Gonzalo Peláez

Gonzalo Peláez (died March 1138) was the ruler of the Asturias from 1110 to 1132, during the reigns of Queen Urraca (1109–26) and her son, Alfonso VII (1126–57). He held high military posts under the latter, but in 1132 he began a five-year rebellion against Alfonso, punctuated by three brief reconciliations. He died in exile in Portugal.

Of uncertain origins, Gonzalo may have been the son of Pelayo Peláez and Mumadonna (Mayor) González. The only link is a charter of 1097 by which a certain Mummadonna cognomento domna Maiore Gundesaluiz ("Mumadonna called lady Mayor González") made a donation to the Diocese of Oviedo for the good of her soul and that of her husband, Pelayo Peláez, making reference to their son named Gonzalo. On 18 November 1118 a Gonzalo Peláez, perhaps not the same man, received lands in the Araduey valley in the province of León from Queen Urraca along with his wife Mayor Muñoz. If it is the same man he may have been Leonese rather than Asturian, as usually assumed.

Gonzalo first appears in the record in 1095, but without a noble title. By July 1110 he had received the tenencia of Asturias de Oviedo, which he held until April 1132. There is no reference to a count of Asturias after 1106, and Gonzalo was unrelated to the previous counts. He was a new man, not belonging to the high nobility and owing his rise to the king's favour. Rather than appoint a count after 1106, Alfonso preferred to appoint a castellan whose function would be primarily military, with other administrative functions left to Bishop Pelagius of Oviedo. Gonzalo and the bishop managed to get along: on 1 February 1113 Pelagius gave Gonzalo half of the town of Almunia de Candamo.

In light of his unusual position, Gonzalo was referred to in various ways in contemporary documents. In the earliest reference to his castellany, he was just cited as Gonzalo in Oveto, in Oviedo. By June 1113 he was dominante Asturias (lording it over Asturias), and in a document of December he was described as caput terra (head of the land). In May 1120 he was referred to as regnante Asturias (ruling Asturias) and Asturias presidente (presiding in Asturias), but his most common designation (after 1123 at least) was potestas in Asturias (the power in Asturias). Starting in 1115 Urraca appears to have limited Gonzalo's power. That year a certain Gonzalo Sánchez was made castellan at Tineo in the western Asturias. Between 1120 and 1125 Suero Vermúdez appears as count in Tineo, and he also held to the south, in León, thus controlling the passes of the Cordillera Cantábrica connecting the two provinces. As early as 1114 Suero was sharing jurisdiction in a lawsuit argued before Pelagius and Gonzalo.

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