Gómez Núñez

Who is Gómez Núñez?

Gómez Núñez was a Galician and Portuguese political and military leader in the Kingdom of León. His power lay in the valley of the Minho, mainly on the north side, bounded by the Atlantic on the west and corresponding approximately with the Diocese of Tui. There, according to a contemporary source, he had "a strong site, a fence of castles and a multitude of knights and infantry."

In the civil wars of the reign of Urraca, he favoured her son, the future Alfonso VII, and is counted among the Galician leaders of the latter's cause, with Diego Gelmírez and Pedro Fróilaz de Traba. In the early 1120s, after peace had been made between Urraca and Alfonso, he was an ally of Theresa, Countess of Portugal, and her lover, Fernando Pérez. He initially supported Alfonso against Theresa's son, Afonso Henriques, but his last public act was to throw his support behind Afonso's incipient Kingdom of Portugal. He died in exile.