Bermudo III of León

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Bermudo III of León
Miniature of Bermudo III of León in the Tumbo A of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
King of León
Reign1028–1037
PredecessorAlfonso V
SuccessorFerdinand I
Born1017
DiedSeptember 4, 1037 (aged 19 or 20)
Tamarón, León
Burial
See Burial
SpouseJimena Sánchez
IssueAlfonso
DynastyAstur-Leonese
FatherAlfonso V of León
MotherElvira Menéndez
SignatureBermudo III of León's signature

Bermudo or Vermudo III of León, called the Younger (el Mozo) (1017–Tamarón, September 4, 1037),[1] was King of León from 1028 until his death. As son and successor of Alfonso V, he was the last Leonese king of the Astur-Leonese dynasty.[2] After his death at the Battle of Tamarón, he was succeeded on the throne by his brother-in-law, the last Count of Castile, Ferdinand I, husband of his sister Sancha.

Childhood and minority

He was born between January 26 and August 7, 1017.[3][lower-alpha 1] He was the son of Alfonso V[4] and of his first wife, Elvira Menéndez, herself the daughter of the Galician Count Menendo González.[3] Bermudo had an elder sister, Sancha.[5] He soon lost his mother: Queen Elvira died on December 2, 1022.[5] Alfonso remarried the following year, to Urraca Garcés, sister of the sovereign of Pamplona, Sancho III the Great.[5]

Bermudo ascended the throne at only eleven years of age[6][lower-alpha 2] and his first appearance in the documentation was on November 15, 1028, when he made a donation to the church of Santiago and to its bishop Vistruario, his godfather.[8] His father, King Alfonso, had died on August 7 of that year, while besieging Viseu.[9][4][7] During his reign, the Kingdom of Pamplona reached its greatest splendor under Sancho III the Great, whose daughter, Jimena Sánchez, Bermudo III married.[10][11]

Urraca, the young king's stepmother and sister of Sancho the Great,[3][7] took charge of his guardianship[12] during his minority, as well as of some possessions that King Alfonso V had granted to various nobles who refused to swear fealty to the new king. Such was the case of Count Oveco Rudesíndiz,[12] whose rebellion was put down shortly afterward and whose properties were handed over to the bishopric of Lugo.[13][14] There were other revolts in Órbigo, Galicia,[15] and Astorga.[16] The nobility of the eastern part of the kingdom generally went over to Sancho, who was able to dominate this region.[17] The King's minority unleashed the ambitions of the nobility,[7] eager to take advantage of royal weakness to expand their powers and possessions.[16] In the face of Navarrese pressure, Bermudo tried to crush the internal revolts and to win over both the nobility and the clergy of the kingdom.[18]

The widowed Queen Urraca directed the policy of the Leonese kingdom, supporting the noble faction favorable to her brother the King of Pamplona, Sancho Garcés III the Great,[19] a policy that displeased the Castilian counts, who sought a rapprochement with the Kingdom of León to counter the growing influence of the Pamplonese King and promoted the marriage of the Count of Castile, García Sánchez, to Sancha, sister of Bermudo III.[20][21] The wedding was to have entailed, by way of dowry, the cession to the Castilian Count of the lands lying between the rivers Cea and Pisuerga, which would have increased his power vis-à-vis both León and Navarre.[22][23] Bermudo accepted the proposal of the Castilian embassy, encouraged in this by those most hostile to Navarrese ambitions.[21]

The event that marked Bermudo's reign was an incident, recounted in the Romanz del Infant García, that took place in the capital of the kingdom, the city of León, in 1028, when the Castilian Count García Sánchez went to that city to celebrate his betrothal to Sancha, the sister of Bermudo III.[24][25] Once there, he was murdered[12][25] by members of the Vela family in revenge for an affront inflicted by his father, Count Sancho García.[20] Since the Castilian Count died without descendants, the Pamplonese King Sancho Garcés III extended his power over the Castilian territory, asserting his rights to it, obtained through his marriage to Muniadona, sister of the deceased, and then over the lands lying between the rivers Cea and Valderaduey.[12][26] In the County of Cea, from 1028 there were no males left of the comital house, and Jimena Fernández, Sancho's mother, was the sister of the last count and daughter of Fernando Bermúdez, the one before him.[27] The Pamplonese sovereign took advantage of the murder of the Castilian Count to hand the comital crown to his own son Ferdinand—who inherited it from his mother Muniadona—and to betroth him to Bermudo's sister, with the same dowry foreseen for the deceased.[26][28]

