his property and leave the area had to give Ponce the first option to buy, even if he was away on campaign in the south, in which case the would-be seller had to await his return. Another clause gives an indication of his reconciliation with the King of León, for it states that if Ponce was away in the north, either "in the kingdom of Alfonso or in the kingdom of Ferdinand", then the would-be seller had to notify Ponce's majordomo of his intention to sell and wait forty days for Ponce to exercise his option to buy, after which the settler could sell the land to anyone.
The majordomo referred to in the surviving fuero may have been "a local estate manager rather than the count's household official". This person was also in charge of organising the annual boon work of the settlers and was responsible for supplying them with food and drink during that period. This boon work consisted in three operationes, as they are called in the surviving charter: two for sowing and one for either threshing or ploughing in Ponce's fields. The tenants also owed Ponce tribute or rent in the form of one cahiz each of wheat and barley per field and portions of the produce of their vineyards and orchards. They also owed yantar (hospitality). The fuero of Azaña contains one of the best surviving descriptions of this practice from the twelfth century, and it also indicates Ponce's expectation of continued itinerancy between his various properties and tenancies. The settlers were required each year to prepare a feast for him or his wife and their retinues, although their sons, daughters, or grandchildren could be sent in their place. The amount of produce to be used for these feasts is specified: three rams, one pig, twelve hens, 160 loaves of bread, and large quantities of barley and wine. If none of Ponce's kin attended in a given year, the settlers were exempted from the tribute, which is what the meal was taken to be. Ponce has been described as an "absentee landlord with a vengeance", although no different from his fellow twelfth-century European aristocrats.
Itinerancy in Castile and León
Sometime in the first half of 1173, Ermengol VII left the service of Ferdinand II, for reasons unknown. His absence may have opened up the possibility of reconciliation to Ponce de Minerva, who had returned to the city of León by October, when he rejoined the court after five years of voluntary exile. The remainder of his life was characterised by intinerancy between the courts of León and Castile and between his possessions and governorships in the two kingdoms.In February 1174, Ponce was with the court of Alfonso VIII at Toledo for a major gathering the kingdom's leading men. In June, he and Estefanía visited the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monastery at Sahagún, in Castile near the border with León, where they donated an estate at Villalba de la Loma
Villalba de la Loma
Villalba de la Loma is a municipality located in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 46 inhabitants....
(part of the tenancy of Mayorga) in exchange for the Hospital de Don García. By October he had joined the court of Ferdinand II at Ciudad Rodrigo
Ciudad Rodrigo
Ciudad Rodrigo is a small cathedral city in the province of Salamanca, in western Spain, with a population of about 14,000. It is the seat of a judicial district as well....
, where the king officially declared their reconciliation by granting "to you, my beloved Count Ponce, and your wife, the countess Doña Estefanía" a privilege exempting the couple from taxes on all their lands and exempting all their vassals from taxes also. On 18 November, Ponce met Alfonso VIII at Fuentedueña, perhaps remaining with the court until 9 May 1175, when he was definitely in attendance at Medina del Campo
Medina del Campo
Medina del Campo is a town located in the middle of the Spanish Meseta Central, in the province of Valladolid, Castile-Leon autonomous region, 45 km from Valladolid. It is the capital of a farming area, far away from the great economic centres.-History:...
. The last records of Ponce alive date from June, when he was in León.
Death and legacy
Ponce died on 27 July, according to the tablas de aniversarios (a calendar of annual commemorations) of the nunnery of Carrizo. That the year was 1175 is obvious from his sudden disappearance from contemporary documentation after June of that year. He was buried in Sandoval. In the archives of the monastery of Benevívere are two charters both dated 30 July, only a few days after Count Ponce's death, which record the donation received from his widow and children of lands at Quintanilla and Mayorga (in the first transaction) and lands at Santamarina and Lerones with the Hospital de Don García (in the second transaction) for the redemption of Ponce's soul.On 17 February 1176, Countess Estefanía granted her land at Benavides
Benavides, León
Benavides is a municipality in the province of León, Spain. It's part of the route of St. James....
to the monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes in Galicia "for the soul of the count Don Ponce" and that a monastery might be built there. On 10 September 1176, she founded a convent "for the soul of my husband, the lord count Ponce", at Carrizo, including in her donation the palace they had owned there. She dedicated it to the Virgin and placed it under the Cistercian Order. The archives of this convent, Santa María de Carrizo, are an important source for the lives and careers of Ponce and his wife. They contain the authentic charter of foundation of Estefanía, wherein she describes her gift to the monastery of the lands comprising her bridewealth from Ponce:
I give and concede the village that is called Carrizo, with all its environs and attached territories, integral; and the village of San Pedro del Páramo, whole and integral, and the village of Grulleros and Argavallones, and its environs and attached territories that belong to me; which villages I have from my acquisitions and my bridewealth and my scattered estates, which my husband gave to me.
