Ponce de Minerva (1114/1115 – 27 July 1175) was a nobleman, courtier, governor, and general serving, at different times, the kingdoms of León and Castile. Originally from Occitania, he came as a young man to León (1127), where he was raised probably in close connection to the royal family. His public career, first as a courtier and knight in the military retinue of Alfonso VII of León and Castile, began in 1140. By later historians he was implicated in the strife between Alfonso's successors, Sancho III of Castile and Ferdinand II of León, but he was generally loyal to the latter, although from 1168 to 1173 he was in voluntary exile serving Alfonso VIII of Castile.
Ponce had a long and distinguished military career. He participated in at least twelve campaigns, more than half of them campaigns of Reconquista fought against the Moors, but also campaigns against Navarre (1140), Portugal (1141), and Castile (1162 and 1163), as well as one famous campaign against some Castilian rebels, in which he was captured. He acquired landed wealth largely through royal preferment—even in the major cities of the realm, such as León and Toledo—and an advantageous marriage—his wife was a descendant of García Sánchez III of Navarre—and he rose to hold the highest rank in the kingdom, count, and the highest civil post, (majordomo), in both Castile and León. In 1167 he founded a monastery, Santa María de Sandoval, and he was also a donor to the Order of Calatrava. In 1173 he re-populated half of the village of Azaña and granted it a fuero (charter of privileges).
Move from Occitania to León
As his toponymic surname indicates, Ponce was from the Minervois ("de Minerva" is Latin for "from Minerve") in southern France, then a part of the County of Carcassonne, one of the possessions of Raymond Berengar III, Count of Barcelona.Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 248–54.Montenegro Valentín, "Merinos y tenentes", 164–65. He may have been related to the Counts of Toulouse, but his genealogy has been disputed since the seventeenth century.The two sides of the debate are represented by P. Salazar de Mendoza, Cronico de la excelentissima casa de los Ponces de León (Toledo: 1620), and the Marqués de Mondéjar, "Memorias históricas i genealógicas de la casa de los Ponce de León", Real Academia de la Historia, Colección Salazar, B-3, f. 1r–29r. The name of either of his parents is unknown.Barton, Aristocracy in León and Castile, 286–87, contains a curriculum vitae listing Ponce's relations, titles, offices, tenancies, religious and economic transactions, with dates and primary sources. He arrived in León in November 1127 in the entourage of Berenguela of Barcelona, daughter of Raymond Berengar III, who wed Alfonso VII that month at Saldaña.This is based on a later tradition, but is plausible, cf. Reilly, King Alfonso VII, 185–86, and Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 248–54. He was probably a young man of about twelve years at the time.The age given in P. Salazar de Mendoza, Origen de las dignidades seglares de Castilla y León (Toledo: 1618), f. 39v. He may have been related to Raymond II, Bishop of Palencia (1148–83), who also hailed from Minerve and was also a protégé and perhaps a relative of Berenguela.Fernández, "Santa María de Benevívere", 34. It is likely that he was raised and educated for a time at the court of Alfonso VII's sister, the infanta Sancha Raimúndez.Serrano, Cartulario del Monasterio de Vega, 94 n. 2.
Ponce does not appear in contemporary records until 1140, but his presence in the following of the Catalan princess is established by a charter in the archives of the convent of Santa María de Carrizo. This document, dated 13 March 1207, records a pesquisa (inquest) carried out by orders of Alfonso IX to determine what was owed by the village of Quintanilla to the convent in light of a donation made by Ponce.Luengo, "Monasterio de Santa María de Carrizo", 171. It mentions how Ponce had come to León with Berenguela: When the lord emperor [Alfonso VII] brought [to León] his wife the empress, he also brought along the count Ponce de Minerva and married him to the countess Doña Estefanía, daughter of Count Ramiro, and gave him half of Carrizo, which was royal fiscal land (realengo), and he [Ponce] gave it to her as bridewealth. . . And the other half of Carrizo belonged to Count Ramiro, and he gave it to him [Ponce] with his daughter in marriage. . .Luengo, "Monasterio de Santa María de Carrizo", 171: quando domino imperatore adduxit suam coniugem imperatricem adduxit cum ea comite Poncio de Menerva et desponsauit eum cum comitissa domna Stephania, filia comite Ramiro et dedit ei medietatem de karrizo, que erat rengalengo, ut dedisset sponsam suam pro arras. . . Et alian medietaten de karrizo erat de comite Ramiro et dedit eam ad illum cum filia in casamento. Because he hailed from an Occitan-speaking region ruled by the counts of Barcelona, he is often considered a Catalan. His name, in contemporary Latin, was Pontius or Poncius, transformed in Castilian to Ponce, the form used here, or Poncio, and also transformed into Ponç (Catalan) or Pons (Occitan).Reilly, King Alfonso VII, passim, uses the form Pons de Minerva.
