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106-551: The County of Monzón was a marcher county of the Kingdom of León in the tenth and eleventh centuries, during a period of renewed external threat (the Caliphate of Córdoba ) and disintegration of royal authority. The county was created by Ramiro II for Ansur Fernández in 943 and was ruled by his descendants, the Banu Ansur ( Banu Anshur ) or Ansúrez, for decades. The seat of the county

212-478: A Diego nor a Fernando, though he did have brothers Diego and Fernando Ansúrez, while the same names appear elsewhere among the Banu Gómez as younger sons of count Gómez Díaz. Men named Diego and Fernando González appear together in contemporary records, but there is no indication they were linked to Carrión and the Banu Gómez. The infantes are best viewed as literary constructs, composite characters intended to embody

318-541: A basis for the legend of Bernardo del Carpio . The first documented member of the Banu Gómez was Diego Muñoz, Count in Saldaña. Two competing theories have been proposed for his parentage. Diego's patronymic, indicating his father's name was Munio, along with the family's holding of lands around Liébana led Castilian historian Justo Pérez de Urbel to suggest that his parents were the Munio Diaz and wife Gulatrudia, who appear in

424-610: A buffer to the Christian states to the north. The Upper March ( al-Tagr al-A'la ), centered on Zaragoza , faced the eastern Marca Hispanica and the western Pyrenees , and included the Distant or Farthest March ( al-Tagr al-Aqsa ). The Middle March ( al-Tagr al-Awsat ), centred on Toledo and later Medinaceli , faced the western Pyrenees and Asturias. The Lower March ( al-Tagr al-Adna ), centred on Mérida and later Badajoz , facing León and Portugal. These too would give rise to Kingdoms,

530-414: A captivity might explain the later alliance between the Banu Gómez and Córdoba. Others dismiss this hypothesis, and instead identify Abolmundar Albo with a count Rodrigo Díaz, known to have had a son Diego. Diego Muñoz is the first well-documented member of the Banu Gómez, and it is under him that the family first are reported by Al-Andalus chroniclers. This was in reporting a rebellion launched in 932 by

636-492: A count by 1115. In 1120, he defected to Queen Urraca's son, the future king Alfonso VII of León , and was imprisoned, but he was one of the more powerful Galician counts after Alfonso succeeded his mother in 1126. Munio married Lupa Pérez de Traba daughter of count Pedro Fróilaz de Traba . Munio is last seen in 1042. He and Lupa had three daughters, Elvira, Aldonza and Teresa Muňoz, wife of Fernando Odoáriz, and sons Fernando, Pedro and Bernardo. This Pedro Muñoz never achieved

742-440: A daughter, countess Sancha Muñiz, achieved similar prominence. Following the death of her first husband, Pedro Fernández, in 1028, and subsequently that of their only daughter, Elvira, Sancha controlled significant properties. She was patron of the monastery of San Antolín, and she contributed significant funds to the construction of León Cathedral . She had two subsequent marriages, to counts Pelayo Muñiz and Rodrigo Galíndez. She

848-557: A depopulated border region. Such self-sufficient landholders would aid the counts in providing armed men in defense of the Frankish frontier . Aprisio grants (the first ones were in Septimania ) emanated directly from the Carolingian king, and they reinforced central loyalties, to counterbalance the local power exercised by powerful marcher counts. After some early setbacks, Emperor Louis

954-497: A different family member, perhaps his cousin, Fáfila Fernández or Sancho Gómez. He is last seen in 1015, and died within the next few years, the last 'great count' of the family. The possessions seem to have been dispersed among his brother, Munio Gómez, who held Liébana, having a childless marriage to a Banu Gómez kinswoman Elvira Fáfilaz, and her uncles, Munio Fernández, count in Astorga, and Diego Fernández, whose descendants would lead

1060-476: A document of Sancho III of Pamplona , which describes how he came to control Castile and Monzón. It notes that Sancho García possedit ... Castella et Monteson (possessed Castile and Monzón) "after Fernando [Ansúrez]", though the document does not mention any intervening rulers. After Sancho García's death (1017), the king of Navarre, with his mother, Jimena Fernández , and the new count of Castile, García Sánchez , with his mother, Urraca, came together to confirm

1166-535: A donation of the village of Santiago del Val in the county of Monzón to the monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas in the same county, indicating both his ability to dispose of Monzón's lands and his patronage of the church in Monzón. A charter of San Isidro for the year 990 refers to the king and the count of Castile, but not to any count of Monzón. The first sure indication that the Castilians were in control of Monzón comes from

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1272-510: A few years later (1327) it passed into the hands of the family of Bourbon . The family of Armagnac held it from 1435 to 1477, when it reverted to the Bourbons, and in 1527 it was seized by King Francis I and became part of the domains of the French crown. It was divided into Haute-Marche (i.e. "Upper Marche") and Basse-Marche (i.e. "Lower Marche"), the estates of the former being in existence until

1378-449: A forest to be eaten by wolves. They are rescued, and El Cid demands the return of their dowry, two famous battle swords, and obtains an annulment of the marriages, and sees them instead married to a prince of Navarre and a prince of Aragón. The Infantes de Carrión themselves are not historical figures. They bear a patronymic suggesting they were sons of Gonzalo Ansúrez, brother of count Pedro. However, this Gonzalo's sons included neither

