t***@clearwire.net
2009-02-23 07:45:35 UTC
The parentage of Jimena Munoz, mistress of Alfonso VI of Leon and
Castile, has long been a subject of interest due to her role as mother
of his eldest children, particularly of Teresa, the self-proclaimed
Queen of Portugal. As such, she was ancestress to all of the
Portuguese royals, as well as of Alfonso IX of Leon, grandfather of
Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and through the Osorio family,
of Sancha de Ayala, who likewise has many American descendants.
The earliest widely disseminated attempt to trace her ancestry was to
make her daughter of Nuno Rodriguez, the husband of Jimena Ordonez, a
granddaughter of Vermudo II of Leon. I have not looked into the
history of this solution - it is intimately linked to the discredited
belief that Jimena Nunez (i.e. Jimena Munoz) was sister of Rodrigo
Nunez/Munoz de Guzman, founder of that family, in turn made son of
this Nuno Rodriguez. Once this age-old confusion of Nuno/Munio is
taken into account, the parents so named did exist - a count Munio
Rodriguez and wife Jimena Ordonez were historical individuals, having,
it would seem, two children, in addition to younger son Suero an elder
son, count Rodrigo Munoz, who was killed at Segrajas in 1086. In terms
of the Guzman descent, it cannot be supported, The founder of that
family was a generation younger than Jimena Munoz, who herself seems
too young to be sister of this Rodrigo Munoz. Further Rodrigo Munoz
appears to have left a sole heiress, Mayor Rodriguez, the mother in
law of Rodrigo Perez de Traba, el Velloso. (It should be added that
Munio Rodriguez remarried to Ilduara Velasquez. having daughter Elvira
Munoz, wife of Pelayo Gomez, of the Banu Gomez clan.)
The first recent work to attempt to address the issue was that of
Clemente Palencia. His work is notable for finding documentation int
he region of Ulvia, in which a Jimena Munoz, tenant, is named, along
with kin Munio Munoz and Velasquita. He proposes that Jimena is
identical to the king's mistress and was daughter of this couple.
The next serious study was that of Canal Sanchez-Pagin. He
reevaluated the starting material and concluded that she would not
have been daughter of Munio Munoz. This obscure nobleman could hardly
be the father of one called "most noble". Rather, he looked to the
families of the highest rank, and found three possible fathers named
Munio. One was the Munio Rodriguez traditionally made her father. The
second was the Count of Asturias, Munio Gonzales, while the third was
the well-documented family of count Munio Munoz and his father Munio
Rodriguez Canis. He found documentation of an "Infanta Jimena Munoz"
and concluded that this 'most noble' lady was sister of the premier
count of her time, Rodrigo Munoz, the son of Munio Gonzalez, the other
counts Munio being too old to be her father.
A third study of the issue, by Jaime de Sanchez y Acha, had been
published in a Spanish academy proceedings, but had proved difficult
to obtain. The only clue I had was that in a recent work by Canal
Sanchez-Pagin on count Gomez Gonzalez, he indicated that the count's
wife was daughter of count Rodrigo Munoz, brother of the royal
mistress, and further, that she was descended from Rodrigo Romanez
(father of Munio Rodriguez, who married Jimena Ordonez). This made me
wonder if Salazar y Acha hadn't reverted to the original descent.
Well, thanks to the FMG library, I have now seen the original Salazar
y Acha article. He fully accepts Canal's argument with regard to
Jimena's immediate parentage, concluding that she was daughter of
count Munio Gonzalez and his wife Mayor. He then concludes that she
is also the Jimena associated with Munio Munoz, but here is the twist.
He concludes that given that we have an associated Jimena, daughter of
Mayor of unknown parentage, and a Munio Munoz, husband of Velasquita
of unknown parentage, that it is likely Mayor and Velasquita are the
two siblings named in a document as daughters of Munio Rodriguez (son
of Rodrigo Romaniz) and Jimena Munoz, in turn daughter of count Munio
Munoz (the son of Munio Rodriguez Canis), thereby placing all three of
Canal's counts Munio in Jimena's pedigree. With all these Munios, it
can get confusing, so here is the AT:
1. Jimena Munoz
2. Munio Gonzalez, Count in Asturias, (c1030-aft May 1087)
3. Mayor Munoz (sister of Velasquita Munoz, the wife of Munio Munoz)
4. Gonzalo Munoz, 'conde asturiense' (c1000-aft Oct 1047)
5. Eilo Munoz
6. Munio Rodriguez, count, (c1010-aft Dec 1074)
7. Jimena Munoz
8. Munio Gonzalez, Count of Alava (c975-aft 1030)
9. (unknown)
10. Munio Rodriguez Canis, count (c960-aft Mar 1024)
11. Enderquina Froilaz, daughter of count Froila Velaz and countess
Eilo
12. Rodrigo Romaniz, count, grandson of Vermudo II, (c980-aft Dec
1028)
13. Elvira Rodriguez, daughter of count Rodrigo and Odrozia
14. Munio Munoz, count, mayordomo, (c987-aft Nov 1028), son of #10 &
11
15. Jimena Munoz, daughter of count Munio Fernandez and Jimena Froilaz
This does not come without a severe problem. In another article from
a couple of years earlier, Salazar y Acha discusses #6, Munio
Rodriguez, the son of Rodrigo Romaniz, in more detail, but gives him
two entirely different wives, Jimena Ordonez and Ilduara Velasquez.