Marriage to Estefanía Ramírez The record of the royal pesquisa of 1207 also notes how Ponce was subsequently betrothed to Estefanía Ramírez, daughter of Ramiro Fróilaz,Luengo, "Monasterio de Santa María de Carrizo", 171, calls her the "Condesa de Armiñaque".Barton, Aristocracy in León and Castile, 50–51. and endowed by Alfonso VII with fiscal lands: half of the village of Carrizo de la Ribera and an estate at a place called Quiro, between Carrizo and Quintanilla. To this his future father-in-law added the other half of Carrizo, which had been a part of his patrimony.Barton, Aristocracy in León and Castile, 54. Carrizo included a palace (palacio), which was later given to the monastery there, and stood to the right of the "old gate" (portería vieja).Barton, Aristocracy in León and Castile, 65.
The charter provides no date for Ponce's betrothal or marriage, but a document dated 30 May 1140 records a grant given by the king's sister, Sancha Raimúndez, to Ponce on the occasion of his marriage: the village of Argavallones "at your marriage, because I nourished [i.e., raised] you".Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 249: in tuo cassamento propter quod te alui. Barton, 250, says that the document is dated 30 January 1140. This document survives only in a copy from 1716 that has clearly been altered. For instance, it anachronistically cites Martin as Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela even though he was not consecrated until 1156. Of Ponce de Minerva it says: The Count exchanged this mortal life in order to enjoy the prize of his heroic works, as was said, in the year 1212 of the Era, leaving finished the monastery of Sandoval and the greater chapel of the church, with the rest being finished after his days by Don Diego Martínez de Villamayor, his son-in-law and a benefactor of that house, where he was buried.Luengo, "Monasterio de Santa María de Carrizo", 171–72: trocó el Conde esta mortal vida, para goçar el premio de sus heroycas obras, como queda dicho, era de mil doscientos y doce, dejando acabado el monasterio de S. doval y la Capella mayor de la yglesia, porque lo demas, despues de sus dias lo acabo D. Diego Martinez de Villamayor, su hierno, y bien hechor de aquella casa, donde está sepultado. The charter is accepted as genuine by some, and as having some basis in fact by others. Ponce was very young at the time of his arrival in León is probable in light of the contours of his subsequent career. His first appearance in a court document dates to 9 September 1140, when he witnessed an act of Alfonso VII's as alférez, that is, armiger and standard-bearer of the royal mesnada (military retinue). This office was usually reserved for the scions of noble houses and other young and aspiring aristocrats.Barton, Aristocracy in León and Castile, 142–44. At the time of his advent in León in 1127 he would therefore have been placed in an aristocratic household capable of raising him, and the king's sister is known to have raised at least one other young nobleperson in her court: Urraca Rodríguez, daughter of Rodrigo González de Lara, whom she remembered in her (undated) will as "Urraca, daughter of Count Rodrigo, whom I raised".Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 249: Urrace, filie comitis Roderici, quam ego creaui. Likewise, the village of Argavallones must have been acquired by Ponce sometime before his marriage, since he gave it to his bride as her arras (bridewealth), along with all his lands at Carrizo, San Pedro del Páramo (modern San Pedro de las Dueñas), and Grulleros (Grulerius). According to a document in the Tumbo Antiguo cartulary of Carrizo, Argavallones was located near Grulleros, just west of Villaverde de Sandoval (Sot noval). It may be supposed that the forged eighteenth-century charter was designed to replace an authentic lost charter. This document aside, the earliest reference to Ponce's marriage to Estefanía is from 13 February 1146, when Alfonso VII rewarded them with a grant of land at Villamoros de Mansilla "for the service to me which you [plural] have done and are doing".Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 250: propter seruicium quod mihi fecistis et facitis. This charter is edited on pp. 265–66.
Alférez of Alfonso VII From the time of his appointment as alférez sometime between 26 June and 9 September 1140 until his replacement sometime after 19 December 1144 and before March 1145,Reilly, King Alfonso VII, 164. Though once thought to be an original, a private charter of 22 March 1145 is not reliable. Ponce de Minerva was a constant presence at the royal court and on all of Alfonso VII's military campaigns. He took part in the expedition against García Ramírez of Navarre in 1140 and that against Portugal in 1141.Recorded in the archives of Fitero and San Paio de Antealtares, respectively (cf. Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 250 n91). He definitely participated in the Siege of Coria in 1142, as recorded in the Tumbo Negro, cartulary of the Cathedral of Zamora, and he probably also accompanied the royal forces on a razzia of the environs of Córdoba and Granada in 1144. This last (obscure) campaign is mentioned in a charter issued at Toledo in November 1144 "as the emperor arrived from the fortification that he had made against Córdoba and Granada".Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates", 251: quando imperator venit de fossata quam fecit contra Corduvam et Granatam.
Ponce's rewards for these various services were extensive. There are two false documents dated to 25 January and 14 June 1141 which purport to record royal donations to Ponce. The first is the donation of Quiro, which occurred on the occasion of his betrothal according to the account of the pesquisa of 1207. The second is the donation of San Pedro del Páramo, which it is known that Ponce gave to his wife as part of her bridewealth. The above charters are classified as spurious because they name Alfonso VII as ruling in Baeza and Almería, places he did not conquer until 1147, and they list Martin, Archbishop of Santiago, as confirming. They nevertheless contain a kernel of truth. More securely datable is Alfonso's grant to Ponce the village of Villaverde de Sandoval, on the bank of the Porma near the possessions which he had given his wife at their marriage, in 1142.
Acquisition of governorships