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Birth:          ABT  970 
Death:          Oct 1008 
Cause of Death: killed

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menendo_Gonz%C3%A1lez
Menendo González (Portuguese and Galician: Mendo Gonçalves;[a] died 6 October 
1008)[2] was a semi-autonomous Duke of Galicia[b] and Count of Portugal (997–1008) 
and a dominant figure in the Kingdom of León around the turn of the second 
millennium. He was the armiger regis, or royal alférez, the king's armour-bearer and 
commander of the royal armies, under Vermudo II, and he continued to hold the 
position until his death. He became the tutor (1003) and ultimately father-in-law of 
Vermudo's successor, King Alfonso V. He maintained peaceful diplomatic relations 
with the Caliphate of Córdoba until 1004, after which there was a state of war.
Regency of Alfonso V[edit]

Before 999 King Vermudo II placed his heir, Alfonso V, under the tutorship of his 
alférez Menendo.[3][2] Alfonso was only five at his father's death (September 999) and 
he spent the early years of his reign in the care of Menendo and his wife. The earliest 
act of Alfonso as king dates to 13 October 999, and it lists as confirmants first Count 
Menendo González ("Menendus Gundisaluiz, comes") and then "Duke" (count) 
Sancho García of Castile ("Santius, dux, Garsea prolis").[4] Menendo also appears in 
contemporary documents with the ducal title, as in dux domnus Menendus proles 
Gundisalvi.[5][6]
 
The young Alfonso always appears in his early charters beside his mother, Elvira 
García, a sister of the count of Castile and possibly exercising the regency under his 
influence. After 1003 Elvira no longer appears in royal charters; perhaps she was 
removed in a palace coup by Menendo. In subscribing one royal act Menendo went so 
far as to call himself "he who under the authority of the aforementioned king ordains 
and guides all things" ("qui sub imperio iam dicti regis hec omnia ordinavit et docuit").
[7] In 1004 Sancho challenged the regency of Menendo. Both counts petitioned the 
Córdoban hajib al-Muzaffar to arbitrate the dispute.[4] According to Ibn Khaldun, a 
hearing took place and al-Muzaffar's deputy, the qadi of the Mozarabic community of 
Córdoba, Asbag bin Abd Allah bin Nabil, found in favour of Menendo. According to 
some sources this took place in Córdoba with the two disputant counts in attendance,
[7] but according to others it took place in León.[3]

In 1000, as regent, Menendo confirmed the testament of Hilal, called Salvatus, the 
Mozarabic abbot of San Cipriano de Valdesalce, after the queen-regent Elvira and the 
young king and before five bishops of the realm.[8] A charter dated 23 December 
1001 records the settlement of a dispute concerning the Monastery of Celanova by 
Alfonso V and "his elder, the lord Menendo, son of Gonzalo" ("senatus sui domni 
Ermenagildi Gundisaluiz prolis"). Another charter dated 11 January 1002 records the 
donation of San Andrés de Congostro to the monastery of Celanova and was 
confirmed by "duke Menendo, son of Gonzalo" ("Menendus dux prolis Gundisaluiz"). A 
royal charter of 1007 recognises Menendo as "the great count who holds all the land 
of Galicia" (comes magnus ... omnem terram Gallecie ... obtinebat).[9]

Relations with Córdoba[edit]

Menendo did not initially collaborate with the Córdobans, but after contingents were 
sent from Córdoba to reinforce Coimbra and the frontier with Portugal, Menendo 
entered into a pact with al-Muzaffar, which included a clause calling for military 
collaboration in 1003.[10] That year Leonese and Castilian troops assisted the 
Córdobans in their attack on Catalonia.[3] This pact seems to have been broken 
when, in 1005, a Córdoban army marched with the intent of taking Zamora. The city 
was not captured, but much territory was seized.[10] For the remainder of Menendo's 
regency there was no peace with the Córdobans.

In the treasury of the Cathedral of Braga, now in the cathedral museum, there is an 
early 11th-century ivory pyxis containing a contemporary chalice and silver paten (see 
illustration at top).[11] The pyxis has an inscription on the rim of its lid which allows it 
to be dated rather precisely to between 1004, when the hajib Abd al-Malik received 
the title he bears in the inscription, Sayf al-Dawla, and 1007, when he received the 
higher title of al-Muzaffar.[c] The pyxis had found its way into the hands of Menendo 
González sometime before his death, since an added inscription on the bottom of it 
relates its donation to the church by him and his wife, Toda. It reads: IN N[omi]NE D
[omi]NI MENENDUS GUNDISALVI ET TUDAD[o]MNA SUM.[13] It has been suggested 
that the chalice and paten,[14] which appear to be made to fit the pyxis, were possibly 
commissioned by Menendo for the pyxis he obtained during a campaign against 
Córdoba. On the other hand, it has been suggested[3] that the pyxis was originally a 
gift from the court of Córdoba to the Leonese regent during diplomatic negotiations. 
Historian Serafín Moralejo sees it presented to Menendo by Asbagh the qadi as "a 
good-will gift ... a bitter one indeed and a warning oo, since the title of Sayf al-Dawla 
carved on its lid commemorated the raid the hajib had launched on León one year 
earlier."[d] The iconography of the pyxis is peaceful, and its original function could 
have been at a "marriage, or an occasion of a calendrical observance such as a 
summer of fall harvest festival".[15] The carvings of birds eating fruit may imitate a 
well-used Christian eucharistic motif dating back to Visigothic times.[16] If so, the 
piece may have been designed to serve as a diplomatic gift to a Christian ruler, 
perhaps Menendo.[3]

