The adelantado mayor of Castile (Spanish : adelantado mayor de Castilla) was an officer in service to the Crown of Castile who was entrusted with some judicial and military powers in the Kingdom of Castile.
Lamingueiro Fernández stated that since the 10th and 11th centuries, the Leonese monarchs tried to make their presence effective throughout their jurisdiction, for which reason they created the greater and lesser merinos , the tenants-in-chief, the alfoces and later, in the mid-13th-century reign of Alfonso X of Castile, the adelantados, in order to enforce their policies. [1]
By the reign of Ferdinand III of Castile the jurisdictions of the greater and lesser merinos were already fully defined. The first were high-ranking officials of the Crown, with extensive legal-administrative powers, and with powers directly from the king. [1] It was also Ferdinand III who appointed greater merinos for the Kingdom of Castile and later for those of León, Galicia, and Murcia. [1]
After the death of Ferdinand III, his son and heir Alfonso X maintained the same administrative divisions that had existed during his father's reign and thus, all his territories continued to be divided into four major merindades. In 1253 the Greater Adelantado of Andalusia (Spanish : adelantado mayor de la frontera) was created for the territories bordering the Emirate of Granada. [1] In 1258, five years later, the greater merinos of León, Castile, and Murcia were replaced by greater adelantados, and in 1263 the greater adelantado of Galicia was also named to replace its greater merino. [1]
The famous writer and magnate Don Juan Manuel, who was the grandson of King Ferdinand III and would become the Greater Adelantado of Murcia and also of Andalusia, came to affirm in his Book of States and to his father, the Infante Manuel of Castile, that: [2]
Señor Infante, all of this that I say to you regarding the Adelantados, you must understand the same about the Merinos, because that is the same thing, and there is no other department, but in some lands they are called Adelantados and in others Merinos...
The Greater Adelantado of Castile would end up being inherited in the 15th century by the Padilla family, future counts of Santa Gadea. The heritability of the office caused it to become a more honorary rather than effective title, and from then on the greater adelantados gained more importance. It was an itinerant office that in 1502, due to its size, was divided into two parts: that of Campos and that of Burgos. The archive of Burgos was kept in one of the gates of the wall of Covarrubias that Philip II ordered to be built.
Adelantado was a title held by some Spanish nobles in service of their respective kings during the Middle Ages. It was later used as a military title held by some Spanish conquistadores of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
Blanche of Portugal, was an infanta, the firstborn child of King Afonso III of Portugal and his second wife Beatrice of Castile. Named after her great-aunt Blanche of Castile, queen of France, Blanche was the Lady of Las Huelgas, Montemor-o-Velho, Alcocer and Briviesca, the city which she founded.
Pedro Fernández de Velasco, 2nd Count of Haro was a Spanish nobleman and military figure of the last stages of the Reconquista.
Mayor Guillén de Guzmán (1205–1262) was a member of one of the most aristocratic families in the court of King Ferdinand III of Castile. Her parents were Guillén Pérez de Guzmán and María González Girón, daughter of Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón and his first wife Sancha Rodríguez, and sister of Pedro Rodríguez de Guzmán, Castile's first adelantado and father of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán.
Juan Pacheco, 1st Duke of Escalona, better known as Juan Pacheco, Marquess of Villena, was a Castilian noble of Portuguese descent who rose to power in the last years of the reign of Juan II of Castile and came to dominate the government of Castile during the reign of Juan II’s son and successor Henry IV of Castile. Created The 1st Duke of Escalona in 1472, his other titles included, among others, Marquess of Villena and Master of the Order of Santiago.
Blanche of Castile was by birth a member of the Castilian House of Burgundy. She was the only child of Infante Peter of Castile and Infanta Maria of Aragon.
John of Castile, called the "el de Tarifa" was an infante of Castile and León. He was engaged in a decades-long fight for control over the Lordship of Biscay with Diego López V de Haro, the uncle of his wife.
