Suero I

Who is Suero I?

Suero I was a twelfth-century Spanish religious. He was the abbot of Santa María de Nogales before being promoted bishop of the Diocese of Coria in 1155. The diocese seems to have been vacant since 1151 and sent no bishop to either the council of Salamanca or Valladolid. It is possible that the visiting Papal legate Hyacinth ordered the king to appoint a bishop. The previous bishop, Íñigo Navarro, had also been a monk.

Coria was a poor frontier bishopric when Suero entered it. The lordship of the city had been divided equally after its reconquest in 1142 between the king, the bishop and the metropolitan. In 1157, on the death of King Alfonso VII, the diocese went to León in the division of the kingdom and thus gained another frontier, this time with Castile. In 1163 the new king, Ferdinand II, gave exclusive lordship in the city to Santiago, but in 1168 transferred it again, this time to the Knights Templar, probably for reasons of military defence. In 1166 Ferdinand conquered the cities of Alcántara and Cáceres and added them to the diocese and lordship of the bishop of Coria. These new possessions, along with all earlier acquisitions, were confirmed by Pope Alexander III at Suero's request in 1168.