Bermudo II of León

Bermudo or Vermudo II of León, called the Gotoso (between 948 and 953-September 999), was king of León from 985 until his death. Previously, he was proclaimed king in 981 by a group of Galician and Portuguese nobles who revolted against Ramiro III of León and crowned as such in Santiago de Compostela in 982. Since then he was at war with Ramiro III, exercising effective control over Galicia and Portugal.. With the death of Ramiro in 985, Bermudo II was left as the sole sovereign over everything in the kingdom of León.

Biography

Birth and youth

The family origins of King Bermudo have been the subject of various investigations that have reached different conclusions, especially regarding the identity of his mother. From the documents of his time and the historical chronicles, it is certain that Bermudo's father was a king named Ordoño and there is unanimity among historians when it comes to identifying this monarch with Ordoño III. Furthermore, in a donation made by Bermudo II to the monastery of Santa María de Carracedo in El Bierzo it reads: Quam auus noster domnus Ranemirus concessit Sancte Marie de Taulo. The king calls Ramiro auus. Auus can mean grandfather or ancestor, but, taking into account that in the time of Ramiro I those lands had not yet been repopulated, the king The one referred to in the donation can be none other than Ramiro II, father of Ordoño III and, therefore, grandfather of Bermudo II. Another document dated June 29, 997 also confirms the affiliation of Bermudo as the son of King Ordoño III in which Bermudo confirms to the monastery of San Vicenzo de Pombeiro the donations made by his ancestors where he mentions two amites (paternal aunts), Teresa and Elvira. Teresa Ramírez was the daughter of King Ramiro II and probably of his first wife, Velasquita de León, married to King García Sánchez I of Pamplona. Elvira was also the daughter of Ramiro II and his second wife Urraca Sánchez, both sisters of Ordoño III and paternal aunts of Bermudo II.

As for the mother, there are various theories. Pelayo, bishop of Oviedo, claimed that he was the son of a second wife of Ordoño III named Elvira. The problem is that there is no evidence that the monarch separated at any time from his wife Urraca Fernández. Urraca appears alongside Ordoño III in all documents from the beginning of the reign in 951 until the king's death in 956. Despite not agreeing with the alleged motherhood of Elvira proposed by Bishop Pelayo, Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz accepted the possibility that Bermudo may have been the illegitimate son of Ordoño III. Justo Pérez de Urbel surprised by the scant news about Bermudo's filiation in the Crónica de Sampiro in which it only states that: mortuo Ramiro, Veremudus Ordonii filius, ingressus est Legionem et accepit regnum pacifice , suggested that his mother could have been Gontrodo or Aragonta Peláez, daughters of Pelayo González (son of Gonzalo Betótez and Teresa Eriz), and Ermesinda Gutiérrez since in a diploma dated January 5, 999, Bermudo calls avus (grandparents, ancestors) to Gonzalo and Teresa, although they can also be referred to as ancestors of his first wife, Velasquita, who was a descendant of Gonzalo Betótez and Teresa Eriz. Professor Emilio Sáez Sánchez, however, considered the diploma a forgery (which Pérez de Urbel denies) and believes that Bermudo was the son of Queen Urraca Fernández, an opinion shared by Gonzalo Martínez Diez.

Although the exact place of his birth is unknown, it is assumed that he may have been born near Carracedelo, in the Bierzo region, west of the province of León, and spent his youth there. He has been called, for this reason, the Bercian king.

Coronation and civil war

Since the year 966, Ramiro III, son of Sancho I and nephew of Ordoño III, reigned in León. The king of León was, therefore, Bermudo's first cousin.

The disaffection that the Galician and Portuguese nobles had towards Sancho I did not diminish with the arrival to the throne of his son Ramiro III. This feeling only increased with the Viking raids on Galician lands in the year 968, the serious defeat before the Saracens in San Esteban de Gormaz in 975 and the devastating olive oil plants of Almanzor that devastated the entire kingdom of León since the end of the 970s. In 981 a group of nobles, led by Count Gonzalo Menéndez, rebelled against Ramiro III and proclaimed Bermudo the new sovereign. On December 22, Bermudo already appears titling himself king in a donation made to a monastery in Guimarães. If the Galician nobility supported the claimant Bermudo, the Castilian nobility supported Ramiro; Each one wanted to place a sovereign who was favorable to them on the Leonese throne.

