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Birth:          ABT 1060 
Death:          1119 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramiro_Fr%C3%B3ilaz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruela_D%C3%ADaz
Fruela (or Froila) Díaz (died 1119), known in contemporary sources as Froila Didaci or 
Didaz, was a nobleman in the Kingdom of León, the dominant figure in the centre of 
the realm during the late reign of Alfonso VI and the early reign of Urraca. A man of 
great private wealth who expanded his landholdings through numerous purchases, he 
was able to marry royalty and maintain good terms with his sovereigns of León as well 
as the rulers of Galicia and Portugal, whose territories lay immediately to the west of 
his area of influence. He also founded a hospital, a traveller's inn and a settlement 
that grew into a town. His lands raised some of the most valuable horses in Spain, he 
was buried in the royal pantheon of the kings of León, and his high rank—highest in the 
kingdom after the king and the rulers of Galicia and Portugal—is remembered in the 
most famous of cantares de gesta.
Origins and service to Raymond of Galicia
Fruela's origins lay in the Asturias, although his parentage is nowhere explicitly stated 
in surviving sources.[1] Ramón Menéndez Pidal believed that Fruela was the brother 
of Jimena Díaz, wife of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, but this is unlikely.[2] In fact Fruela's 
wife was the sister of Ramiro Sánchez, husband of Rodrigo's daughter Christina. It has 
been suggested that Fruela was a son of Diego Ansúrez and thus a nephew of Pedro 
Ansúrez, but this hypothesis has little to recommend it besides the patronymic Díaz 
("son of Diego"). Fruela's father was probably Diego Pérez, a son of Pedro Flaínez 
and Bronilde.[3] His mother was Mayor (María) Fróilaz, daughter of Froila Múñoz.[3] A 
charter of the Cathedral of Oviedo, dated 5 April 1078, reads in part: "I, Mayor Fróilaz, 
known as María, at the same time with my sons named Fruela Díaz and Antonio Díaz, 
who are sons of Diego Pérez and grandsons of Count Pedro Flaínez ..."[4]

The earliest surviving record of Fruela dates to 1069.[3] His elder brother, Antonio, 
died young and Fruela, as the only surviving male child, inherited his father's estates.
[5] The archives of Fruela's branch of the Flagínez family were preserved in the 
monastery of Santa María de Oteros de las Dueñas, the only such case of a noble 
family's records being preserved from the Spanish high Middle Ages.[6] On top of this 
is conserved in the tumbo of the Cathedral of Santa María in León (doc. 11, fol. 83) a 
brief genealogy of Antonio and Fruela, then children, as part of a diploma whereby 
their mother donated the monstery of San Pedro de Valdoré to the cathedral in 
December 1073.[7]

Fruela served Count Raymond of Galicia as majordomo, the highest court official, from 
1094 to 1096 at least, and perhaps as late as 1106.[8] He may have held the post 
throughout Raymond's countship (1090–1107), but insufficient surviving documentation 
does not allow the case to be proven.[9] An analysis of the charters he confirmed for 
Count Raymond shows that he "was a regular member ... of the entourage that 
gathered around [Raymond] during the latter's circuit of Galicia in the late springs and 
early summers", but not a fixture at Raymond's court.[10] In the count's disputes with 
the king, Fruela openly took Raymond's side.[11] Fruela was prominent enough at the 
royal court, however, confirming a third of all royal charters given during the latter part 
of Alfonso's reign.[1]

Fiefs of the crown
Both of Fruela's grandfathers were counts and by 14 May 1087 he also held that 
rank.[12] Not long thereafter, in 1091, he was granted the fief (tenencia) of Valdeorras 
in Galicia, which he held until 1104.[13] Such tenencias were held ad imperandum, to 
be governed and could be revoked by the monarch at any time. They were distinct 
from the count's private holdings, lands ad possidendum, which he owned and which 
the monarch could not alienate. The only other fiefs he held for more than a year or 
two were Sarria (1098–1103), Larín (1102–06), and the important episcopal city of 
Astorga (1107–17).[3] The rule of Astorga probably carried limited rights in the city 
itself but extensive powers in the surrounding region.[14] It is with Astorga that Fruela 
is most commonly associated after 1107.[14] On 10 April 1104, according to a royal 
charter now lost, Fruela and his wife founded a settlement at the foot of the castle 
called castro Dactonio in the fiefdom of Sarria on land owned by the monastery of San 
Vicente del Pino.[9] This settlement became the town of Monforte de Lemos, which 
Fruela held as a tenencia until 1111, when it passed to Rodrigo Vélaz.[9]

Late in his life Fruela briefly acquired the fiefs of Aguilar[15] (1111–12), Riba de Esla 
(1113), and Cifuentes de Rueda (1117–19).[3] He also governed the Bierzo for a time, 
probably in 1115.[3] In 1116 he made a donation of land at Puerto de Pajares to the 
Augustinian canons of the collegiate church of Santa María at Arbas del Puerto.[16] 
This land, in the mountains of the Asturias, was intended for the construction of a 
hostel for travellers, which operated until as late as 1835. The full text of the diploma 
has now been lost, and it is suspected that it may have included a fuller will and 
testament, since Fruela was then in his old age.[17]

Marriage and private dealings[edit]