1484-452: A lesser miles with armed retainers, who theoretically owed allegiance through a count to the emperor or, with less fealty , to his Carolingian and Ottonian successors. Such territory had a catlá ("castellan" or lord of the castle) in an area largely defined by a day's ride, and the region became known, like Castile at a later date, as "Catalunya". Counties in the Pyrenees that appeared in

1590-440: A loanword from Persian . See Krajina and Military Frontier . The Chinese concept of March is called Fan (藩), referring to feudatory domains and petty kingdoms on the borderlands of the empire. In their initial development during the later Zhou dynasty , the commanderies ( jùn , 郡) functioned as marches, ranking below the dukes ' and kings ' original fiefs and below the more secure and populous counties ( xiàn ). As

1696-623: A long career as purely conventional designations under the Holy Roman Empire . In modern German, "Mark" denotes a piece of land that historically was a borderland, as in the following names: From the Carolingian period onwards the name marca begins to appear in Italy, first the Marca Fermana for the mountainous part of Picenum , the Marca Camerinese for the district farther north, including

1802-467: A member of the high nobility, he seems to have no connection with the infantes . Instead, Salazar y Acha proposes that the Castilian count was the son of Ordoño Fafílaz, of the junior branch of the Banu Gómez. García Ordóñez was father of count García Garcés de Aza , and likely also was father of Fernando García de Hita , founder of the powerful House of Castro that contested control of the country with

1908-640: A military campaign against León, the army passed through Banu Gómez lands unmolested, and perhaps even launched an attack on the capitol from Gómez's county of Carrión itself, an apparent indication of a Banu Gómez/Córdoba alliance. Gómez is last seen the next year acting with his brother Osorio Díaz, and it thought to have died in 987. He was succeeded by his son, García Gómez, having further children, counts Velasco, Sancho and Munio Gómez, queen Sancha, wife of Ramiro II, and apparently Urraca, wife of Sancho García of Castile . Count García Gómez appears as count during his father's life, and came into his patrimony as

2014-452: A new marriage to the daughter of the Count of Castile, García Fernández, leading to a new rebellion headed by her kin. Her sister was wife of Gonzalo Vermúdez and mother-in-law of García, and these two, along with count Pelayo Rodríguez and a junior member of the Banu Gómez, Munio Fernández would again force Bermudo to abandon León by 992, but the next year he again was able to return and suppress

2120-626: A part of Umbria , and the Marca Anconitana for the former Pentapolis ( Ancona ). In 1080, the marca Anconitana was given in investiture to Robert Guiscard by Pope Gregory VII , to whom the Countess Matilda ceded the marches of Camerino and Fermo . In 1105, the Emperor Henry IV invested Werner with the whole territory of the three marches, under the name of the March of Ancona . It

2226-683: A punitive expedition targeting the Castilian counts in the lands around Carrión who had not turned up to fight. Among those he brought back in chains were Abolmundar Albo and his son Diego. Medievalist Margarita Torres Sevilla proposed the identification of this Diego with the future count of Saldaña, and thus Abolmundar Albo with Munio Gómez, and the use of the Arabic kunya Abu al-Mundhir ( Arabic : أبو المنذر , father of 'the warner') for this man suggests that he may have spent time in Córdoba, perhaps following capture in battle. She further suggests that such

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2332-470: A resurgence of the family late in the century. The eventual heads of the family in succession to the senior line descended from count Fernando Díaz, a younger son of Diego Muñoz and Tegridia, who obtained lands in the Tierra de Campos through a marriage to Mansuara Fáfilaz, daughter of count Fáfila Oláliz. Some of these lands around Sahagún were reclaimed from his son Diego by king Alfonso V of León following

2438-427: A separate fief about the middle of the 10th century when William III, duke of Aquitaine , gave it to one of his vassals named Boso , who took the title of count . In the 12th century it passed to the family of Lusignan , sometimes also counts of Angoulême , until the death of the childless Count Hugh in 1303, when it was seized by King Philip IV . In 1316 it was made an appanage for his youngest son Charles and

2544-457: A sole daughter, Elvira. She died without issue. The last counts of the family of the Banu Gómez were the sons and grandsons of Gómez Díaz and Teresa Peláez. Of their children, García Gómez was educated by his maternal uncles and appears frequently at the court of Alfonso VI. He was probably killed at the Battle of Uclés in 1108. Another brother, Fernando, rarely appears, and died in 1083. It

2650-453: Is ambivalent, in that his resistance to the foreign Carolingian armies is viewed as heroic, yet this is tempered by this traitorous collaboration with the Muslims. The epic appears to combine two distinct narratives, an Old French tale related to The Song of Roland (a variant related then dismissed by one of the earliest surviving versions instead makes Bernardo a nephew of Charlemagne , like

2756-403: Is appointed by the king (from 802), the appointment settles on the heirs of a strong count (Sunifred) and the appointment becomes a formality, until the position is declared hereditary (897) and then the count declares independence (by Borrell II in 985). At each stage the de facto situation precedes the de jure assertion, which merely regularizes an existing fact of life. This is feudalism in

2862-474: Is given the rank of count, but he died not long thereafter, in 1038, leaving children who were all dead without issue by 1060. His younger brother, Ansur Díaz, would be in the service of the Navarrese Count of Castile who succeeded as Ferdinand I of León . He appears as count from 1042, and died 30 September 1047, leaving sons Pedro, Diego, Gonzalo and Fernando, Pedro being born to a first wife whose identity

