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Birth:          ABT 1080 

Notes
http://wikibin.org/articles/english-royal-descent-from-muhammad.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodrigo_Gonz%C3%A1lez_de_Lara
Rodrigo González de Lara (floruit 1078–1143) 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 (1109–26), during which 
time he was married to the queen's half-sister and ruled a large part of the old County 
of Castile. He and his elder brother, Pedro González, led the opposition to Alfonso VII 
early in his reign (1126–57). He led a revolt in 1130 and was exiled in 1137. He was a 
leader in the Reconquista—about which the contemporary Chronica Adefonsi 
imperatoris has much to say—and also took part in the military activities of the Crusader 
states on two occasions. He travelled widely throughout Spain, but ended his days in 
Palestine.
Youth under Alfonso VI (1078–1112)[edit]

Rodrigo was a son of Gonzalo Núñez de Lara and Godo Núñez, and kinsman of 
Gonzalo Salvadórez.[1] Rodrigo's inheritance was modest.[2]

A certain Rodrigo González who was alférez (standard-bearer) of Alfonso VI between 
29 January 1078 and 9 June 1081 may have been Rodrigo González de Lara.[3] If so, 
he was a very old man when he died. The alférez did sign the carta de arras (charter 
of bridewealth) of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid Campeador, in 1080/1.[4] A Rodrigo 
González who signed eight royal diplomas between 1092 and 1099 has also been 
identified with the alférez, the son of Gonzalo Núñez, and the later Crusader.[5]

Governing the Asturias (1112–1130)[edit]

Rodrigo González de Lara first appears holding a fief (tenencia) from the crown on 29 
February 1112, when he was governing all the Cantabrian region south of the river 
Miera, the valley of Mena, and Asturias de Santillana, formerly held by his cousin 
Rodrigo Muñoz.[6] By 1119 he was ruling the Trasmiera, the region north of the Miera, 
which up until then had also been held by Rodrigo Muñoz. He is not recorded there 
after 1120, by which time his rule had extended westward over Aguilar de Campoo.[7] 
At the same time he first appeared as governing "in Castile" (in castella), probably a 
reference to Old Castile; certainly he was not governing all of Castile. There are 
references to a "Count Rodrigo" governing Castile as early as 9 May 1112, but this 
may be Rodrigo Muñoz.[8]

By 13 April 1121 Rodrigo was a count. In 1122 he made a donation to the Benedictine 
monastery of Santa María de Piasca. Sometime before 1122 Rodrigo married Sancha 
(born c.1101), a daughter of Alfonso VI and his fourth wife Isabel.[9] She bore him 
three daughters: Elvira, Sancha, and Urraca.
Rodrigo confirmed a total of fifteen royal charters during Urraca's reign.[10] It was 
during the final six years of Urraca's reign, a period of general peace, that Rodrigo 
held power in the Kingdom of León. As early as 1120 he was governing Liébana, and 
by 1122 he was also governing Nángulo, Piedras Negras, and the Tierra de Campos. 
By 1125 he was ruling Pernía as well. A private document dated 17 June 1126 refers 
to both Rodrigo and Pedro as holding Lara, Campos, and Asturias de Santillana, 
seemingly jointly.[11] Their rule in none of these places can be traced after Urraca's 
death.[12] On 10 May 1125 at Sahagún, Rodrigo and the queen made a joint donation 
of the monastery at Vega to the Order of Fontevraud.[13] His wife Sancha was dead 
by that time, and Urraca, their youngest daughter, was put in the custody of Sancha 
Raimúndez, the king's sister.[14]
***
by July 1135 Rodrigo had contracted a second marriage to Estefanía, daughter of 
Ermengol V of Urgell and widow of the Castilian magnate Fernando Garcés.[37] 
Estefanía had received a carta de arras from her first husband on 12 November 1119, 
and she was widowed around 1125. Despite this, on 6 September 1135 Rodrigo 
praised his new wife for her youth in his carta de arras.[38] On 7 September 1135 
Rodrigo witnessed a donation of the churches of Tovar and Laguna by his eldest 
daughter, Elvira, and her husband, the brother of his new wife, Ermengol VI of Urgell, 
to the convent of Santa María de Valladolid.[39] Estefanía bore Rodrigo two sons, 
Pedro and Rodrigo.
***
Exile and wanderings (1137–1143)[edit]

On 3 February 1137 Rodrigo made a donation to Segovia Cathedral. Shortly after, for 
reasons unknown, Rodrigo fell from favour and was exiled. According to at least one 
manuscript of the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, this occurred in October 1134, but 
documentary evidence seems to indicate that it actually took place in 1137. Of his 
own accord he surrendered Toledo and the other tenencias he held, which still 
included Aguilar and Old Castile according to royal documents date as late as 1 April 
1137, to the king in person ("[he] kissed the King's hand in farewell and [took] leave 
of his comrades").[1][40] He decided to turn his exile into a pilgrimage ("he became a 
pilgrim and crossed the sea of Jerusalem for purpose of prayer", in the words of the 
Chronica),[41] visiting Jerusalem and fighting the Muslims in the Holy Land for two 
years. He reputedly built the castle called Toron (later le Toron des Chevaliers, 
modern Latrun) facing Ascalon, which was then still in Muslim hands. The Chronica 
says that he garrisoned it "with knights, infantrymen, and provisions, and he gave it to 
the Knights Templars."[42]

Rodrigo returned to Spain, via the Adriatic and Italy, in 1139, and, being barred from 
returning to Castile or his patrimonial lands, sojourned at various courts in the east of 
the peninsula.[40] He served for a time Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona, who made 
him lord of Huesca and Jaca between 1139 and 1141.[43] He was later in the service 
of García Ramírez of Navarre and then the Almoravid governor of Valencia, 
Abengania. The Chronica Adefonsi says that while he only stayed a few days at 
Valencia, he contracted leprosy (from a "Saracen potion").[40] He did briefly return to 
Castile, where on 8 February 1141 he granted the village of Huérmeces to the 
Benedictines of Arlanza. He eventually made his way to the Urgell, where on 24 March 
1143 he witnessed, as comes Roricus, the final will and testament of his brother-in-law 
and son-in-law, Count Ermengol VI. His daughter Elvira had probably died by then. 
Sometime in or after 1143 he returned to the Holy Land, and there he died.[44] Shortly 
before her husband's death Estefanía founded a Cistercian monastery at Valbuena de 
Duero (15 February 1143).[45] Her sons, unlike the sons of her husband's brother, 
never rose to as high a rank in the kingdom as their father had.

Historian Antonio Suárez de Alarcón owned several manuscript fragments of the 
Chronica, which were used by Enrique Flórez in amending the first published edition of 
the text by Francisco de Berganza. Alarcón himself had made extensive used only of 
those passages relating to Rodrigo González, since he had established the descent of 
the Marqueses de Trocifal from him in his Relaciones genealógicas de la casa de los 
Marqueses de Trocifal, Condes de Torresvedras (Madrid, 1656).[46]

Parents
DE LARA Gonzalo Nunez (ABT 1050 - )
NUNEZ Godo ()

Siblings
DE LARA Rodrigo Gonzalez (ABT 1080 - )

Marriage To ALFONSEZ Sancha (ABT 1101 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
____ Alfonso VI "The Valiant" (BEF Jun 1040 - 1 Jul 1109)
____ Zaida (Isabel) (1075 - ABT 1110)

Children by ALFONSEZ Sancha ABT 1101 - 
DE LARA Rodrigo Rodriguez (ABT 1130 - )

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