Nuño Álvarez de Carazo

Who was Nuño Álvarez de Carazo?

Nuño Álvarez de Carazo was a Castilian nobleman, diplomat, and warrior. Throughout his career he maintained important relations with the Kingdom of Navarre, which his lands and lordships bordered.

There were at least three persons named "Nuño Álvarez" in mid eleventh-century Castile. Nuño Álvarez de Carazo appears in sixteen documents between 1033 and 1054 with the honorific duenno or domno and two with the territorial appellation de Carazo. He was the eldest of his brothers and may have been the maternal great uncle of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, his brother Rodrigo being the father of Rodrigo Díaz's mother. Since Nuño's brother Diego and sister Mamadona held land at Carazo and Lara de los Infantes, it seems likely that Nuño's lordship in this region was based on familial estates and patrimonial lands. Carazo is not particularly near the border with Navarre, but it is probable that the land between them was sparsely populated. The lowlands near where the river Arlanza entered the Arlanzón were probably part of his lordship, and Nuño possessed properties in Peñalba and Vilviestre del Pinar halfway between Carazo and Navarre. Nuño's importance in the frontier region southeast of Burgos is apparent in the archives of the monasteries of San Pedro de Arlanza and San Pedro de Cardeña. Nuño also had properties in La Bureba, including at Ibeas de Juarros and perhaps at Oca.