Between the spring and summer of 982, Bermudo's supporters had already taken control of Galicia. On October 15, 982 he was crowned and anointed in Santiago de Compostela, acting from the first moment as the new king of León.

At the beginning of 983, Ramiro III's army confronted Bermudo's in Portilla or Portela de Arenas, near Antas de Ulla, in Galician lands. The result was uncertain, Bermudo remained in Galicia and Ramiro III returned to León, focusing on defending his lands from Muslim attacks. The kingdom of León was divided into two large areas of influence: the Galician-Portuguese territory supported Bermudo, while Castilla and the León territory itself remained faithful to Ramiro.

At the latest in the spring of 984, the lands of Cea and the county of Saldaña recognize Bermudo as their king. Although according to the medievalist Justo Pérez de Urbel, García Fernández, count of Castile, went over to the side of Bermudo, the also medievalist Gonzalo Martínez Díez maintains that Pérez de Urbel is based on an apocryphal document and that the Castilian count always remained faithful to King Ramiro. The war between both pretenders would not end until the death of Ramiro III in 985. He left Bermudo II as the sole sovereign of the entire kingdom of León, although by then Bermudo had already obtained military aid from Córdoba, which allowed him to subject the last rebels to his authority, the counts of Monzón and Saldaña.

Reign

After his proclamation he had to place himself under the protection of the Caliphate of Córdoba, since the pushes of the county of Castile and the internal rebellions in the kingdom made it practically impossible for him to solve so many problems himself. As a result, and although as a result of the protectorate he managed to recover Zamora, Almanzor's armies remained in the kingdom of León as occupation forces and he was not able to expel them, violently, until 987.

As a consequence, Almanzor became angry and destroyed Coimbra. Then he advanced on León, besieged it and devastated it. Bermudo II then took refuge in Zamora, a city from which he had to flee to Lugo after the persecution to which Almanzor subjected him, which caused the destruction of both cities. Not content with this, the Muslim troops conquered Gormaz and Coruña del Conde (still known as Clunia) (994), Astorga (996) and sacked Castro Bergidum (El Bierzo) and Santiago de Compostela (997). In addition, the Cordoban leader It received submission from part of the Leonese nobility, who kept their lands protected by the caliphal armies. This is what happened with the lords of the Tierra de Campos and part of the Galicians and Portuguese.

Bermudo, who had taken refuge in Galicia from Cordoban harassment and aristocratic rebellions, managed to recover León from the rebels in 990. Some of them were forgiven and regained royal favor. Bermudo's clemency was of no use, however, so that some of the Galician-Portuguese notables joined the Córdoba forces in the campaign against Santiago de Compostela.

In the year 999, the king's gout (hence his nickname) became so severe that it was impossible for him to ride and he had to be carried in a litter. That same year, on a Thursday in September, he died in the Villabuena monastery, El Bierzo, located in the province of León.

Sampiro was his notary and describes the monarch in glowing terms: «he was quite prudent, he confirmed the laws dictated by Wamba, he ordered the canonical collection to be opened and studied, he loved mercy and judgment and tried to reprove evil and choose the good». The monarch rewarded Sampiro's services, donating to him on September 5, 998 several assets, including the monastery of San Miguel de Almázcara in El Bierzo and the town of Auctolupar (Altobar de la Encomienda), properties that had been confiscated from the magnate Gonzalo Bermúdez who had rebelled against Bermudo II in the castle of Luna, appropriating the riches deposited there by the king for safekeeping.

When Bishop Pelayo, who held quite a grudge against him, resumed the chronicle compilation, he replaced those praises of Sampiro with more cruel descriptions (for example, the nickname of goutoso with which he has gone down in history).

Justo Pérez de Urbel describes Bermudo as

...the poor king tormented in life by the sword of Almanzor and in death by the avenging pen of a bishop.