2968-609: Is now a part of Årjäng Municipality . In the Middle Ages the area was called Nordmarkerna and was a part of Dalsland and not of Värmland. The name of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the midlands of England was Mercia . The name "Mercia" comes from the Old English for "boundary folk", and the traditional interpretation was that the kingdom originated along the frontier between the Welsh and

3074-767: Is perhaps best known for the illustration of her murder, by a nephew, that is illustrated in the Libro de las Estampas , and for her memorial tomb in León Cathedral. Of her sibling, eldest brother Pedro Muñiz began to appear in documents in 1002. He had a single son, Nuño Pérez, apparently the nephew implicated in Sancha's murder. Other children of Munio Fernández were daughters Teresa, successively wife of Godesteo Díaz and Pedro Fróilaz, count of Bierzo, and María, as well as an additional son, Juan Muñiz. Juan in turn had sons Juan, Alfonso, Munia, wife of Osorio Osóriz, and Munio Johannes, who

3180-564: Is the family sometimes referred to as The Alfonso, descendants of nobleman Alfonso Díaz from the Tierra de Campos at the end of the 10th and early 11th century. He married an heiress of the Banu Mirel clan, and his family became major landholders in the region over the next several generations, until each of the branches ended in the male line. The heiresses they engendered would provide major landholdings to their spouses and descendants, among whom were

3286-447: Is unknown, and at least Diego to a second wife, Justa Fernández, daughter of count Fernando Flaínez . The youngest son of Diego Fernández, Gómez Díaz, likewise appears as count in 1042, and succeeded in reacquiring most of the dispersed lands once held by the senior line of the family, receiving Liébana and Carrión following the death of his brother Fernando, and wresting Saldaña from the family of Alfonso Díaz, to whom it had passed with

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3392-515: The Julian March because of its positioning and as an act of defiance against the hated Austro-Hungarian empire. Marche were repeated on a miniature level, fringing many of the small territorial states of pre- Risorgimento Italy with a ring of smaller dependencies on their borders, which represent territorial marche on a small scale. A map of the Duchy of Mantua in 1702 (Braudel 1984, fig 26) reveals

3498-510: The Old English word mearc and Frankish marka , as well as Old Norse mǫrk meaning "borderland, forest", and derived from merki "boundary, sign", denoting a borderland between two centres of power. In Old English, "mark" meant "boundary" or "sign of a boundary", and the meaning only later evolved to encompass "sign" in general, "impression" and "trace". The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia took its name from West Saxon mearc "marches", which in this instance referred explicitly to

3604-451: The Osorio , Lara , and Castro families. Likewise, the heiress of one branch, Elo Alfonso, would bring her branch's share to her husband Pedro Ansúrez, and thus contributed to the resurgence of the junior line of the Banu Gómez. The patronymic of founder Alfonso Díaz, his apparent origin in the region of Liébana, and his appearance in close proximity to the Banu Gómez in documents have led to

3710-616: The Poema del Mio Cid . He would marry Urraca Bermúdez, daughter of count Bermudo Ovéquiz , and by her had children Pedro, Rodrigo, Cristina, and Sancha, who married count Fernando Pérez de Traba . Gonzalo died between 1120 and 1124. His half-brother, count Diego Ansúrez, inherited from his mother lands in Asturias, and would be active in the Astorga region in the 1070s, before dying in the early 1080s (perhaps 1081), leaving by his wife Tezguenza Rodríguez

3816-512: The Roland of The Song ) that would be merged with a native Iberian story involving the rebellion of the counts of Saldaña, while also drawing from the 13th century internecine disputes between the Kingdoms of León and Castile . Pick points to several parallels, geographic and thematic, between this legendary tale of a count of Saldaña and the historical fractious relationship between the senior line of

3922-701: The Taifas of Zaragoza , Toledo , and Badajoz . Denmark means "the march of the Danes ". In Norse , "mark" meant "borderlands" and "forest"; in present-day Norwegian and Swedish it has acquired the meaning "ground", while in Danish it has come to mean "field" or "grassland". Markland was the Norse name of an area in North America discovered by Norwegian Vikings . The forests surrounding Norwegian cities are called "Marka" –

4028-510: The gyepű was not controlled by a Marquess. The Gyepű was a strip of land that was specially fortified or made impassable, while gyepűelve was the mostly uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land beyond it. The gyepűelve is much more comparable to modern buffer zones than traditional European marches. Portions of the gyepű were usually guarded by tribes who had joined the Hungarian nation and were granted special rights for their services at

4134-584: The 17th century. From 1470 until the Revolution the province was under the jurisdiction of the parlement of Paris. Several communes of France are named similarly: The Germanic tribes that Romans called Marcomanni , who battled the Romans in the 1st and 2nd centuries, were simply the "men of the borderlands". Marches were territorial organisations created as borderlands in the Carolingian Empire and had

4240-498: The 9th century, in addition to the County of Barcelona , included Cerdanya , Girona and Urgell . Communications were arduous, and the power centre was far away. Primitive feudal entities developed, self-sufficient and agrarian, each ruled by a small hereditary military elite. The sequence in the County of Barcelona exhibits a pattern that emerges similarly in marches everywhere: the count

