Rodrigo Muñoz

Who is Rodrigo Muñoz?

Rodrigo Muñoz, son of Count Munio González and Mayor Muñoz, was a Castilian magnate in the kingdoms of León and Castile. His tenancies were mostly in Cantabria, in the northern Castilian lands bordering the Basque country.

Rodrigo is first mentioned in June 1085, when he and his sister Jimena made a pious donation to Santa María del Puerto. In July 1090 he and his brother Gutierre judged a lawsuit between the church and a certain Martín Cídez. He married a woman named Teresa sometime before March 1103, when they completed an exchange of properties with the monastery of Santillana del Mar. As early as 1104 he was ruling Asturias de Santillana, the eastern part of Asturias, bordering northwestern Castile. Rodrigo's daughter, called Mayor or Guntroda, married Pedro Fróilaz de Traba, a powerful Galician magnate, sometime before May 1105. By September 1105 Rodrigo had been appointed a count by Alfonso VI. This was the highest rank in Castile during the twelfth century. By February 1109 Rodrigo was also ruling Liébana in the far west of Castile.

After the death of Alfonso VI, his daughter Urraca became queen.