Marriage and offspring

Bermudo married for the first time before 981 with Velasquita de León, who after being repudiated by the monarch between 988 and 991, retired to the monastery of San Pelayo where the widowed queen Teresa Ansúrez was abbess. They were parents of:

• Cristina Bermúdez who married the Infante Ordoño Ramírez el Ciego, son of Ramiro III de León. After enviudar he retired to the monastery of Cornellana which he had founded and where he professed as a religious, probably receiving burial in that monastery.

After repudiating his first wife, Bermudo II probably married Elvira García, daughter of the Castilian count García Fernández, at the end of November 991, with whom he had three children:

• Alfonso V de León (994-1028); who succeeded his father on the throne.
• Teresa Bermúdez (fallen on April 25, 1039). According to Bishop Pelayo, Tarasiam post mortem patris sui dedit Adefonsus in coniugio, ipsa nolente, carem pagano regi toletano pro pace. Ibn Jaldun observed that "in 993 Bermudo sent his daughter to Almanzor who made her slave and then she emancipated her and married her." Thus, according to these authors, Teresa was handed over by her father or by her brother Alfonso to Almanzor and, after being liberated after his death, returned to the kingdom of León where she professed as a religious in the monastery of San Pelayo de Oviedo in which she was buried to her death as stated in her epitaph that prays: Hic Dilecta Deo recubans Tarasia Christo dicata proles Beremundi regis et Geloire reginae uel si obiit sub die vii kalendas magii fair IIII hora mediae noctis, era MLXXVII. Modern historians doubt the veracity of these events and think that there is a confusion with one of the daughters of King Sancho Garcés II of Pamplona called Urraca or Abda that was given by his father in 983 to Almanzor since Teresa was not born until after 991.

King Bermudo had extramarital relations with several ladies, some of high lineage. According to Professor Margarita Torres, the Galician heritage of some of Bermudo's children could be due to their maternal lineage. One of the king's lovers, according to the aforementioned author, could have been Elvira Pinióliz, sister of Count Gundemaro Pinióliz and wife of Count Bermudo Vélaz, the parents of Count Oveco Bermúdez.

The children born out of wedlock were:

• Ordoño Bermúdez. He married Fronilde Peláez, daughter of Count Pelayo Rodríguez and Countess Gotina Fernández. Infante Ordoño and his wife were the parents of the Galician Ordoñez.
• Elvira Bermúdez (m. after October 1057) inherited property in Galicia and, in a donation he made in 1033 to the monastery of Santa Marta de Tera, which had inherited the village of Pozolo in the valley of Vidriales of his father, whom he named as meo patre rex domino Ueremudo. Elvira was probably the daughter of Justa cognition «Sol» who donated to the monastery of San Acisclo, after the death of Bermudo, some properties in Posadilla de la Vega that he had received from the Monarch of Leon. Elvira may have been married to Nuño García of whom he inherited goods to his death and in a donation to the monastery of San Martín de Torres in El Bierzo on October 4, 1057 he declared himself "the slave of Christ".
• Bermudo Bermúdez.
• Piniolo Bermúdez
• Sancha Bermúdez, who in 1038 held a lawsuit against the headquarters lucense, confirming the document the Count Oveco Bermúdez, who in 1042 donated the village of Cauleo, which had been of King Bermudo II and distributed after his death between his daughter Sancha and his brothers, to the headquarters of Lugo.
• Pelayo Bermudez. Confirm sale made by the monastery of Sahagún on March 21, 1006 Pelagius, filius Ueremudi regis.

Burial

He was buried in the monastery of Santa María de Carracedo, originally called San Salvador de Carracedo, which he had founded on December 27, 992, declaring the monastery free of all royal power and ordering that his body be buried there. Later, Fernando I and Sancha moved the remains to the pantheon of kings of San Isidoro de León, in the city of León, where they were placed in a stone tomb on which the following epitaph was sculpted:

H. R. REX VEREMVUDI ORDONII. ISTE IN FINE VITAE SUAE DIGNAM DEO POENITENTIAM OBTVLIT. ET IN PACE QUIEVIT. ERA MXXXVII