4346-686: The Anglo-Saxon invaders, although P. Hunter Blair has argued an alternative interpretation that they emerged along the frontier between the Kingdom of Northumbria and the inhabitants of the River Trent valley. Latinizing the Anglo-Saxon term mearc , the border areas between England and Wales were collectively known as the Welsh Marches ( marchia Wallia ), while the native Welsh lands to the west were considered Wales Proper ( pura Wallia ). The Norman lords in

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4452-516: The Banu Gómez and Banu Ansur , supporting the deposed former-king Alfonso against his incumbent brother, Ramiro II . Though not explicitly named, the Banu Gómez leader would have been Diego Muñoz, joining the Count of Castile, Fernando Ansúrez in a raid into the Leonese plains, where they defeated the king's army, but the rebellion came to naught, as Ramiro was able to capture and blind Alfonso and other rivals. Diego had returned to loyalty by 934, when

4558-578: The Banu Gómez and the Leonese kings. The second legendary representation of the Banu Gómez builds on the historical antagonism between Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid , and the family of count Pedro Ansúrez . The Cantar de Mio Cid tells of the marriage of the two daughters of El Cid, Elvira and Sol, to the Infantes de Carrión , Diego and Fernando González. The brothers respond to the humiliating failure of their plot to assassinate one of El Cid's allies by binding and beating their wives, and abandoning them in

4664-569: The Banu Gómez are said to have joined Ramiro in supporting the new Castilian count, Fernán González , against a campaign by Abd ar-Rahman III , and in 936 Diego and apparent brother Osorio Muñoz witnessed one of Ramiro's diplomas. The Banu Gómez again appear with the Banu Ansur in 941, joining the royal accord between Ramiro II and his allies, and Abd ar-Rahman III. Diego Muñoz again rebelled. He disappears from royal diplomas from 940, and in 944 he and Fernán were imprisoned and deprived of their counties, but were released after swearing allegiance to

4770-504: The Castilian Ordoño seem to be distinct from the landholdings of the infantes , but that the earliest accounts of the family of the two infantes give them no son named Ordoño. It was only much later, in the 13th century, when chroniclers begin to assign to them a son named Ordoño, which Salazar y Acha attributes to the misreading of earlier sources. He thought that though the career of the Castilian count demonstrates he must have been

4876-527: The Duero a daughter house of Santo Domingo de Silos . It is probable that Mamblas represents the southwest extremity of the county of Monzón as inherited by Sancho García. Historian Justo Pérez de Urbel 's argument that in 985 Monzón was annexed by the Banu Gómez clan that ruled Saldaña and Carrión was based on a document of 995 that names them as the only rulers between Zamora and Castile, without specifying

4982-544: The Kingdom of Hungary and was controlled by a Count or Countess. In addition to the Carolingian Marca Hispanica , Iberia was home to several marches set up by the native states. The future kingdoms of Portugal and Castile were founded as marcher counties intended to protect the Kingdom of León from the Cordoban Emirate , to the south and east respectively. Likewise, Córdoba set up its own marches as

5088-558: The Laras during the tumultuous minority of Alfonso VIII of Castile . An indication of the power and historical impact of the Banu Gómez is seen through their roles in two medieval epics of the Iberian peninsula. The tale of Bernardo del Carpio first appears in the 13th century, and relates the saga of the son of a legendary Sancho Díaz, count of Saldaña. The father had been blinded and imprisoned over his love for, and perhaps marriage to, Jimena,

5194-426: The Leonese king's guardian, count Menendo González , would claim the title 'count of León', implying another rebellion. In 1009, the Banu Gómez would support another son of Almanzor, Sanchuelo , in an unsuccessful attempt to reinstate him, and a member of the Banu Gómez would be killed with Sanchuelo in Córdoba. Historically, this has been identified with García, yet he appears in later documents so it must have been

5300-599: The Pious ventured beyond the province of Septimania and eventually took Barcelona from the Moorish emir in 801. Thus he established a foothold in the borderland between the Franks and the Moors. The Carolingian "Hispanic Marches" ( Marca Hispanica ) became a buffer zone ruled by a number of feudal lords, among them the count of Barcelona . It had its own outlying territories, each ruled by

5406-553: The Welsh Marches were to become the new Marcher Lords . The title Earl of March is at least two distinct feudal titles : one in the northern marches, as an alternative title for the Earl of Dunbar (c. 1290 in the Peerage of Scotland ); and one, that was held by the family of Mortimer (1328 in the Peerage of England ), in the west Welsh Marches . The Scottish Marches is a term for

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5512-505: The border regions on both sides of the border between England and Scotland. From the Norman conquest of England until the reign of King James VI of Scotland , who also became King James I of England , border clashes were common and the monarchs of both countries relied on Marcher Lords to defend the frontier areas known as the Marches. They were hand-picked for their suitability for the challenges

5618-595: The borders, such as the Székelys , Pechenegs and Cumans . A ban on settlement north of Niš by the Byzantine Empire in the twelfth century helped to establish uninhabited marchland between the empire's territory and Hungary. The Hungarian gyepű originates from the Turkish yapi meaning palisade . During the 17th and 18th centuries these borderlands were called Markland in the area of Transylvania that bordered with