Here he shows him as marrying Jimena Munoz. At some point between the
two articles he has changed his mind, either as to the paternity of
Munio R's wife Jimena, which Munio R was son of Rodrigo Romaniz, or
something, but does not discuss this change of mind in either article,
making it impossible to determine the reason for the change, if it was
even intended. (Note that a somewhat analogous thing happened to this
author when he speculated concerning the parentage of countess Urraca
of Castile, only to have a years-old ancestry table of his published
the next year that showed the superseded version, making it appear to
be a corrected one.)
At any rate, at least with regard to the parents of Jimena, there
seems to be consensus between these two Iberian genealogical
specialists of the period. This uniformity is, apparently, not
universal, as Luiz Mello Vaz de São Payo apparently gives different
parentage, making her daughter of a Munio Moniz, count of Bierzo, and
his wife Muniadona Moniz. I have not seen this original work, nor am I
familiar enough with this Monio Moniz (i.e. Munio Munoz) to determine
whether his is idntical to one of the above of that name or not.
taf
Canal Sánchez-Pagín, José Maria. Jimena Muñoz, Amiga de Alfonso VI.
Anuario de Estudios Medievales. 21:11-40 (1991).
Palencia, Clemente. Historia y Legendas de las Mujeres de Alfonso VI.
in Estudios Sobre Alfonso VI y la Reconquista de Toledo. 281-90
(1988).
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. Los Descendientes del Conde Ero Fernandez,
Fundador del Monasterio de Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pallares. in
Galicia en la Edad Media. 67-86 (1990).
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. Contribución al estudio del reinado de
Alfonso VI de Castilla: algunas aclaraciones sobre su política
matrimonial. Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y
Genealogía, 2:299-336 (1992-1993)
Castile, has long been a subject of interest due to her role as mother
of his eldest children, particularly of Teresa, the self-proclaimed
Queen of Portugal. As such, she was ancestress to all of the
Portuguese royals, as well as of Alfonso IX of Leon, grandfather of
Eleanor of Castile, Queen of England, and through the Osorio family,
of Sancha de Ayala, who likewise has many American descendants.
The earliest widely disseminated attempt to trace her ancestry was to
make her daughter of Nuno Rodriguez, the husband of Jimena Ordonez, a
granddaughter of Vermudo II of Leon. I have not looked into the
history of this solution - it is intimately linked to the discredited
belief that Jimena Nunez (i.e. Jimena Munoz) was sister of Rodrigo
Nunez/Munoz de Guzman, founder of that family, in turn made son of
this Nuno Rodriguez. Once this age-old confusion of Nuno/Munio is
taken into account, the parents so named did exist - a count Munio
Rodriguez and wife Jimena Ordonez were historical individuals, having,
it would seem, two children, in addition to younger son Suero an elder
son, count Rodrigo Munoz, who was killed at Segrajas in 1086. In terms
of the Guzman descent, it cannot be supported, The founder of that
family was a generation younger than Jimena Munoz, who herself seems
too young to be sister of this Rodrigo Munoz. Further Rodrigo Munoz
appears to have left a sole heiress, Mayor Rodriguez, the mother in
law of Rodrigo Perez de Traba, el Velloso. (It should be added that
Munio Rodriguez remarried to Ilduara Velasquez. having daughter Elvira
Munoz, wife of Pelayo Gomez, of the Banu Gomez clan.)
The first recent work to attempt to address the issue was that of
Clemente Palencia. His work is notable for finding documentation int
he region of Ulvia, in which a Jimena Munoz, tenant, is named, along
with kin Munio Munoz and Velasquita. He proposes that Jimena is
identical to the king's mistress and was daughter of this couple.
The next serious study was that of Canal Sanchez-Pagin. He
reevaluated the starting material and concluded that she would not
have been daughter of Munio Munoz. This obscure nobleman could hardly
be the father of one called "most noble". Rather, he looked to the
families of the highest rank, and found three possible fathers named
Munio. One was the Munio Rodriguez traditionally made her father. The
second was the Count of Asturias, Munio Gonzales, while the third was
the well-documented family of count Munio Munoz and his father Munio
Rodriguez Canis. He found documentation of an "Infanta Jimena Munoz"
and concluded that this 'most noble' lady was sister of the premier
count of her time, Rodrigo Munoz, the son of Munio Gonzalez, the other
counts Munio being too old to be her father.
