Ponce de Minerva

The monastery of Sandoval, founded by Ponce and his kin in 1167.

Ponce de Minerva (1114/1115 – 27 July 1175) was a nobleman, courtier, governor, and general serving, at different times, the kingdoms of León and Castile. Originally from Occitania, he came as a young man to León (1127), where he was raised probably in close connection to the royal family. His public career, first as a courtier and knight in the military retinue of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, began in 1140. By later historians he was implicated in the strife between Alfonso's successors, Sancho III of Castile and Ferdinand II of León, but he was generally loyal to the latter, although from 1168 to 1173 he was in voluntary exile serving Alfonso VIII of Castile.

Ponce had a long and distinguished military career. He participated in at least twelve campaigns, more than half of them campaigns of Reconquista fought against the Moors, but also campaigns against Navarre (1140), Portugal (1141), and Castile (1162 and 1163), as well as one famous campaign against some Castilian rebels, in which he was captured. He acquired landed wealth largely through royal preferment—even in the major cities of the realm, such as León and Toledo—and an advantageous marriage—his wife was a descendant of García Sánchez III of Navarre—and he rose to hold the highest rank in the kingdom, count, and the highest civil post, (majordomo), in both Castile and León. In 1167 he founded a monastery, Santa María de Sandoval, and he was also a donor to the Order of Calatrava. In 1173 he re-populated half of the village of Azaña and granted it a fuero (charter of privileges).

Move from Occitania to León

As his toponymic surname indicates, Ponce was from the Minervois ("de Minerva" is Latin for "from Minerve") in southern France, then a part of the County of Carcassonne, one of the possessions of Raymond Berengar III, Count of Barcelona. He may have been related to the Counts of Toulouse, but his genealogy has been disputed since the seventeenth century. The name of either of his parents is unknown. He arrived in León in November 1127 in the entourage of Berenguela of Barcelona, daughter of Raymond Berengar III, who wed Alfonso VII that month at Saldaña. He was probably a young man of about twelve years at the time. He may have been related to Raymond II, Bishop of Palencia (1148–83), who also hailed from Minerve and was also a protégé and perhaps a relative of Berenguela. It is likely that he was raised and educated for a time at the court of Alfonso VII's sister, the infanta Sancha Raimúndez.

Ponce does not appear in contemporary records until 1140, but his presence in the following of the Catalan princess is established by a charter in the archives of the convent of Santa María de Carrizo. This document, dated 13 March 1207, records a pesquisa (inquest) carried out by orders of Alfonso IX to determine what was owed by the village of Quintanilla to the convent in light of a donation made by Ponce. It mentions how Ponce had come to León with Berenguela: When the lord emperor [Alfonso VII] brought [to León] his wife the empress, he also brought along the count Ponce de Minerva and married him to the countess Doña Estefanía, daughter of Count Ramiro, and gave him half of Carrizo, which was royal fiscal land (realengo), and he [Ponce] gave it to her as bridewealth. . . And the other half of Carrizo belonged to Count Ramiro, and he gave it to him [Ponce] with his daughter in marriage. . . Because he hailed from an Occitan-speaking region ruled by the counts of Barcelona, he is often considered a Catalan. His name, in contemporary Latin, was Pontius or Poncius, transformed in Castilian to Ponce, the form used here, or Poncio, and also transformed into Ponç (Catalan) or Pons (Occitan).

Marriage to Estefanía Ramírez The record of the royal pesquisa of 1207 also notes how Ponce was subsequently betrothed to Estefanía Ramírez, daughter of Ramiro Fróilaz, and endowed by Alfonso VII with fiscal lands: half of the village of Carrizo de la Ribera and an estate at a place called Quiro, between Carrizo and Quintanilla. To this his future father-in-law added the other half of Carrizo, which had been a part of his patrimony. Carrizo included a palace (palacio), which was later given to the monastery there, and stood to the right of the "old gate" (portería vieja).

The charter provides no date for Ponce's betrothal or marriage, but a document dated 30 May 1140 records a grant given by the king's sister, Sancha Raimúndez, to Ponce on the occasion of his marriage: the village of Argavallones "at your marriage, because I nourished [i.e., raised] you". This document survives only in a copy from 1716 that has clearly been altered.

