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OF CALABRIA Pedro
Birth: ABT 680
Death: 730
Notes
a Visigoth leader descended from the kings of Toledo, Leovigildo and Ricaredo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_of_Cantabria
Peter (Latin: Petrus, Spanish: Pedro; died 730) was the Duke of Cantabria. While
various writers have attempted to name his parentage, (for example, making him son or
brother of King Erwig), early sources say nothing more specific than the chronicle of
'Pseudo-Alfonso': that he was "ex semine Leuvigildi et Reccaredi progenitus"
(descended from the bloodline of Liuvigild and Reccared I). He was the father of King
Alfonso I and of Fruela of Cantabria, father of Kings Aurelius and Bermudo I.
According to the Muslim chroniclers, in the year 714, Musa ibn Nusair sacked Amaya,
capital of Cantabria, for the second time after Tariq did the year before. Peter, the
provincial dux, led his people into refuge in the mountains, and after the local noble
Pelayo of Asturias started a rebellion against the Berber garrison, which these have
managed to establish over the mountain passes in neighbor Asturias, Dux Peter as
other western Galician nobles supported the election of this as new King or Princeps
in the lead against the common enemy. Other scholars have said, that Pelayo may
have been a Cantabrian relative, defending the western access to the Duchy through
his own county seat, as that part of the modern province of Asturias was part then of
the Cantabrian duchy and the Cantabria of classic Latin record. At any rate, Cantabria
and the rest of what would be called Asturias merged as one realm. After the Battle of
Covadonga, in which Pelayo avoided defeat by the larger invading force, and
managed to dislodge its governor Munuza altogether from Asturias, it seems likely that
Peter sent his son to the court of Pelayo at Cangas de Onís. It had been a Visigothic
practice to send noble children to the royal court, this was thus a tacit admission of
Pelayo's regality. According to the Crónica Albeldense, the territories of the two
leaders were united by marriage between Peter's son Alfonso and Pelayo's daughter
Ermesinda:
Adefonsus, Pelagi gener, reg. an. XVIIII. Iste Petri Cantabriae ducis filius fuit; et dum
Asturias venir Ermesindam Pelagii filiam Pelagio proecipiente, accepit.
Alfonso later succeeded to the Asturian throne and was the first to use the title of
king. While Iberian Muslim scholars would call his descendants the Beni Alfons
(Arabic: ?? ??????? (Beni I?funš)) after his son, some modern authors refer to the
family as the Pérez Dynasty for Peter.
Marriage To ----- ----- ()
m.
Notes
Children by ----- -----
OF CANTABRIA Fruela (ABT 720 - ABT 758)
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