A third study of the issue, by Jaime de Sanchez y Acha, had been
published in a Spanish academy proceedings, but had proved difficult
to obtain. The only clue I had was that in a recent work by Canal
Sanchez-Pagin on count Gomez Gonzalez, he indicated that the count's
wife was daughter of count Rodrigo Munoz, brother of the royal
mistress, and further, that she was descended from Rodrigo Romanez
(father of Munio Rodriguez, who married Jimena Ordonez). This made me
wonder if Salazar y Acha hadn't reverted to the original descent.
Well, thanks to the FMG library, I have now seen the original Salazar
y Acha article. He fully accepts Canal's argument with regard to
Jimena's immediate parentage, concluding that she was daughter of
count Munio Gonzalez and his wife Mayor. He then concludes that she
is also the Jimena associated with Munio Munoz, but here is the twist.
He concludes that given that we have an associated Jimena, daughter of
Mayor of unknown parentage, and a Munio Munoz, husband of Velasquita
of unknown parentage, that it is likely Mayor and Velasquita are the
two siblings named in a document as daughters of Munio Rodriguez (son
of Rodrigo Romaniz) and Jimena Munoz, in turn daughter of count Munio
Munoz (the son of Munio Rodriguez Canis), thereby placing all three of
Canal's counts Munio in Jimena's pedigree. With all these Munios, it
can get confusing, so here is the AT:
1. Jimena Munoz
2. Munio Gonzalez, Count in Asturias, (c1030-aft May 1087)
3. Mayor Munoz (sister of Velasquita Munoz, the wife of Munio Munoz)
4. Gonzalo Munoz, 'conde asturiense' (c1000-aft Oct 1047)
5. Eilo Munoz
6. Munio Rodriguez, count, (c1010-aft Dec 1074)
7. Jimena Munoz
8. Munio Gonzalez, Count of Alava (c975-aft 1030)
9. (unknown)
10. Munio Rodriguez Canis, count (c960-aft Mar 1024)
11. Enderquina Froilaz, daughter of count Froila Velaz and countess
Eilo
12. Rodrigo Romaniz, count, grandson of Vermudo II, (c980-aft Dec
1028)
13. Elvira Rodriguez, daughter of count Rodrigo and Odrozia
14. Munio Munoz, count, mayordomo, (c987-aft Nov 1028), son of #10 &
11
15. Jimena Munoz, daughter of count Munio Fernandez and Jimena Froilaz
This does not come without a severe problem. In another article from
a couple of years earlier, Salazar y Acha discusses #6, Munio
Rodriguez, the son of Rodrigo Romaniz, in more detail, but gives him
two entirely different wives, Jimena Ordonez and Ilduara Velasquez.
Here he shows him as marrying Jimena Munoz. At some point between the
two articles he has changed his mind, either as to the paternity of
Munio R's wife Jimena, which Munio R was son of Rodrigo Romaniz, or
something, but does not discuss this change of mind in either article,
making it impossible to determine the reason for the change, if it was
even intended. (Note that a somewhat analogous thing happened to this
author when he speculated concerning the parentage of countess Urraca
of Castile, only to have a years-old ancestry table of his published
the next year that showed the superseded version, making it appear to
be a corrected one.)
At any rate, at least with regard to the parents of Jimena, there
seems to be consensus between these two Iberian genealogical
specialists of the period. This uniformity is, apparently, not
universal, as Luiz Mello Vaz de São Payo apparently gives different
parentage, making her daughter of a Munio Moniz, count of Bierzo, and
his wife Muniadona Moniz. I have not seen this original work, nor am I
familiar enough with this Monio Moniz (i.e. Munio Munoz) to determine
whether his is idntical to one of the above of that name or not.
taf
Canal Sánchez-Pagín, José Maria. Jimena Muñoz, Amiga de Alfonso VI.
Anuario de Estudios Medievales. 21:11-40 (1991).
Palencia, Clemente. Historia y Legendas de las Mujeres de Alfonso VI.
in Estudios Sobre Alfonso VI y la Reconquista de Toledo. 281-90
(1988).
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. Los Descendientes del Conde Ero Fernandez,
Fundador del Monasterio de Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pallares. in
Galicia en la Edad Media. 67-86 (1990).
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de. Contribución al estudio del reinado de
Alfonso VI de Castilla: algunas aclaraciones sobre su política
matrimonial. Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y
Genealogía, 2:299-336 (1992-1993)