Nuño Álvarez de Carazo

Nuño Álvarez de Carazo (floruit 1028–1054) was a Castilian nobleman, diplomat, and warrior. Throughout his career he maintained important relations with the Kingdom of Navarre, which his lands and lordships bordered.

There were at least three persons named "Nuño Álvarez" in mid eleventh-century Castile.^[1] Nuño Álvarez de Carazo appears in sixteen documents between 1033 and 1054 with the honorific duenno or domno^[2] and two with the territorial appellation de Carazo. He was the eldest of his brothers and may have been the maternal great uncle of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, his brother Rodrigo being the father of Rodrigo Díaz's mother.^[3] Since Nuño's brother Diego and sister Mumadona held land at Carazo and Lara de los Infantes, it seems likely that Nuño's lordship in this region was based on familial estates and patrimonial lands. Carazo is not particularly near the border with Navarre, but it is probable that the land between them was sparsely populated. The lowlands near where the river Arlanza entered the Arlanzón were probably part of his lordship, and Nuño possessed properties in Peñalba and Vilviestre del Pinar halfway between Carazo and Navarre.^[4] Nuño's importance in the frontier region southeast of Burgos is apparent in the archives of the monasteries of San Pedro de Arlanza and San Pedro de Cardeña.^[5] Nuño also had properties in La Bureba, including at Ibeas de Juarros and perhaps at Oca.^[6]

In 1016 Sancho III of Navarre and Sancho García of Castile established by agreement the border between their respective realms. Sometime later, probably between 1030 and 1035,^[7] Nuño Álvarez and his neighbour across the border in Navarre, Fortún Ochoiz, re-confirmed the division and the frontier. This act, confirming only the border as it passed through the Sierra de la Demanda, is preserved in a short notice in a document from the Becerro Galicano, a cartulary of the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla.^[8] It is the only record of the division of 1016, only the surveying for which was perhaps undertaken, the hypothetical treaty never being drawn up or confirmed. It is also possible that Nuño and Fortún confirmed the old frontier in an act of rebellion, without authority from their respective lords.^[9] Nuño had other relations with Navarre after La Bureba, which was part of Castella Vetula (Old Castile), was allotted to Navarre on the division of Sancho III's realm (1035). Four times Nuño visited the court of García Sánchez III of Navarre when it visited Oña, the capital of Castella Vetula and the place of Sancho III's burial. The Navarrese scribes referred to him and the other visiting Castilians the phrase isti sunt castellani ("these are Castilians") and relegated them to the bottom of witness lists.^[10] This can be explained by his allegiance to Ferdinand I of Castile, who was often at odds with his brother García.

Nuño probably died fighting alongside his king against the king of Navarre at the Battle of Atapuerca in 1054, where his brother Fortún^[11] probably also died.^[12]

Notes

1. Reilly, 38. Peterson, 11, counts 86 mentions of that name in documents between 1028 and 1065, with 52 of these coming between 1033 and 1054. Eighteen documents are signed by more than one Nuño Álvarez, usually clearly distinguished by the use of alio ("other") to qualify one of them.
2. This honorific appears only in the most formal class of documents in mid-eleventh-century Spain, cf. Peterson, 12 n10.
3. According to Peterson, 12 n9, his brothers were, in descending order of age: Fortún (died c. 1054), Diego (who was the tenant of Oca as late as 1086), Rodrigo (died c. 1082), and Gonzalo (fl. 1032–75). He also had at least one sister named Mumadona (married to Salvador González). Chaytor, 36, has Nuño constantly at the court of Ferdinand and his son Sancho II, but Reilly, 38, knows of no charter of Sancho II's signed by a Nuño Álvarez.
4. For arguments concerning Nuño's landholdings, cf. Peterson, 13–14.
5. Peterson, 13 and n15, counts twenty appearances in twenty-six documents between the years 1037 and 1054 for Nuño at Arlanza, and fourteen out of a possible fifty-two at Cardeña.
6. The references to these properties date from 1028 to 1031 and are found in the archives of San Millán de la Cogolla. The obscure reference to ribulo de Auca may not refer to Oca. Cf. Peterson, 15 and n18.
7. The final five years of Sancho III's reign seem most likely, considering his extensive involvement in Castile at that moment (cf. Peterson, 25), and Nuño's appearance in his charters relating to La Bureba at about this time.
8. According to Martínez Díez (1998), 42, the document is authentic. It is presented here in original Latin with English translation. While in this document Nuño bears the honorific duenno, in the few other documents of San Millán in which he appears he carries the typical Navarrese honorific senior.
9. The possibility is raised by Peterson, 25. In this case, the lords would have been García Sánchez III and Ferdinand I, who were often at odds.
10. Peterson, 14.
11. Escalona Monge 2004, p. 121 n. 45, shows Fortún had two daughters and a son: María Fortúniz made a large donation to Arlanza in 1062 and in 1080 Juliana Fortúniz, married to Álvaro, son of Salvador González, donated the inheritance of her late brother, Fernando Fortúniz, at Barbadillo de Herreros to Cardeña; Juliana was widowed by 1094, when she gave her father's palace at Salas de los Infantes to San Millán.
12. Peterson, 12.

Bibliography

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• Reilly, Bernard F. 1989. The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VI, 1065–1109. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
• Sánchez de Mora, A. 2003. "La parentela de los Álvarez: un grupo gentilicio vinculado al territorio situado al sur del río Arlanzón (s. XI)". Silos. Un Milenio. Actas del Congreso Internacional sobre la abadía de Santo Domingo de Silos. Burgos, 441–55.
• Torres Sevilla, M. 2000. El Cid y otros señores de la guerra. León.