The charter is accepted as genuine by some, At the time of his advent in León in 1127 he would therefore have been placed in an aristocratic household capable of raising him, and the king's sister is known to have raised at least one other young nobleperson in her court: Urraca Rodríguez, daughter of Rodrigo González de Lara, whom she remembered in her (undated) will as "Urraca, daughter of Count Rodrigo, whom I raised". Likewise, the village of Argavallones must have been acquired by Ponce sometime before his marriage, since he gave it to his bride as her arras (bridewealth), along with all his lands at Carrizo, San Pedro del Páramo (modern San Pedro de las Dueñas), and Grulleros (Grulerius). According to a document in the Tumbo Antiguo cartulary of Carrizo, Argavallones was located near Grulleros, just west of Villaverde de Sandoval (Sot noval). It may be supposed that the forged eighteenth-century charter was designed to replace an authentic lost charter. This document aside, the earliest reference to Ponce's marriage to Estefanía is from 13 February 1146, when Alfonso VII rewarded them with a grant of land at Villamoros de Mansilla "for the service to me which you [plural] have done and are doing".

Alférez of Alfonso VII From the time of his appointment as alférez sometime between 26 June and 9 September 1140 until his replacement sometime after 19 December 1144 and before March 1145, Ponce de Minerva was a constant presence at the royal court and on all of Alfonso VII's military campaigns. He definitely participated in the Siege of Coria in 1142, as recorded in the Tumbo Negro, cartulary of the Cathedral of Zamora, and he probably also accompanied the royal forces on a razzia of the environs of Córdoba and Granada in 1144. This last (obscure) campaign is mentioned in a charter issued at Toledo in November 1144 "as the emperor arrived from the fortification that he had made against Córdoba and Granada".

Ponce's rewards for these various services were extensive. There are two false documents dated to 25 January and 14 June 1141 which purport to record royal donations to Ponce. The first is the donation of Quiro, which occurred on the occasion of his betrothal according to the account of the pesquisa of 1207. By 1148 he had also received the government of the royal city (urbs regia) of León. There are ten royal documents from the reign of Alfonso VII that show Ponce holding this "most sensitive post". He was still with the royal forces at Andújar, witnessing a royal charter issued on 17 July, but it is not clear if he participated in the successful sieges of Baeza and Almería later that summer. There is no contemporary record of his presence with the royal army after Andújar, On 18 November 1153, Alfonso VII granted "to my faithful vassal [Ponce,] for the good and faithful service which you did me in Almería and in many other places in both the Christian and Muslim regions", the castle of Albuher near Villamanrique de Tajo. According to Manuel Recuero Astray, the recipient was Ponce de Minerva, but more likely it was his namesake Count Ponce de Cabrera. Another twentieth-century historian mistakenly believed that the "Count Ponce" of the Prefatio de Almaria, a poetic retelling of the conquest of Almería in 1147, was Ponce de Minerva.

In 1150, Ponce probably took part in the failed siege of Córdoba, since he was with the king at Jaén immediately after the siege was lifted. By that year he had received the tenancy of Villalís. The following year, on 30 January 1151, at Calahorra, Alfonso awarded Ponce, called "our faithful vassal", with the village of Grulleros, which he later gave to his wife. Later that year, according to documents in the cathedral archives of Santa María de León, he was at the siege of Jaén and the second siege of Baeza, which had been lost again. In 1152, he took part in the assault on Guadix.

During this time he was rewarded further, first with a castle on the Tagus. The original document recording this grant, issued at Soria on 18 November 1153, has survived, and is one of possibly ten charters of Alfonso VII to have been authenticated with a seal. At the same time, Ponce was rewarded with further governorships: Cea by 1152, Castrotierra by 1153, and Gatón de Campos by 1155. His territorial lordships, however, were generally scattered, although they were all in the province of León and relatively near to the city itself, whose government he continued to hold throughout the period. In 1155, Ponce was with Alfonso for the capture of Andújar.

Controversies of 1157–58 Under Alfonso VII Ponce was "a curial personage of stature" who "enjoyed the fullest confidence of the crown", yet despite his residence at court "he was of secondary rank" and generally his confirmation of royal acts was not sought. Villalpando was at one time governed by Ponce.

