Vimara Peres

Vímara Peres
Equestrian statue of Vímara Peres in Porto
Count of Portucale
Reign	868–873
Successor	Lucídio Vimaranes
Died	873 A Coruña, Kingdom of Galicia

Vímara Peres (Vímara Pérez in Spanish; died in Galicia, 873) was a ninth-century nobleman from the Kingdom of Asturias and the first ruler of the County of Portugal.

His father, Pedro Theón (d. after 867), sometimes called Pedro Theón of Pravia, and possibly the son of Bermudo I of Asturias, was a member of the Curia Regis of King Alfonso III and appears in January 867 confirming a royal charter jointly with other nobles, including Count Rodrigo of Castile. Pedro was actively involved in the Reconquista and was also responsible for ousting and defeating the Vikings when they invaded Galicia in 858. Besides Vímara, Pedro was also the father of Hermenegildo Pérez.

Vímara was a vassal of the King of Asturias, Alfonso III, and was sent to reconquer and secure from the Moors (Arabs and Berbers who had invaded Visigothic Hispania), in the west coastal fringe of Gallaecia, the area from the Minho River to the Douro River, including the city of Portus Cale, later Porto and Gaia, from where the name of Portugal emerged.

The Kingdom of Asturias was divided internally into several counties or royal provinces. Portus Cale was one of these asturian counties. In 868, Vímara Peres was named Count of Portugal by King Alfonso III after the reconquest of the region north of the Douro river. Later Portuguese historians viewed this event as the earliest milestone in the history of the state of Portugal, although Portugal did not achieve independence until the 12th century.