Majority: recovery of the kingdom and war with Castile and Pamplona

From 1032, Sancho extended his influence to the city of León itself.[29][26][lower-alpha 3] It seems that Bermudo, still a minor, withdrew peacefully to Galicia,[26] while Sancho was left in charge of the eastern part of the Leonese kingdom, as far as Astorga, probably to help maintain order in this part of the kingdom from 1033.[32] In mid-1032, at fifteen years of age, Bermudo dispensed with the guardianship of his stepmother.[18] To avoid a premature clash with him, Sancho proposed to marry his son Ferdinand, already Count of Castile, to Bermudo's sister, the Infanta Sancha.[33] Bermudo, who was not yet ready to take up arms against Sancho either, accepted.[34] The marriage is estimated to have been celebrated in October or November 1032 in Castile, probably in Burgos, and both kings attended it.[35] The wedding, which ought to have ended the tension between Navarre and León, did not do so.[36]

In 1035, the Pamplonese Sancho died.[26] That same year, at seventeen years of age, Bermudo returned to León to take the reins of government,[26] without any recorded clashes with the Pamplonese or reprisals against the magnates and bishops who had collaborated with Sancho during the two years he had dominated the city and the region.[37][lower-alpha 4] Probably as part of the agreement for Sancho's withdrawal at the beginning of the year,[38] Bermudo married the latter's daughter, Jimena Sánchez.[39][lower-alpha 5] According to the documentation, the marriage took place before February 17, 1035, since by then they already appear as married.[40]

Between 1035 and 1037, peace was maintained between King Bermudo and the Count of Castile.[41][42] In mid-summer 1037, however, war broke out between the two, although the rupture must have occurred at the beginning of the year at the latest.[41][26][42] The reason for the conflict is unknown; Martínez Díez suggests that it could have been due to the refusal of Count Ferdinand to recognize Bermudo's authority and to the loss of the County of Álava and of a large part of the Castilian territory, which had passed into the hands of García Sánchez III of Pamplona.[43] Bermudo advanced with his hosts against Ferdinand, who withdrew while awaiting the arrival of help from his brother García.[44][26] The Leonese King crossed the County of Monzón and continued the march toward Burgos, by then in Ferdinand's lands.[44] He faced his brother-in-law, the Count of Castile and later King of León, at the Battle of Tamarón,[26] when he was trying to occupy the Tierra de Campos.[45] As recounted in the Crónica Silense and by the Tudense, King Bermudo and his army crossed the border of Castile, "that is, the line of the Pisuerga, and in the basin of that river, in the valley of the Tamarón, a stream located east of Castrojeriz (...) the Leonese faced the Navarrese-Castilian army..."[45][lower-alpha 6][lower-alpha 7] When García's help arrived, the opposing forces clashed in the Valley of Tamarón on September 4.[47][26] Bermudo "spurred his horse, famous for its swiftness, whose name the chroniclers have left us, 'Pelayuelo'..." and charged at the enemy ahead of his hosts. Finding himself alone and without the protection of his faithful, who were unable to reach him in time, he was knocked from his horse and killed by sixteen lance thrusts.[48][49][50][51] The early death[26] of the King, which occurred at the beginning of the fighting, smoothed the way to victory for Ferdinand and García.[52] The throne passed into the hands of his sister Sancha, who ceded her rights to her husband, who ascended[53] the throne as Ferdinand I of León on June 22, 1038.[26][54]

The death of Vermudo entailed the breaking of the dynastic line of the monarchy, a sacred and intangible good that Leonese tradition considered bound to its males and to the continuity of its blood, ennobled in turn for more than a century by illustrious, almost mythical figures such as Ordoño II or Ramiro II.