Violent death[edit]

The last recorded act of Menendo was to confirm a charter of the monstery of San 
Pedro de Rocas in 1007. He was mentioned in a lawsuit settled in favour of Count 
Munio Fernández in early 1008, but as he did not confirm the result it is probable that 
he was in Galicia.[17] Eight months later, on 6 October 1008, he died a violent death 
in unclear circumstances.[18] The Islamic historian Ibn Khaldun, dating his death by 
the anno Hegirae, places it between 17 September 1007 and 4 September 1008, but 
the date provided by the Chronicon Lusitanum is more reliable. It records that "in the 
year 1046 of the Spanish era, on the day preceding the nones of October, Count 
Menendo was killed."[19]

The wording of both Ibn Khaldun and the Chronicon suggests that Menendo died 
violently, probably assassinated.[7][20] Count Munio has been suspected of arranging 
his assassination in order to usurp the regency.[17] He was foiled by the queen-
mother, Elvira García, who proclaimed the fourteen-year-old Alfonso to be of age.[21] 
Around 1013 Alfonso married Elvira Menéndez, Gonzalo's daughter. She gave him a 
son, Vermudo III, who succeeded him on the throne, and a daughter, Sancha, who 
married Count Ferdinand of Castile and passed the Leonese throne on to him. Elvira 
died on 2 December 1022.[22] In 1014 Alfonso V confirmed all the possessions of the 
monastery of Guimarães, which had been founded by Menendo's grandmother, 
Mumadona Díaz.

It has been suggested that Menendo was perhaps killed defending Portugal from a 
Viking raid.[23] According to the later Icelandic saga Heimskringla, the Vikings under 
Olaf Haraldsson attacked Gunnvaldsborg, possibly to be identified as a descriptive 
toponym meaning "city of González" (in Latin *Gundisalvus-burgus) and indicating Tui, 
which was within Menendo's dukedom and is independently known to have been 
destroyed by Vikings about this time.[24] There is a Latin document of 1024 that bears 
the rubric Tudensis sedes post Normannorum vastationem Ecclesiae Divi Jacobi 
attributa: the see of Tui was assigned to the church of Santiago after being laid waste 
by the Northmen. In the words of the Heimskringla:

He [Olaf] conquered the castle called Gunnvaldsborg—it was large and old—and there 
he captured the earl who was in command there, called Geirfith. Then he had a 
meeting with the townspeople and imposed a ransom on them for freeing the earl—
twelve thousand gold shillings; and that sum was paid by the townspeople as he had 
demanded. As says Sigvat:

A thirteenth time the Thronders'
 thane did win a battle
 south in Seljupollarin
 sithen, with great carnage,
 when to ancient stronghold
 early at morn he marched, and
 gallant Earl Geirfith of
 Gunnvaldsborg made captive.[25]

All the details of this theory—Menendo's death in battle, the identity of Gunnvaldsborg 
and the timing and place of Olaf's raid—have been recently dismissed as unfounded.
[26]

Family relations[edit]

Menendo González was probably the eldest son and successor of Gonzalo Menéndez 
and his wife Ilduara Peláez. Menendo's wife is variously known in contemporary 
sources as Toda, Tota, Todadomna, Tutadomna, Tutadonna, etc. One twelfth-century 
source calls her Mayor.[e]

Menendo had at least six sons and three daughters:[28]
Rodrigo Menéndez, a direct ancestor in the maternal line of Urraca Fróilaz, wife of 
Pedro Fróilaz de Traba[29]
Gonzalo Menéndez (attested 983–1008), is cited with the title of count during his 
father's lifetime[30]
Pelayo Menéndez, served as armiger regis in 1012–14[31][32]
Ramiro Menéndez (attested 1005–15),[33] served as armiger regis in 1015[34]
Egas Menéndez (attested 1007–14)[33]
Munio Menéndez (attested 1007–14)[33]
Elvira Menéndez, queen of Alfonso V[33][35]
Ilduara Menéndez (attested 1025–58), married Nuño Alóitiz, a count in Portugal[33][35]
Ildoncia (Eldonza) Menéndez (attested 1014)[33][35]

Parents
MENENDEZ Gonzalo (ABT  940 -  997)
PELAEZ Ilduara (ABT  940 - BEF  985)

Siblings
GONZALEZ Menendo (ABT  970 - Oct 1008)

Marriage To ____ Totadomna (Toda) (ABT  970 - 1025)
    m.  

Notes


Children by ____ Totadomna (Toda) ABT  970 - 1025
MENENDEZ OF GALICIA Elvira (ABT  996 - 2 Dec 1022)

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