Pedro Fernández de Castro (died 1214)

Pedro Fernández de Castro "the Castilian" (1155? - August 18, 1214, Morocco) was a Castilian nobleman, son of Fernando Rodríguez de Castro and Estefanía Alfonso la Desdichada (Stephanie "The Unfortunate").
He inherited the Infantazgo de León from his parents, and was Mayordomo mayor of Fernando II of León and his son Alfonso IX of León.

Pedro Fernandez was a son of Fernando Rodríguez de Castro "Castilian", a member of the House of Castro, and Stephanie "the Unfortunate". He was the paternal grandson of Rodrigo Fernández de Castro "the Bald" and his wife Elo Alvarez. His maternal grandparents were Alfonso VII, King of Castile and León, and his mistress, the Countess Urraca Fernandez de Castro. He was the nephew of Ferdinand II of León and Sancho III of Castile, and first cousin to Alfonso VIII of Castile and Alfonso IX of León.

In 1180, his mother, Stephanie Alfonso "The Unfortunate", was murdered by his father, Fernando Rodriguez de Castro, who believed his wife was being unfaithful with another man.

After his father died in 1185, Fernandez de Castro inherited parental property, including the lordship of Trujillo, located throughout the region of Extremadura, and Infantazgo de León. On the pleading of his cousin Alfonso VIII of Castile, Fernandez de Castro gave him the lordship of Trujillo. Alfonso VIII, in turn, gave Trujillo to the Order of Santiago in 1186, along with half of his income, for the Order to populate the territories between the rivers Tajo and Guadiana. In 1187, Fernandez de Castro recorded in his will that if he died without heirs, all his castles located in the Extremadura León would become property of the Order of Santiago. In 1187, Fernandez de Castro donated the Castle Rock Falcon to the Order of Alcantara, in favor of his uncle, Fernando Diaz, while the Order of Santiago was given the castles of La Solana and Santa Cruz located in the present province of Ciudad Real.

Between the years 1185 and 1188, Fernandez de Castro remained a loyal vassal to his cousin Alfonso VIII, but in 1189, he had a falling out with Alfonso VIII and left the kingdom of Castile. He went to serve his cousin Alfonso IX of León, father of Ferdinand III of Castile. Following in the footsteps of his father, he began to ally with the Almohad at different times, which irritated his cousin, the King of Castile. His attitude in the remaining years of the twelfth century depended on the evolution of relations between the kingdoms of Castile and León, who were under the influence of the papacy and progressive military orders. Therefore, in 1191, King Alfonso IX of León married Teresa of Portugal, daughter of Sancho I of Portugal, with the ostensible purpose of an alliance against Castile. In 1191, the kingdoms of Navarre, Portugal, León and Aragon, formed the so-called League of Huesca, whose purpose was to combat the Kingdom of Castile. Meanwhile, Pope Celestine III threatened Alfonso IX of León with excommunication, after marrying his second cousin Berenguela of Castile.

Between 1192 and 1193, Fernandez de Castro lived in Castile. After suffering from a serious illness that doctors could not remedy, he was transferred to the church of San Isidoro, near Seville.

In 1194, Fernandez de Castro tried to sabotage the signing of Tordehumos and decided to leave the peninsular Christian kingdoms for Al-Andalus. He entered into an agreement with the Almohad and fought on their side at the Battle of Alarcos, in which Alfonso VIII's troops were defeated by the Muslims. Following the Battle of Alarcos, he mediated negotiations between King Alfonso VIII of Castile and King Alfonso IX of León, in the city of Toledo. After the failed meeting between the two sovereigns, Fernandez de Castro stayed in León fighting against the kingdom of Castile. During the war between Castile and León, and in order to help Castile, the Pope Celestine III excommunicated King Alfonso IX de León. Pedro Fernández de Castro and other nobles who had helped the Saracens in their fight against Castile, swore oaths of loyalty to the King of León. However, in 1197, thanks to the marriage between Alfonso IX of León and Berengaria of Castile the fighting ended between the two kingdoms, because Berengaria's dowry provided her husband a claim to Castile.

His first marriage was to Jimena Gomez. Later, he contracted a second marriage with Maria Sanchez de León. Three children were born from his first marriage:

• Álvaro Pérez de Castro "the Castilian" († 1239). He served as Mayordomo mayor and lieutenant of King Alfonso IX of León on several occasions. He also served Fernando III the Saint, who entrusted him with the possession of the strengths of Andújar and Martos and subsequently appointed him king's representative in the city of Cordoba and in the border fortresses of Andalusia. He commanded the Christian forces defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Jerez, fought in 1231. He married for the first time Aurembiaix, future Countess of Urgel and the daughter of Count Ermengol VIII of Urgell, but the marriage was annulled in 1228. He married a second time with Mencia López de Haro, future queen of Portugal, daughter of Lope Díaz de Haro II, Lord of Vizcaya, and his wife Urraca Alfonso de León, daughter of Alfonso IX of León. He died without leaving any offspring of his two marriages and was buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena, in which his father had been buried.
• Elo Perez de Castro. first marriage; Martin Sanchez de Portugal, Count of Castile and León and Galicia governor. Divorced from her first husband, remarried in 1205 with Guerau IV of Cabrera, and Cabrera Viscount of Ager, III son of Ponce de Cabrera and Marquise de Urgel. Elo The countess and her husband were the parents of, among others, the Count of Urgell Ponce. She was buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena.
• Stephanie Perez de Castro

• (Es) Ruano, Francisco and Joannes Ribadas, Casa de Cabrera en Cordoba, (Oficina Don Juan Rodriguez, calle de libreria, 1779), 377.

In 1204, Fernandez de Castro again served as Alfonso IX of León's Mayordomo mayor, and became a family in the Order of Calatrava, with his wife Jimena Gomez, and their children Álvaro Pérez de Castro "Castilian" and Elo Perez de Castro. Emblem of the Order of Calatrava, in which Pedro Fernandez de Castro became a family in 1204.

A year later, Fernandez de Castro won the Order of Salvatierra and the Hospital Martin Martinez Santa Olalla, Rancon site, half of the vineyards they owned in Aldovea, Cortes, Santa Olalla and south the term of this last, and the estates they had Pedro Sanchez and Fair in Santa Olalla, provided to devote the income of these properties to support the hospital in Santa Eulalia. In 1204 his cousin Alfonso VIII of Castile restored all property that had been confiscated in the past by the Crown.

In 1213, Fernandez de Castro donated to the Monastery of Santa María de Sobrado, Terrados Farm, north of the river Mayorga and Cea, his brother, Martin Fernandez de Castro, confirmed the donation a year later.

Pedro Fernandez de Castro died on August 18, 1214, while he was exiled in the kingdom of Morocco.

After his death in Morocco, his body was taken to the Iberian Peninsula, and subsequently taken to the kingdom of Castile, where his remains were buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena. At the same monastery were subsequently buried two of his children, Álvaro Pérez de Castro "the Castilian" died in 1239, and Elo Perez de Castro.