5724-637: The boundaries of the latter. The fourteenth-century historian Ibn Khaldun also thought Monzón to have been a territory of the Banu Gómez, but his witness is too late to be of independent value. Marches Marches gave rise to the titles marquess (masculine) or marchioness (feminine). The word "march" derives ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root * mereg- , meaning "edge, boundary". The root * mereg- produced Latin margo ("margin"), Old Irish mruig ("borderland"), Welsh bro ("region, border, valley") and Persian and Armenian marz ("borderland"). The Proto-Germanic *marko gave rise to

5830-462: The commanderies formed the front lines between the major states , however, their military strength and strategic importance were typically much greater than the counties'. Over time, however, the commanderies were eventually developed into regular provinces and then discontinued entirely during the Tang dynasty reforms. The European concept of marches applies just as well to the fief of Matsumae clan on

5936-576: The court intrigues surrounding the sons-in-law of Alfonso VI of León and Castile , and was exiled, by 1105 appearing in the County of Urgell , where as guardian of his young grandson, count Ermengol VI , he allied the county with the Kingdom of Aragón and County of Barcelona in their joint campaign against the Almoravids . He and his brother Gonzalo appear to have been deprived of their lands in León at this time. He returned to León in 1109 and for negotiating

6042-404: The daughter Elvira, who married count Fernando Bermúdez of Cea, they would be grandparents of queen Jimena Fernández, wife of García Sánchez II of Pamplona . Three sons married the daughters of counts, illustrating the social standing of the family. Diego was succeeded in the county of Saldaña by his brother Gómez Muñoz, who is seen as count in 959 and 960, and on his death, his nephew Gómez Díaz,

6148-451: The death of García Gómez. In addition to eldest son Diego, they were parents of Fáfila, Osorio and Munio. Count Fáfila Fernández was father of two known children, a daughter, Elvira, married to the last of the senior line of the family, Munio Gómez, and a poorly-documented son, Ordoño Fáfilaz. Munio Fernández would inherit the lands of his brother Osorio, and became count in Astorga, and a rebel collaborator of García Gómez. Diego Fernández

6254-543: The documentation of San Martin de Liébana (later Santo Toribio) from the year 914. Pérez de Urbel noted in particular a 929 diploma of the widowed Gulatrudia witnessed by her children, including a Diego Muñoz. However, the other named children were all daughters, conflicting with the known family of the Saldaña Diego Muñoz, which likely included two brothers. Further, Gulatrudia's son is still found in Liébana in 964, after

6360-453: The early ninth century, Charlemagne issued his new kind of land grant, the aprisio , which redisposed land belonging to the Imperial fisc in deserted areas, and included special rights and immunities that resulted in a range of independence of action. Historians interpret the aprisio both as the basis of feudalism and in economic and military terms as a mechanism to entice settlers to

6466-530: The extinction of the senior line of Banu Gómez. His status was further amplified by his marriage to Teresa Peláez, daughter of count Pelayo Fróilaz and Aldonza Ordóñez, a granddaughter of both of the rival kings, Ramiro III and Bermudo II. By her he had sons Fernando, Pelayo and García, and daughters María, Sancha, Aldonza (Eslonza) and Elvira. On his death, control of the family lands would pass to his eldest nephew, Pedro Ansúrez and his own branch would be briefly eclipsed. Pedro, son of Ansur Díaz, would reclaim

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6572-403: The good of his soul). Fernando's widow, Toda , was allowed to retain the title cometissa (countess) and govern the city of Dueñas , which was part of Monzón. The county disappears from contemporary records during its attachment to the crown, and it appears to have been incorporated into Castile after the tumultuous succession of Vermudo II in 985. The Castilian count García Fernández made

6678-478: The hypothesis that Diego's father was the Munio Gómez (Munio, son of Gómez), who held land near San Román (Santibáñez de la Peña), one of the centers of power of Diego Muñoz and his descendants. This Munio Gómez also witnessed charters of the monastery of Sahagún in 915, while count Diego Muñoz would give lands to Sahagún in 922. Following a 920 campaign of Abd-ar-Rahman III against León, king Ordoño II launched

6784-535: The independent, though socially and economically dependent arc of small territories from the principality of Castiglione in the northwest across the south to the duchy of Mirandola southeast of Mantua : the lords of Bozolo , Sabioneta , Dosolo , Guastalla , the count of Novellare . In medieval Hungary the system of gyepű and gyepűelve , effective until the mid-13th century, can be considered as marches even though in its organisation it shows major differences from Western European feudal marches. For one thing,

6890-433: The king, and he again appears as witness of royal grants, and he would be restored to his lands, appearing in 950 as Didacus Monnioz, come Saldanie (Diego Muñoz, count of Saldaña), and given a place of prominence, second only to Fernán González. He seems to have died in 951 or early 952. By his wife Tegridia, Diego had been father of sons Munio, Gómez, Osorio and Fernando Díaz, and daughters Elvira and Gontroda Díaz. Through

6996-556: The lands around Valladolid , of which Pedro served as governor. He and Eylo had sons Peter, who died as a child, and Fernando, who was a minor land tenant near Entrepeñas, while they had three daughters, Mayor, married to count Álvar Fáñez , María, married to Ermengol V, Count of Urgell , and Urraca. With his death, power in the family passed back to the family of his uncle and predecessor, Gómez Díaz, rather than Pedro's children or brother. The latter, Gonzalo Ansúrez first appeared as count in 1075 at Liébana, and he figures prominently in