This account, however, is based on a confusion between Ponce de Minerva and Ponce de Cabrera. Derek Lomax notes that "the personalities, relationships and activities of these minor Catalan nobles are difficult to disentangle, but it is clear that they were extremely active in the politics of central Spain throughout the twelfth century, and that they built up their lordships primarily in the region of Salamanca and Valladolid." The first modern historian to differentiate the two Ponces was the Marqués de Mondéjar (died 1708), who believed them to be closely related.

There is abundant contemporary documentary evidence of Ponce de Cabrera's exile to Castile, while Ponce de Minerva clearly remained on good terms with Ferdinand II throughout 1158. He was with the court at Faro in Galicia on 15 February. To the end of the surviving record of the treaty is appended a list of those who "swore on the side of King Ferdinand", and Ponce is listed among them. Contrary to the Toledan historian's confused account, Ponce de Minerva was unswervingly loyal to Ferdinand II during the lifetime of Sancho III, although the presence of his name alongside the grieved Ponce de Cabrera and Osorio has raised suspicions. On 1 July he and the newly reconciled Ponce de Cabrera confirmed Ferdinand's grant to Rodrigo Sebastiánez, a monk of Oviedo. In 1159, he was among those who accompanied Ferdinand II into Galicia when he made peace with the Portuguese. On 14 June, while the court was staying at Sahagún, he and his wife were rewarded "for good service" (pro bono servitio) with a grant of land at Santa María del Páramo in the vicinity of León. In 1162, Ponce de Minerva took part in Ferdinand's expedition into Castile, where he captured Toledo. In 1163, he was again with the royal Leonese army that invaded Castile. By 1164 Juan was holding León without any indication of Ponce's superiority. In 1164, Ponce was granted an estate at Villamañán, according to the Tumbo Antiguo (old cartulary) of Santa María de Carrizo. In September of the latter year, during the court's sojourn at Villaquejida, Ferdinand also awarded him property at Villamandos in the valley of the Esla, where he possessed other estates. By 27 October 1164 Ponce de Minerva had been deprived of the government of the city of León. He was still without it on 6 May 1166, but by 11 November he had regained control of it. In 1167, he was rewarded with the tenancy of Castroverde de Campos, as recorded in the archives of the hospital of San Marcos de León. On 16 February he and his family founded the monastery of Santa María de Sandoval at Villaverde, which had been granted him by Alfonso VII in 1142. Sometime before 15 July 1167, Ferdinand II appointed him majordomo (maiordomus), the highest office associated with the royal court and the pre-eminent position in the realm: he had reached "the zenith of his power in León" and was "one of the most powerful lay figures of the realm". His eldest son, Ramiro Ponce, also served Ferdinand II as alférez in the 1160s.

Fall from favour and exile At some point in 1168, for reasons unknown, Ponce went into exile in Castile. In the summer of 1167, Count Ermengol VII of Urgell and his mesnada (knightly retinue) had arrived in the service of Ferdinand II, whom he had assisted in the capture of the fortress of Alcántara from the Almohads, which fortress Ferdinand granted to him as a fief on 21 November, as recorded in the archives of the Order of Santiago that Ferdinand had founded. By that date, Ferdinand had already removed Ponce from his post as majordomo and replaced him with Ermengol. The arrival of Ermengol thus appears to have marked a shift in the king's favour from the one Catalan to the other.

Service to the Crown in Castile Ponce, following his fall from favour, went to the court of Alfonso VIII of Castile, son of Sancho III, which had moved to the fortress of Abia possibly to receive the defecting count. Alfonso VIII continued to besiege the town in which his two generals were being held until at least 14 May, when a royal charter of donation was drawn up "about (i.e., around) Zorita, at that time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were being held captive there by the most evil Lope de Arenas". The donation was made to the military Order of Calatrava founded by his father. By 19 May, Zorita had surrendered and the two captives been freed. A royal charter issued that day "was made in Zorita, at the time when Count Nuño and Count Ponce were liberated from captivity there". These last two charters indicate the part likely played by the knights of Calatrava in the capture of Zorita and the liberation of Ponce de Minerva, and it is probably therefore in gratefulness that Ponce soon after gaining his freedom made over to the Order some mills he owned in Toledo.