— Fernández del Pozo (1999), p. 267

Marriage and issue

He married before February 17, 1035[55][20] Jimena Sánchez, daughter of Sancho Garcés III of Pamplona. From this marriage a single son was born, Alfonso, who died a few days after birth.[56][54]

Death and burial

Tomb of Bermudo III in the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera, one of the places where he is said to have been buried.

He died at the Battle of Tamarón in 1037.[57] The chronicles detail that Bermudo III was speared, shot with arrows and pierced with swords and daggers on some forty occasions, "stitched with lance thrusts," as the narrators of the 11th century described it. It seems that on entering combat, the King's mount (Pelayuelo) galloped faster than the Leonese hosts, which left Bermudo III alone before the enemy (the Castilian armies of Ferdinand I), and his soldiers did not have time to rescue him.[57]

There is controversy over the final resting place of his mortal remains. There are two places where it is argued that the Leonese sovereign was buried; namely, the Pantheon of Kings of San Isidoro de León and the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera.[58] In the Pantheon of Kings of San Isidoro de León a stone tomb is preserved, on which the following epitaph in Latin is carved:

HIC EST CONDITUS VEREMUDUS JUNIOR, REX LEGIONIS, FILIUS ADEFONSIS REGIS. ISTE HABEBIT GUERRAM CUM COGNATO SUO REGE MAGNO FERNANDO, ET INTERFECTUS EST AB ILLO IN TAMARA PRAELIANDO. ERA MLXXV.[lower-alpha 8][59][58]

On the other hand, in the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera there is preserved a tomb with a recumbent effigy, in which tradition holds that the body of King Bermudo III was placed. According to this version, after the Battle of Tamarón, King Ferdinand I, who did not wish to grieve his new Leonese subjects, decided that the body of their late king should be buried in the Kingdom of Pamplona, being placed first in the monastery of Santa Hilaria and later in the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Nájera, one of the principal pantheons of the kings of Navarre.[58] On the lid of the tomb supposed to contain the remains of King Bermudo III appears the recumbent image of the King, dressed in a cuirass, covered with a mantle, and his brow girded with a royal crown.[58] The recumbent figure is shown bearded, with his hands placed on his chest, and at the foot of the tomb the inscription "EL REY DON VERMUDO DE LEÓN" is carved.[58]

In 1997, a forensic examination carried out by the Spanish Society of Paleontology tried to bring order to the remains plundered in the monastery of Nájera during the Napoleonic invasion of 1808. One of the reconstructions, a young man between 1.70 and 1.74 meters tall, showed war wounds that matched those suffered by Bermudo at the Battle of Tamarón. However, a DNA test will be necessary to confirm the identification.[57]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ According to Sánchez Candeira, between January 21, 1017, and the same day and month of 1018.[1]
  2. ↑ Nine, according to Reilly.[4] Ten or eleven, according to Sánchez Candeira.[7]
  3. ↑ According to Reilly, in 1034.[26] Sánchez Candeira agrees. According to this author, Bermudo kept trying to win over the nobility of the kingdom, but with little success, since he could not withstand the thrust of the Navarrese King when the latter entered the kingdom at the beginning of 1034.[30] Unable to stand up to Sancho, he left León at the end of January.[30] By the end of February, Sancho must already have controlled the Leonese capital as well as Asturias and Astorga.[31] The bishops of Oviedo, León and Astorga recognized Sancho's authority, as did part of the nobility of the kingdom.[31] Bermudo then withdrew to Galicia.[31]
  4. ↑ According to Sánchez Candeira, Bermudo's return and Sancho's departure were not so peaceful, but rather a consequence of the former's return to León at the head of an army recruited in Galicia and of the backing he obtained from part of the nobility.[38] He does agree, however, on the dates: February 1035.[38]
  5. ↑ According to Sánchez Candeira, daughter of the Castilian count Sancho García and not of the Navarrese king of the same name.[38]
  6. ↑ "The Crónica Najerense and the Chronicle of Don Lucas of Tuy repeat the same account, while Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, removed by almost two centuries, introduces an inaccurate detail such as placing the death of King Vermudo beside the Carrión river, no doubt because he confused the place of Tamarón, located some twenty-six kilometers west of Burgos, with the more important and well-known town of Támara (Palencia), which indeed is not very far from the Carrión river." [46]
  7. ↑ "It is certain that that battle took place in Castilian territory; the Silense, as well as the Tudense and the Crónica Najerense (Lib. III, 9), state that it was Vermudo who advanced against the enemy, crossing the limits of Cantabria; by Cantabria is undoubtedly meant Castile, since a few lines further on Don Lucas de Tuy calls the Castilian warriors 'militum Cantabrorum'; therefore, bearing in mind that Vermudo during this period controlled the whole area between the Pisuerga and the Cea, if the areas of Castrojeriz, Villadiego and Amaya were not also under his rule, the limit of Cantabria must necessarily refer to the line of the Pisuerga, or perhaps even another situated still further east. This obliges us to rule out the possibility that the battle took place in the town of Támara, located in the province of Palencia west of the Pisuerga. All the chronicles refer to the place of the battle by the name of valley of Tamarón, and having shown that this point must lie in Castilian territory, we believe it legitimate to identify it with the valley formed by a small stream, which empties its waters into the Arlanzón, in which the town of Tamarón is currently situated."[45]
  8. ↑ "Here lies buried Bermudo the Younger, King of León, son of King Alfonso. He waged war with his brother-in-law the great King Don Fernando and was killed by him, fighting at Támara...year one thousand thirty-seven"