Garci Lasso de la Vega I, also known as "el Viejo" was a Spanish noble in the service of King Alfonso XI of Castile. He was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Castile, an adelantado of the king. He later became the chief justice of the king and gained vast properties in Asturias de Santillana and feudal land tenures and vassal towns in more than fifteen areas throughout Castile. He went to Soria in 1328 to recruit allies against infante Don Juan Manuel who had been consistently violating the king's territories. The Spanish nobles of Soria assaulted him with crossbows, driving de la Vega to seek cover at the Convent of San Francisco where he was eventually killed. Alfonso XI punished all those responsible, ordering their execution.
Garci Álvarez de Toledo y Meneses was a Spanish noble of the House of Oropesa. He was the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago from 1359 to 1366.
Lope Díaz II de Haro "Cabeza Brava" was a Spanish noble of the House of Haro, the sixth Lord of Biscay, and founder of the municipality of Plentzia. He was the eldest son of Diego López II de Haro and his wife, María Manrique. Lope was also a member of the Order of Santiago.
Álvaro Herraméliz, was a Spanish noble and the count of Lantarón and of Álava in the region that today would be considered the Basque Country in northern Spain.
Alfonso Fernández el Niño was a Spanish nobleman, the illegitimate son of King Alfonso X of Castile and Elvira Rodríguez de Villada. He was the lord of Molina and Mesa through his marriage to Blanca Alfonso de Molina, daughter of the infante Alfonso of Molina and niece of King Alfonso IX of León.
Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón, also known as Gonzalo Ruiz Girón, firstborn son of Rodrigo Gutiérrez Girón and María de Guzmán, was one of Castile's wealthiest and most powerful nobles. He was based in Tierra de Campos, and was among the most loyal supporters of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, Berengaria of Castile, and later of King Ferdinand III.
Enrique Enríquez the Younger was a nobleman of Castile, son of Enrique Enríquez the Elder. He was lord of Villalba de los Barros, Nogales, Almendral, La Parra, Begíjar and other towns. He was Adelantado Mayor of the border of Andalusia, chief justice of the King's House, Chief of the forces of the bishopric and Kingdom of Jaén, Mayor of Seville and Knight of the Band.
Pedro Ponce de Cabrera, was a magnate from the Kingdom of León, son of Ponce Vela de Cabrera and his wife Teresa Rodríguez Girón, daughter of Rodrigo Gutiérrez Girón and his first wife María de Guzmán. From his marriage to Aldonza Alfonso de León, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso IX and his mistress Aldonza Martínez de Silva, «...would descend one of the most important and aristocratic Spanish families of the Late Middle Ages, the Ponce de León, so relevant in the conquest of Andalusia where they were to receive over time the Marquisate of Cádiz and Duchy of Arcos».
Gutierre Fernández de Castro was a nobleman and military commander from the Kingdom of Castile. His career in royal service corresponds exactly with the reigns of Alfonso VII (1126–57) and his son Sancho III (1157–58). He served Alfonso as a courtier after 1134 and as majordomo (1135–38). He was the guardian and tutor the young Sancho III from 1145. Before his death he was also briefly the guardian of Sancho's infant son, Alfonso VIII.
Gutierre Rodríguez de Castro also known as Gutierre Ruiz de Castro and nicknamed el Escalabrado was a Castilian nobleman, member of the House of Castro as the son of Rodrigo Fernández de Castro and his wife Elo Álvarez, daughter of Álvar Fáñez and his wife Mayor Pérez, daughter of Count Pedro Ansúrez.
The Chief of the King's Guard, King's Chief Guard, or Chief of the King's Corps, was an officer of the Crown of Castile and of the Portuguese Royal Family whose function was to protect the monarch and command his guard.
The Count of Castañeda, ruled by the Counts of Castañeda, a Spanish noble title of late medieval origin, was the first physical territory granted to an aristocrat in the region now occupied by the autonomous community of Cantabria. It initially belonged to the Manrique family. Geographically, it was located in territory originally belonging to the Asturias de Santillana comarca, bordering to the west with the marquisate of Santillana. The nobility title was used for centuries by the eldest sons of the holders of the marquisate of Aguilar de Campoo, first class Grandee of Spain, nowadays, both dignities are separated.