Ponce's service to the Crown in the Castile lasted five years. At the time of his arrival, and even during the siege of Zorita, Alfonso VIII was a minor whose regency was held by Nuño Pérez. By the fall, however, he had come of age and begun to rule in his own right. Shortly after, on 11 November, Ponce was with his court at Burgos.

Ponce's support for the young king was rewarded with several lordships in western Castile, along the border with León. The last record of Ponce in that office dates to 28 June 1173, and shortly thereafter he was reconciled to Ferdinand II. The "charter of rights and obligations" (called a fuero) that he gave to the settlers exists as a thirteenth-century copy in a cartulary of the cathedral of Toledo.

The majordomo referred to in the surviving fuero may have been "a local estate manager rather than the count's household official". The tenants also owed Ponce tribute or rent in the form of one cahiz each of wheat and barley per field and portions of the produce of their vineyards and orchards. They also owed yantar (hospitality). The fuero of Azaña contains one of the best surviving descriptions of this practice from the twelfth century, and it also indicates Ponce's expectation of continued itinerancy between his various properties and tenancies.

Itinerancy in Castile and León Sometime in the first half of 1173, Ermengol VII left the service of Ferdinand II, for reasons unknown. His absence may have opened up the possibility of reconciliation to Ponce de Minerva, who had returned to the city of León by October, when he rejoined the court after five years of voluntary exile. On 18 November, Ponce met Alfonso VIII at Fuentedueña, perhaps remaining with the court until 9 May 1175, when he was definitely in attendance at Medina del Campo. The last records of Ponce alive date from June, when he was in León. In the archives of the monastery of Benevívere are two charters both dated 30 July, only a few days after Count Ponce's death, which record the donation received from his widow and children of lands at Quintanilla and Mayorga (in the first transaction) and lands at Santamarina and Lerones with the Hospital de Don García (in the second transaction) for the redemption of Ponce's soul.

On 17 February 1176, Countess Estefanía granted her land at Benavides to the monastery of Sobrado dos Monxes in Galicia "for the soul of the count Don Ponce" and that a monastery might be built there. On 10 September 1176, she founded a convent "for the soul of my husband, the lord count Ponce", at Carrizo, including in her donation the palace they had owned there. She dedicated it to the Virgin and placed it under the Cistercian Order. The archives of this convent, Santa María de Carrizo, are an important source for the lives and careers of Ponce and his wife. They contain the authentic charter of foundation of Estefanía, wherein she describes her gift to the monastery of the lands comprising her bridewealth from Ponce: I give and concede the village that is called Carrizo, with all its environs and attached territories, integral; and the village of San Pedro del Páramo, whole and integral, and the village of Grulleros and Argavallones, and its environs and attached territories that belong to me; which villages I have from my acquisitions and my bridewealth and my scattered estates, which my husband gave to me. Estefanía died in 1183 or 1184 and was buried beside her husband.

Children Family tree showing Ponce's relationship, through his wife, to the royal house of Navarre, and the marriages and descendants of his children.

Of Ponce's children, Ramiro was his primary heir, even claiming, without any apparent royal approval, his father's title of count, but he never returned to favour in León. Ponce's daughters, Sancha and María, usually surnamed Ponce as a patronymic (from the Latin Poncii or Pontii), married Pedro Garcés de Lerma, a Castilian, and Rodrigo Álvarez, a Galician, respectively; both were wealthy and powerful men. Sancha, by Pedro, had a son, Gonzalo Pérez, who became the abbot of Husillos in Castile. She inherited an estate at Astorga, and there is preserved a conuenientia (pact) between her and the tenants of her estate there in the archives of Carrizo. The pact stipulates that annually on Martinmas (11 November) the inhabitants should pay a rent of two solidi and a portion of produce for every parcel of land they owned. The document lists twenty-three peasant farmers and their land tenures, totalling eighty-eight solidi in cash per annum for the abbess.

On 26 February 1189, according to a document of Santa María de Sandoval, Ponce's daughters, Sancha and María, got together to divide their inheritance, which included properties in the city of León and at Oret, Ferreras, Corbillos, Molina Seca, Villarroañe, Villanueva, Matadeón, Cifuentes, and Maraña, all in the region around the city. They had also received lands in Toledo and Azaña in Castile, and at Toro on the river Duero in León's far west. They accomplished the division by drawing lots to avoid sharp disagreements.