Fruela married Estefanía Sánchez, daughter of Sancho Garcés, an illegitimate son of 
García Sánchez III of Navarre, and his wife Constance. She possessed lands in the 
Rioja, near Calahorra, but may have sold these in order to purchase land more near to 
her husbands estates.[5] They were married towards 1085, and on 11 September 1087 
Fruela gave his wife arras.[18] Her royal pedigree was mentioned in a grant of land in 
Astorga they received from Henry of Portugal on 1 March 1112, which included the 
Torre Cornellera and ten sections of the city wall.[9][19] She outlived her husband by 
at least ten years: on 18 April 1129 she granted a fuero to Villarmildo.[3] The couple's 
children were Constance, Diego, María, and Ramiro.[3]
Fruela and Estefanía were most active in acquiring property (gananciales) through 
private transactions between 1088 and 1113.[20] With twenty-three such exchanges 
having left records, their case is one of the best preserved of its kind: private land 
transactions, especially aristocratic purchases from peasants, increased dramatically 
in Spain between the late tenth and early twelfth century.[21] Some of the couple's 
early, eleventh-century property gains were of the form of loan repayments, though 
this type of transaction disappears from the record altogether in the twelfth century.
[22]

In 1118 a certain Martín Eitaz, convicted of murdering one of Fruela's servants, was 
forced to become his servant for life or until released by a payment.[3]

Service to Queen Urraca[edit]

Fruela was one of the magnates who witnessed the first recorded act of Queen 
Urraca, on 22 July 1109, and implicitly acknowledged her claim to have been granted 
"the whole kingdom" (regnum totum) by her father, Alfonso VI, shortly before his 
death.[23] This important document Fruela signs as legionensium comes (count of 
León), a high-sounding title that was probably honorific and had long been associated 
with the Flagínez.[9][14] On 17 November 1110 he signed a document as comes in 
terra de legione et in gralare (count in the land of León and in Grajal), perhaps a 
special authority associated with the breakdown of relations between Urraca and the 
King of Aragon, Alfonso the Battler, who was also her husband.[14] In 1112 Fruela 
received a royal "gift" of estates at Ulvayo from the queen "for loyal service", and he 
repaid her generosity with the gift of a horse worth a magnificent 5,000 solidi, 
equivalent at the time to 5,000 sheep.[24] A horse worth so much could only be 
destined for the royal stables and royal rider, the queen herself, and it illustrates 
Fruela's enormous personal wealth.[25] In 1115, when Urraca and Alfonso were 
fighting for control of the important monastic site of Sahagún, Fruela was acting as 
count in Ceia (Ceón) just to the north.[14] On 9 December 1117 Fruela witnessed the 
second charter issued by Urraca's son Alfonso Raimúndez, whom the Galicians had 
made co-ruler against her will in 1111. Although the language and the name of the 
notary may suggest that it has been interpolated, the document, made at Sahagún, 
refers to Alfonso with the title imperator (emperor).[26]

Death, burial and reputation
When Fruela died in the summer of 1119[27] he passed Cifuentes on to his eldest son, 
Diego, who became alférez of Alfonso VII in 1137 and died prematurely in 1040, 
leaving a daughter, Estefanía Díaz, who was disinherited by her uncle, Ramiro, when 
she married without his will.[28] Ramiro then received Cifuentes. In 1198 Cifuentes 
received a fuero from Ramiro's son, Froila Ramírez, and it remained with their family 
into the thirteenth century.[28] Fruela's elder daughter Constance died in the flower of 
youth, while the younger, María, married twice: first to a Galician magante, Melendo 
Núñez, and second to the count Pedro Alfonso.

Fruela and Estefanía may have been buried in the Panteón de los Reyes in the church 
of San Isidoro de León amongst their relatives of the Flagínez clan. Prudencio de 
Sandoval claimed to find the sepulchres of "the countess Estefanía who endowed this 
church, and the count Don Fruela, a great knight in arms" among ten of their family in 
the third row of burials in either the main chapel or the Panteón (it is unclear which). 
The identifying inscriptions, however, were already illegible in the time of Manuel 
Risco, and today Sandoval's conclusions cannot be verified.[29]

Fruela's posthumous reputation can be gauged from lines 3000–3006 of the Poema del 
Cid (c.1140), where he is placed in the second tier of nobility, immediately beneath 
Alfonso VI, Henry of Portugal, and Raymond of Galicia, all of whom he served in his 
long career. This is the beginning of the "Cortes de Carrión" passage:[30]

Llegaba el plazo, querien ir a la Cort,en los primeros va el buen rey don Alfonso,el 
conde don Anric y el conde don Remond:aqueste fue el padre del buen enperador:el 
conde don Fruella y el conde don Beltrán.[31]Fueron y de su reino otros muchos 
Sabidores,de toda Castiella todos los meiores. The time arrived, they wished to go to 
Court,among the first went the good king Alfonso,the count don Henry and the don 
Raymond:that one was the father of the good emperor:the count don Fruela and the 
count don Bertrand.They went and from the realm many other Wise Men,from all 
Castile all the greatest. 

Parents
PEREZ Diego (ABT 1030 - )
FROLIAZ Mayor (Maria) ()

Siblings
DIAZ Fruela (ABT 1060 - 1119)

Marriage To SANCHEZ Estefania (ABT 1075 - )
    m.  

Notes

Parents
GARCES Sancho (Sancho IV) (ABT 1035 - 6 Jan 1083)
OF MORANON Constanza (ABT 1035 - )

Children by SANCHEZ Estefania ABT 1075 - 
FROILAZ Ramiro (ABT 1110 - 1169)

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