Fernán González of Castile

Who was Fernán González of Castile?

Fernán González was the first autonomous count of Castile, son of Gonzalo Fernández de Burgos, who had been named count of Arlanza and the Duero around the year 900, and by tradition a descendant of semi-legendary judge Nuño Rasura. His mother Muniadona was so well remembered that the later Counts of Castile would sometimes be recorded by Iberian Muslim scholars as Ibn Māma Duna.

Fernán González was a colourful character of legendary status in Iberia, and founder of the dynasty that would rule a semi-autonomous Castile, laying the foundations for its status as an independent kingdom. In the year 930, Fernán's name appears with the title of count inside the administrative organization of eastern the Kingdom of León.

Fernán González grew up in the castle of Lara, where his father had begun the process of reuniting the fractured counties of Old Castile. What had been a single county under count Rodrigo of Castile had been split after the death of the latter's son Diego Rodríguez Porcelos in 885. About 899, Gonzalo was named count of Burgos, and following the death of his kinsman Munio Núñez of Castrogeriz in about 909, Gonzalo also became count of Castile, representing a fraction of the previous county of that name. Following Gonzalo's 915 death, the counties would be held by Ferdinand Ansúrez, Gonzalo's brother Nuño Fernández, Ferdinand Ansúrez again, and Gutier Núñez, before in 931 Fernán González was made count of Castile and Burgos. The same year, Álvaro Herrameliz, count of Álava, Cerezo and Lantarón died, and Fernán succeeded him as well, thereby reuniting Rodrigo's county. He also married Álvaro's widow, Sancha Sánchez of Pamplona, the sister of the García Sánchez I of Pamplona. One of the daughters of Sancho I of Pamplona and Toda of Navarre, she had been twice widowed, having first married king Ordoño II of León late in his life as his third wife - two of her sisters, Onneca and Urraca, would marry Sancha's step-sons, Ordoño's sons Alfonso IV of León and Ramiro II of León. Following Ordoño's death in 924, she had married count Álvaro Herrameliz. Her marriage to Fernán not only allowed him to unite Castile, but reinforced political alliances across the Christian north.