Estefanía died in 1183 or 1184 and was buried beside her husband.
Ponce acquired a vast wealth in lands after his migration to León. His principal estates all lay within fifty kilometres of the urbs regia of León, which he himself governed from 1148 to 1165 and again from 1167 to 1168. He had many estates in the valleys of the rivers Esla, Porma, Órbigo
Órbigo
The Órbigo River is a river in the provinces of León and Zamora, Spain. It begins at the convergence of the Luna River and the Omaña River in the town of Santiago del Molinillo. It flows from north to south through the province of León and ultimately flows into the Esla River below Benavente.How...
, and Bernesga. Besides properties he received from Alfonso VII and Ferdinand II, which was a total of ten donations between 1148 and 1174, Ponce and Estefanía acquired lands at Mayorga on the Esla, and at Quintanilla and Villalba de Loma on the Porma.
Children
Of Ponce's children, Ramiro was his primary heir, even claiming, without any apparent royal approval, his father's title of count, but he never returned to favour in León. Ponce's daughters, Sancha and María, usually surnamed Ponce as a patronymicPatronymic
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronymic. Each is a means of conveying lineage.In many areas patronyms...
(from the Latin Poncii or Pontii), married Pedro Garcés de Lerma, a Castilian, and Rodrigo Álvarez
Rodrigo Álvarez
Rodrigo Álvarez was a Galician magnate in the Kingdom of León. He founded the Order of Mountjoy in 1174 and affiliated it with the Cistercian Order that he had long patronised....
, a Galician, respectively; both were wealthy and powerful men. Sancha, by Pedro, had a son, Gonzalo Pérez, who became the abbot of Husillos
Husillos
Husillos is a municipality located in the province of Palencia, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2004 census , the municipality has a population of 208 inhabitants.-Town Holidays:JULY 3rd Fiesta de la Octava...
in Castile.
Ponce's younger daughter, María, separated from her husband by mutual agreement since late 1173 or early 1174, when he founded the Order of Mountjoy, was installed as the first abbess of her mother's foundation at Carrizo in 1184, a position she held until her death in 1191. She inherited an estate at Astorga
Astorga, Spain
Astorga is a town in the province of León, northern Spain. It lies southwest of the provincial capital of León, and is the head of the council of La Maragatería. The river Tuerto flows through it. , its population was about 12,100 people....
, and there is preserved a conuenientia (pact) between her and the tenants of her estate there in the archives of Carrizo. The pact stipulates that annually on Martinmas (11 November) the inhabitants should pay a rent of two solidi
Solidus (coin)
The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...
and a portion of produce for every parcel of land they owned. The document lists twenty-three peasant farmers and their land tenures, totalling eighty-eight solidi in cash per annum for the abbess.
On 26 February 1189, according to a document of Santa María de Sandoval, Ponce's daughters, Sancha and María, got together to divide their inheritance, which included properties in the city of León and at Oret, Ferreras, Corbillos, Molina Seca, Villarroañe, Villanueva
Villanueva de los Infantes
Villanueva de los Infantes is a municipality in the province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of c. 5,800.This is also the capital of the comarca Campo de Montiel. It has been signed by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid as "El Lugar de La Mancha" called at start...
, Matadeón, Cifuentes, and Maraña
Maraña
Maraña is a small village in Spain in the province of León, in the Picos de Europa, close to Asturias.The major festival is August 15, the Festival of Our Lady of Riosol-External links:*Location of Maraña...
, all in the region around the city. They had also received lands in Toledo and Azaña in Castile, and at Toro on the river Duero in León's far west. They accomplished the division by drawing lots to avoid sharp disagreements.