7102-618: The larger landscape. Some counts aspired to the characteristically Frankish (Germanic) title " Margrave of the Hispanic March", a "margrave" being a graf ("count") of the march. The early history of Andorra provides a fairly typical career of another such march county, the only modern survivor in the Pyrenees of the Hispanic Marches. The province of France called Marche ( Occitan : la Marcha ), sometimes Marche Limousine ,

7208-689: The late 19th century, when the Ainu came under Japanese control, and Ezo was renamed Hokkaidō, and annexed to Japan. Banu G%C3%B3mez The Banu Gómez ( Beni Gómez ) were a powerful but fractious noble family living on the Castilian marches of the Kingdom of León from the 10th to the 12th centuries. They rose to prominence in the 10th century as counts in Saldaña , Carrión and Liébana , and reached their apogee when, allied with Córdoba warlord, Almanzor , their head, García Gómez , expelled king Vermudo II of León and briefly ruled there. He would reconcile with

7314-552: The latter died. He married Elvira Fróilaz, daughter of count Fruela Vela. Like his cousin, count García Gómez, he was a leader of the rebellion in 922, instigated when king Bermudo II repudiated his wife, Velasquita, to establish a new marital alliance with the counts of Castile. In alliance with Córdoba, the rebels briefly forced the king to abandon the capitol, but on his recovery of the kingdom, Bermudo deprived Munio and his co-conspirators of many of their lands. He seems to have been rehabilitated by 997, when he appears as count and

7420-423: The lines of the family that controlled Saldaña and Carrión, a branch of the family was briefly prominent in the late 10th and early 11th century is the area of Astorga, represented by count Munio Fernández. A younger son of count Fernando Díaz, he was a prominent landholder on the Tierra de Campos, due not only to lands that came from his mother, Mansuara Fáfilaz, but also having inherited from his brother Osorio when

7526-600: The marches were given the power to terminate indictments. In later years, wardens of the Irish marches took Irish tenants. Marquis , marchese and margrave ( Markgraf ) all had their origins in feudal lords who held trusted positions in the borderlands. The English title was a foreign importation from France, tested out tentatively in 1385 by Richard II , but not naturalized until the mid-15th century, and now more often spelled " marquess ". The specific subdivisions of Armenia are each called marz, մարզ (pl. "marzer, մարզեր"),

7632-501: The marches. For example, the forests surrounding Oslo are called Nordmarka , Østmarka and Vestmarka  – i.e. the northern, eastern and western marches. In Norway, there are – or have been – the counties: In Finland, mark occurs in the following placenames in Satakunta : In Värmland in Sweden , Nordmark Hundred was the frontier area near the border to Norway. Almost all of it

7738-539: The marriage of the dead king's heiress Urraca to Alfonso the Battler , he was restored to much of his land and his comital dignity in 1109 and would remain closely associated with Queen Urraca during subsequent years. To this he added Melgar de Arriba , Simancas , Cabezón and Torremormojón . He died in 1118. He had married Eylo Alfonso, of the Alfonsos of the Tierra de Campos, and they were tasked with moving settlers to

7844-458: The name of his earldom for several reasons: Welsh marches referred to several counties, whereby the title signified superiority compared to usual single county-based earldoms. Mercia was an ancient kingdom. His wife's ancestors had been Counts of La Marche and Angouleme in France. In Ireland , a hybrid system of marches existed which was condemned as barbaric at the time. The Irish marches constituted

7950-600: The new king, Bermudo II, struggled to hold onto his crown in the face of rebellious nobility in the east and attacks from the Caliphate of Córdoba to the south. The year after his father's death, García initiated the first of his rebellions, calling himself elaborately proconsul dux eninentor in a 988 document, before being suppressed in early 989. He had married Muniadomna González, daughter of count Gonzalo Vermúdez, and when Almanzor again marched on León in 990, García and Gonzalo, and García's uncle Osorio Díaz joined him. Bermudo

8056-620: The power the family previously had, becoming the most prominent Leonese nobleman of his time. He was majordomo to Alfonso VI in 1067 and first appears as count the next year. He and his brothers, Gonzalo and Fernando, are said to have accompanied Alfonso VI during his brief exile in Toledo . In 1074 was governing Santa Maria de Carrión (from which he is usually called Count of Carrión), and added San Román de Entrepeñas and probably Saldaña in 1077. In 1084 he controlled Zamora , Toro , and Tordesillas , in 1101 he added Liébana. He fell afoul of

8162-449: The privileges of Monzón and Dueñas at Husillos for the benefit of the late count's soul. (Sancho of Pamplona was married to Muniadona , García Sánchez's sister.) Monzón remained with the county of Castile until 1038, when the count of Castile, Fernando Sánchez , became king. The boundaries of the later Kingdom of Castile included the old county of Monzón. In 1067 Sancho II of Castile made the monastery of Santa María de Mamblas south of

8268-464: The rebellion. Almanzor again attacked León in 995, but this time his army also sacked Carrión in retaliation for the withdrawal of García Gómez from an agreement to supply troops to the Córdoban army. García would again be at odds with Córdoba in 1000, when he and his brother-in-law Sancho García of Castile fought the Battle of Cervera against Almanzor. There a brother, apparently count Velasco Gómez,

