Pedro González de Lara

Who was Pedro González de Lara?

Pedro González de Lara was a Castilian magnate. He served Alfonso VI as a young man, and later became the lover of Alfonso's heiress, Queen Urraca. He may have joined the First Crusade in the following of Raymond IV of Toulouse, earning the nickname el Romero. At the height of his influence he was the most powerful person in the kingdom after the monarch. The proponderance of his power in Castile is attested in numerous documents between 1120 and 1127. He opposed the succession of Urraca's legitimate heir, Alfonso VII. This dispute ended with his premature death.

It was in Pedro's generation that the use of toponymics, as opposed to just patronymics, began in Spain. Pedro was the first member of his family to use the surname "de Lara", a practice continued by his descendants. A good example of Pedro's style is found in a royal charter of 1 February 1124: uenerabilis comes dominus Petrus de Lara, "the venerable count Don Pedro de Lara".