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 48.
  2. ↑ Fernández del Pozo 1999, pp. 264 and 269.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Martínez Díez 2007, p. 135.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Reilly 1982, p. 5.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Martínez Díez 2007, p. 155.
  6. ↑ Fernández del Pozo 1999, p. 231.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 54.
  8. ↑ Fernández del Pozo 1999, p. 233.
  9. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 135, 155.
  10. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, pp. 54, 95.
  11. ↑ Salazar y Acha 1988, pp. 183–192.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Martínez Díez 2007, p. 156.
  13. ↑ Fernández del Pozo 1999, pp. 231–235.
  14. ↑ Núñez Contreras 1977, pp. 67–69, details of document 3, p. 42, n. 127.
  15. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 76.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 155–156.
  17. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, pp. 75–76.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 77.
  19. ↑ Fernández del Pozo 1999, p. 234.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Fernández del Pozo 1999, p. 240.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 56.
  22. ↑ Reilly 1982, pp. 6–7.
  23. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 57.
  24. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 125–128.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Reilly 1982, p. 6.
  26. ↑ 26.00 26.01 26.02 26.03 26.04 26.05 26.06 26.07 26.08 26.09 26.10 26.11 26.12 Reilly 1982, p. 7.
  27. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 157.
  28. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 176.
  29. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 159.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 88.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 89.
  32. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 163-165, 198.
  33. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 80.
  34. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 81.
  35. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 82.
  36. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 83.
  37. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 165–166.
  38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 38.2 38.3 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 95.
  39. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 166, 198.
  40. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 166.
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Martínez Díez 2007, p. 197.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 112.
  43. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 199–202.
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Martínez Díez 2007, p. 199.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 Sánchez Candeira 1999, pp. 113–114.
  46. ↑ Martínez Díez 2004, p. 726, Vol. II.
  47. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 197, 199–200.
  48. ↑ Fernández del Pozo 1999, p. 264.
  49. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, pp. 199–200.
  50. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 114.
  51. ↑ "Así murió Bermudo III, el último rey asturleonés". El País (in español). October 15, 2018.
  52. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 200.
  53. ↑ Martínez Díez 2007, p. 202.
  54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 115.
  55. ↑ Sánchez Candeira 1999, p. 96.
  56. ↑ Arco y Garay 1954, p. 166.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 57.2 Olaya, Vicente G. (October 15, 2018). "Así murió Bermudo III, el último rey asturleonés". El País (in español). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
  58. ↑ 58.0 58.1 58.2 58.3 58.4 Elorza et al. 1990, p. 53.
  59. ↑ Prada Marcos 1998, p. 4.

Bibliography

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