8374-464: The reign of Bermudo III of León . Of these, Fernando Díaz would marry Elvira Sánchez, heiress of Banu Gómez senior-line member, count Sancho Gómez, and through her apparently gained control of the family's holdings in Liébana that had been held by Sancho's widow, Toda García, who was aunt to the Pamplona queen, Muniadona of Castile . Following the death of Sancho III of Pamplona , he appears at court and

8480-474: The reign of king Ramiro III of León , the boy king who would be married to another child of Gómez, his daughter Sancha Gómez. By 977 he would be ruling in Liébana, and apparently also in Carrión, in addition to Saldaña, and the same year, he sent an embassy to Caliph Al-Hakam II at Córdoba. He likely fought in the disastrous Battle of San Esteban de Gormaz , where a coalition of Christian forces organized by Elvira

8586-464: The reign of king Alfonso VI who as tutor of the king's son was killed along with the prince at the Battle of Uclés in 1108. He is known to have been son of the Castilian count Ordoño Ordóñez, whom tradition identifies with the son of the infantes Ordoño Ramírez and Cristina Bermúdez , both children of kings of León. However, Jaime de Salazar y Acha points out that not only does the geographical sphere of

8692-566: The reported death of the count in Saldaña. Thus, contrary to the Pérez de Urbel theory, the Liébana and Saldaña men named Diego Muñoz appear to be distinct. A second theory is now more generally accepted. It is based in part on the reasoning that for the family to be called Banu Gómez (descendants of Gómez) in Al-Andalus sources, there must have been a Gómez in their immediate ancestry when Diego's 932 rebellion attracted notice in Córdoba. This led to

8798-509: The responsibilities presented. Patrick Dunbar, 8th Earl of Dunbar , a descendant of the Earls of Northumbria was recognized in the end of the 13th century to use the name March as his earldom in Scotland, otherwise known as Dunbar, Lothian, and Northumbrian border. Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March , Regent of England together with Isabella of France during the minority of her son, Edward III ,

8904-498: The royal family, but launched two subsequent rebellions. On his death, the senior line of the family was eclipsed, but a younger branch would return to prominence, producing Pedro Ansúrez , one of the premier noblemen under king Alfonso VI and queen Urraca in the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The family would be portrayed in the Cantar de Mio Cid as rivals and antagonists of the hero, El Cid , and their rebellions would serve as

9010-521: The sister of king Alfonso II of Asturias . Their son, Bernardo is raised by Alfonso as heir, but his attempts to get the king to release his father come to naught, and he eventually turns to rebellion and revenge. At Roncevaux he defeats a Carolingian army sent to support the Asturian monarch in exchange for Alfonso naming the Frankish king his successor. Bernardo forms an alliance with the Moors to attack León and Astorga . The presentation of Bernardo

9116-412: The son of Diego, followed. Gómez Díaz first appears with his parents in 940, and in 946 he married Muniadomna, daughter of his father's ally, Fernán González of Castile. Like his father, he would be a close ally of the counts of Castile, and would marry two of his children to the children of count García Fernández of Castile . He likewise allied himself with the regent, Elvira Ramírez of León , during

9222-559: The southern tip of Hokkaidō which was at Japan's northern border with the Ainu people of Hokkaidō , known as Ezo at the time. In 1590, this land was granted to the Kakizaki clan, who took the name Matsumae from then on. The Lords of Matsumae, as they are sometimes called, were exempt from owing rice to the shōgun in tribute, and from the sankin-kōtai system established by Tokugawa Ieyasu , under which most lords ( daimyōs ) had to spend half

9328-459: The status of count, and seems mostly have been closely tied to his property at Aranga. He married Teresa Rodríguez, and had children identified in a genealogy of the patrons of Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pallares. These were a son García, otherwise unknown, and a daughter Aldonza, whose marriage to Rodrigo Fernández de Toroño, alférez to the king, produced heiresses who married Gonzalo Rodríguez Girón and Martín Gómez de Silva. In addition to

9434-432: The supposition that he represented another son of the first Banu Gómez count, Diego Muñoz. However, he does not appear among the listed children of Diego and Tegridia in any charter, and he lived to 1024, more than 70 years after Diego's death in the early 950s, making a father-son relationship extremely unlikely. The second family proposed to be descended from the Banu Gómez is that of count García Ordóñez , prominent in

9540-510: The territory between English and Irish-dominated lands, which appeared as soon as the English did and were called by King John to be fortified. By the 14th century, they had become defined as the land between The Pale and the rest of Ireland. Local Anglo-Irish and Gaelic chieftains who acted as powerful spokespeople were recognised by the Crown and given a degree of independence. Uniquely, the keepers of

9646-683: The territory's position on the Anglo-Saxon frontier with the Romano-British to the west. During the Frankish Carolingian dynasty , usage of the word spread throughout Europe. The name "Denmark" preserves the Old Norse cognates merki ("boundary") mǫrk ("wood", "forest") up to the present. Following the Anschluss , the Nazi German government revived the old name "Ostmark" for Austria. In

9752-407: The west by Poitou. It embraced the greater part of the modern département of Creuse , a considerable part of the northern Haute-Vienne , and a fragment of Indre , up to Saint-Benoît-du-Sault . Its area was about 1,900 square miles (4,900 km ) its capital was Charroux and later Guéret , and among its other principal towns were Dorat , Bellac and Confolens . Marche first appeared as

