Fernando Pérez de Traba

Who is Fernando Pérez de Traba?

Fernando or Fernán Pérez de Traba, also Fernão Peres de Trava in Portuguese, was a Galician nobleman and count of the then Crown of León who for a time held power over all the kingdom of Galicia. He became the lover of Countess Teresa of Portugal, through whom he attained great influence in that domain, and was the de facto ruler of the County of Portugal between 1121 and 1128. The Poema de Almería, a Latin poem celebrating one of Alfonso VII's major victories of the Reconquista, records that "if one were to see him [Fernán], one would judge him already a king."