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Birth:          ABT  953 
Death:          Sep  999 Villabueno del Bierzo
Burial:         Carrac Edo

Notes
m 26/30 Nov 991
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermudo_II_of_Le%C3%B3n
Bermudo (or Vermudo) II (c. 953 – September 999), called the Gouty (Spanish: el 
Gotoso), was first a rival king in Galicia (982–984) and then king of the entire Kingdom 
of León (984–999). His reign is summed up by Justo Pérez de Urbel's description of him 
as "the poor king tormented in life by the sword of Almanzor and in death by the 
vengeful pen of a bishop," Pelagius of Oviedo (died 1153), half of whose Chronicon 
covers the reign of Bermudo and is highly critical of the king.[1] He accuses Bermudo 
of imprisoning Bishop Gudesteus of Oviedo in the 990s and blames the attacks of 
Almanzor on Bermudo's sins.[2]
Reign[edit]

In 982 the Galician nobility proclaimed Bermudo, a son of former king Ordoño III of 
León, as king in opposition to his cousin Ramiro III. This usurpation is usually seen as 
the extension of ongoing succession crises begun in the 950s. At the time of the 
usurpation Bermudo II's faction was led by Gonzalo Menéndez and that of Ramiro III 
by Rodrigo Velázquez. Bermudo was crowned in the cathedral of Santiago de 
Compostela on 15 October 982. It is probable that two episcopal opponents of his 
coronation—Rodrigo's son Pelayo, then bishop of Santiago, and Arias Peláez, bishop of 
Mondoñedo—were exiled from their sees to the monasteries of Celanova and San 
Martín de Lalín, respectively, at this time.[3]

Because his support was limited and regional Bermudo required the protection of the 
Caliphate of Córdoba. There was much unrest in Castile in his early years and the 
Cordoban armies of Almanzor came, not as allies, but as conquerors.[4] Between 
November 991 and September 992 Vermudo was expelled from the kingdom by a revolt 
led by the magnates Gonzalo Vermúdez, Munio Fernández, and count Pelayo 
Rodríguez. He was soon restored and reconciled to the discontents.[5] On 8 August 
994 Bermudo gave the village of Veiga to the monastery of Celanova, the village 
having been built by Suario Gundemárez on land illegally appropriated from the 
monastery. Suario took refuge there during his later rebellion.[6] On 23 August that 
year the village of Morella was granted to abbot Salvato of Celanova after it was 
confiscated because the murder of Fortún Velázquez had taken place there.

Bermudo eventually succeeded in recovering Zamora from the Muslims, but did not 
succeed in expelling them totally until 987. This brought on the reprisals of Almanzor, 
who set out to destroy Coimbra. After the latter besieged and razed the city of León, 
Bermudo took refuge in Zamora. The Muslims continued their conquests, taking 
Astorga (996) and sacking Santiago de Compostela (997).

In 999, the gout from which he suffered was aggravated and it became impossible for 
him to ride a horse. Military leader of Christians of northwestern Spain, he 
subsequently travelled by litter. Later that same year he died in Villanueva del Bierzo 
and was buried in the Monastery of Carracedo. Later, his remains were transferred to 
the Basilica of San Isidoro.

Family[edit]

Parentage[edit]

Both the paternal and maternal parentage of Bermudo II have been subject to 
scholarly debate. On the paternal side, the primary chronicle sources simply call him 
son of king Ordoño, without specifying which former king of that name. Traditionally 
his father has been identified as Ordoño III and the modern consensus agrees with 
this assignment, but at least one prominent modern Leonese historian, Manuel 
Carriedo Tejedo, has concluded that he instead was son of Ordoño IV.[7] The 
question is seemingly resolved by a charter in the cartulary of Santa María de 
Carracedo, in which Bermudo names his father Ordoño and his grandfather Ramiro, 
making his father Ordoño III and not Ordoño IV, the son of Alfonso.[8]

Controversy also exists over the identity of his mother. Traditionally he has been 
viewed as son of Ordoño III's documented wife, Urraca Fernández. Bishop Pelagius 
relates that Bermudo was born to a second wife of Ordoño, named Elvira, but since no 
such queen appears in charters or any other record outside of the Bishop's account, 
she probably did not exist. In a royal charter dated 5 January 999, Bermudo refers to 
his avo (grandfather, or by extension, ancestor), the count Gonzalo Betótez of Deza. 
As Bermudo's traditional pedigree would provide no such relationship, Justo Pérez de 
Urbel suggested that he was instead an illegitimate son of Ordoño III, with the 
relationship coming through his mother. Based on political considerations and a 
second ambiguous documented kinship, he provisionally identified the mother as either 
Aragonta or Guntroda, daughters of Pelayo González, count of Deza, who was son of 
count Gonzalo.[9] He has been followed in this by several historians, but others find 
the evidence lacking and retain the traditional view of his mother. The identification of 
Bermudo's first queen, Velasquita Ramírez, as a grandniece of count Pelayo allows 
the possibility that Bermudo was referring to count Gonzalo as ancestor of his wife and 
not his own blood ancestor,[10] but he was already divorced from Velasquita at the 
time he executed the charter in question.

Children[edit]

By his first wife, Velasquita Ramírez, Bermudo left a daughter, Cristina, who married 
Ordoño Ramírez, son of his rival Ramiro III. Vermudo married secondly Elvira García, 
daughter of the Castilian count García Fernández, with whom he had three children: 
Alfonso, who succeeded him; Theresa; and Sancha. He also had three bastards: 
Elvira, Pelayo, and Ordoño, who married Fronilde, daughter of the aforementioned 
count Pelayo Rodríguez.

Parents
____ Ordono III (ABT  926 -  955)
PELAEZ Aragonta (Gontroda) (ABT  933 - )

Siblings
____ Vermudo (Bermudo) II "the Gouty" (ABT  953 - Sep  999)

Marriage To GARCIA OF CASTILE Elvira (ABT  978 - 1017)
    m. Nov  991 his 2d

Notes

Parents
FERNANDEZ DE LARA Garcia I (ABT  940 -  995)
DE RIBAGORZA Aba (Ava) (ABT  943 - AFT  995)

Children by GARCIA OF CASTILE Elvira ABT  978 - 1017
____ Alfonso V ( 994 - 7 Aug 1028)

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