9858-642: The year at court (in the capital of Edo ). By guarding the border, rather than conquering or colonizing Ezo, the Matsumae, in essence, made the majority of the island an Ainu reservation. This also meant that Ezo, and the Kurile Islands beyond, were left essentially open to Russian colonization. However, the Russians never did colonize Ezo, and the marches were officially eliminated during the Meiji Restoration in

9964-477: Was Pelayo Gómez who would be the next family head. He married Elvira Muñoz, half-sister of count Rodrigo Muñoz , giving him a new power-base in Galicia, including an interest on the monastery of Santa Maria de Ferreira de Pallares. He died in 1101, and was interred at San Zoilo de Carrión , where his wife, children and grandchildren would also be buried. Two known sons became counts. Munio and Gómez Peláez. Gómez

10070-402: Was a count under queen Urraca, in the 1110s, with interest in the Tierra de Campos. He died in 1118, having married Mayor García, daughter of count García Ordóñez and granddaughter of king García Sánchez III of Pamplona , having children García, Pelayo, Diego, Urraca, and Teresa. Munio Peláez first appears in the late years of Alfonso VI, in 1105. He received Monterroso in 1112, and was

10176-480: Was a relatively minor nobleman under Alfonso V. His wife Marina is thought to have been a descendant of the Banu Ansur, Counts of Monzón : they named a younger son Ansur, and appear to have split the Banu Ansur lands with the Counts of Castile. He died in 1029, leaving three sons, Fernando, Ansur and Gómez. These would all be members of the pro-Navarre faction of the Leonese nobility, and are absent from court during most of

10282-591: Was a usurper who had deposed, and allegedly arranged the murder of, King Edward II. He was created an earl in September 1328 at the height of his de facto rule. His wife was Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville , whose mother, Jeanne of Lusignan was one of the heiresses of the French Counts of La Marche and Angouleme . His family, Mortimer Lords of Wigmore , had been border lords and leaders of defenders of Welsh marches for centuries. He selected March as

10388-503: Was afterwards once more recovered by the Church and governed by papal legates as part of the Papal States . The Marche became part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. After Italian unification in the 1860s, Austria-Hungary still controlled territory Italian nationalists still claimed as part of Italy . One of these territories was Austrian Littoral , which Italian nationalists began to call

10494-540: Was exercising judicial authority in the region of Astorga, he also had acquired rights in Cimanes de la Vega . He would hold a more prestigious position under Bermudo's successor, being count of Astorga and continually appearing among the closest circle of nobles around the king. The record is silent regarding whether he joined his cousin in his later rebellion against Alfonso V, and he only appears periodically in later years, dying between 1013 and 1016. Of his children, only

10600-400: Was father of Pedro Muñiz and Elsonza, wife of Pedro Ovéquez, in whose descendants the inheritance of this branch seems to have been vested. In addition to the well characterized branches of the family, two other prominent families in kingdom of León have been suggested to be branches of the Banu Gómez, though in neither case has the identification been universally accepted. The first of these

10706-450: Was forced to flee to Galicia. García would govern the eastern part of the kingdom, including the eponymous capitol, on Córdoba's behalf, referring to himself as 'ruling in León' in 990 ( imperantem Garceani Gomiz in Legione ). However, by mid-year the king regained the capitol and forced García to take refuge around Liébana. In 991, the king divorced his Galician wife, Velasquita, in favor of

10812-428: Was his son Fernando , who had five brothers. All five appear to have predeceased him and when he died he had no sons. His successor was his sister, Teresa Ansúrez , and, through her, her son, king Ramiro III of León . The king immediately travelled to Santa María de Fusiellos , the chief religious centre of the county, and endowed it with the villages of San Julián and Abandella in order to secure local support (and for

10918-579: Was initially at the castle of Curiel and later at Monteson ; to its east the river Pisuerga served as a border with the County of Castile . The County of Monzón straddled both banks of the Duero : south of the river its territories comprised Peñafiel or Sacramenia , north of the river it extended to the Cantabrian Mountains and included the populations of Redondos , Mudá , Rueda de Pisuerga , and Salinas de Pisuerga . Ansur's successor as count

11024-462: Was killed. The deaths of Bermudo in 1000 and Almanzor in 1002 changed the political landscape, and the Banu Gómez were, at first, on friendly terms with the new child-monarch in León, and García, along with his brother count Sancho Gómez and uncle count Fernando Díaz signed a treaty with Almanzor's son Al-Muzzafar that included an agreement to supply troops. In 1005, García would incorporate Cea and Grajal into his territories, and amidst conflict with

11130-509: Was originally a small border district between the Duchy of Aquitaine and the domains of the Frankish kings in central France, partly of Limousin and partly of Poitou . Its area was increased during the 13th century and remained the same until the French Revolution . Marche was bounded on the north by Berry , on the east by Bourbonnais and Auvergne ; on the south by Limousin itself and on

11236-558: Was soundly defeated, a loss that led the Galician nobility to elevate a competitor for the throne, Ramiro's cousin Bermudo Ordóñez . The Banu Gómez remained allies of Ramiro, controlling armies from their own lands and the Tierra de Campos. As such, Gómez found himself excluded from court when in 985 the Galician candidate proved successful, supplanting Ramiro and taking the crown of León as Bermudo II. The next year, when Almanzor launched

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