Valladares

Valladares (or Valadares in Portuguese and Galician), has its origins in the ancient land of Valadares situated next to Melgaço, the northernmost municipality in Portugal on the south bank of the Minho River which separates Portugal and Galicia. One of the earliest Valadares recorded was the nobleman Soeiro Aires de Valadares who was a member of the curia regis of King Alfonso Henriques and appears confirming royal charters from 1169 to 1179. Because of the proximity of northern Portugal and Galicia, the early Valadares can be found on both sides of the border. The above-mentioned Soeiro Aires was the son of Aires Nunes de Valadares and Ximena Nunes, both from Galicia. Soeiro's second wife was Maria Alfonso, an illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso IX of León. Also a member of this family was Aldonça Lourenço de Valadares, the mother of Ines de Castro.

In the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, in 1212 Álvaro Fernández de Valladares is mention died fighting the Muslims. The Valladares families also aided the Catholic Monarchs of Spain in 1492, in the Reconquista in which Christian troops under orders of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella reconquered Spain and expelled the invading Muslims in the year 1492. The first member of the Valladares nobility in Galicia was Luis Sarmiento de Valladares, the first Viscount of Meira in 1669 and first Marques de Valladares in 1673, the latter title granted by King Charles II of Spain in the second half of the 17th century. The Valladares nobility also provided one third of the infantry who fought in Flanders-(Spanish Netherlands) in the latter part of the XVII century.

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