Gomez Nunez

Civil wars of Urraca's reign

Portuguese historians have usually considered Gomez a brother of Alfonso Nunez, who was the eldest son of Nuno Velazquez and Fronilde Sanchez. In a charter of the monastery of Sahagun dated 1104, however, Alfonso is named alongside his siblings Menendo, Elvira, and Sancho, with no mention of a Gomez. In other sources Gomez's brother is named Fernando. In a document of 1127 this Fernando names his father as Nuno Menendez, probably a cousin of Nuno Velazquez. According to one Portuguese historian, Gomez's mother was Sancha Viegas, daughter of Egas Gomez, but she is not recorded as the wife of either Nuno Velazquez or Nuno Menendez, whose wife, who appears with her husband in a charter a few days before his death in 1071, was Goncinha (Goncina). Nuno Menendez rebelled against Garcia II of Galicia in 1071 and was defeated and killed.

Gomez married Elvira Perez, daughter of Pedro Froilaz de Traba and Mayor Rodriguez de Barcena, by 1117 at the latest. His children were Fernando and Maria, who married Fernando Yanez. This marriage alliance introduced Fernando into the highest circle of Spanish politics.

The first record of Gomez dates from March 1110, when he held the fortress of Sao Cristovao on behalf of Henry, Count of Portugal. He was still holding it the next year (1111). By April 1112 he held the office of majordomo, the highest at court, and he remained with Portuguese court even after Henry's death, until 1114. By November 1115 he held the rank of count (comes), the highest title in the kingdom, and was back in Galicia. where he swore an oath to defend Diego Gelmirez's rights under a recent treaty with the queen. In 1116 Urraca launched an attack on Gomez's Galician lands, but it was repulsed with the aid of Pedro Froilaz and Theresa, who besieged her in Sobroso.

In 1117 Gomez aided in the suppression of the revolt of the citizens of Santiago de Compostela. In 1118 he was serving Alfonso, still in opposition to his mother, as alcalde of Talavera de la Reina. That year he was with the army that he forced Alfonso the Battler out of Castile and subsequently declared Alfonso VII rex Hispaniae ("King of Spain") at Toledo. In 1121 he rejoined the other defenders of Diego Gelmirez in Compostela to reaffirm the pact of 1115.

Service to Alfonso VII

By April 1120 Gomez was at the Portuguese court again, where he remained until at least September 1125. During this period he enabled Theresa and Fernando to hold Tui and Ourense north of the Minho. In March 1126, after the Treaty of Ricobayo was signed between the Portugal rulers and the new Leonese king, Alfonso VII, Gomez and his son-in-law, along with most of the Galician nobility swore an oath of fealty to Alfonso at Zamora. It is unknown if Gomez was present at Ricobayo for the negotiations with the Portuguese, but by the resultant treaty Theresa and Fernando lost control of Tui, Ourense, and other districts north of the Minho. Later that spring, there was a rebellion in Galicia under Arias Perez, and Gomez Nunez and Diego Gelmirez were charged with putting it down. They besieged Lobeira and Arias' other castles, and forced his surrender.

When Gomez's uncle, a certain Count Fernando died sometime before 1126, half of the monastery of San Salvador de Budino (Botinio), which had belonged to their family since its foundation at an unknown date, escheated to the crown in accordance with a judicial ruling. In 1126, shortly after his succession and after Gomez's displays of loyalty, Alfonso VII donated his half of the monastery to Gomez and his brother Fernando. On 26 July the brothers—with Gomez owning three quarters—donated the whole monastery, with all the churches and lands it possessed, to the Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, a longtime ally of the Leonese monarchy. Although the charter by which Alfonso restored half of the monastery to the Nunez brothers is lost, the king confirmed the donation by a royal privilege of August 1142, at the request of Peter the Venerable, the Cluniac abbot then visiting Spain. This surviving charter records that the boundaries of the monastery's estate were surveyed by royal order at the insistence of Gomez in 1126.

Between February 1129 and March 1131 Gomez was entrusted with the tenencia (fief) of Torono in Galicia. While the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris (book I, §74) reports that he joined Rodrigo Perez de Traba in revolt against Alfonso in 1136, in support of the Portuguese and Navarrese, who contrived to invade Leon–Castile simultaneously from both sides. This is probably a mistake, conflating Gomez's actual participation in Rodrigo's revolt of c.1140 with an earlier revolt in which Rodrigo played a part.

Final rebellion and exile

In 1138 Gomez held the government of Tui, also in Galicia. He is called comes Tudensis (Count of Tui) in contemporary documents of Alfonso VII, although his countship was jurisdictional only. It is not clear how long it lasted. A document of 1151 reports a failed attempt to establish a Benedictine monastery at Barrantes in the region Tui and how the lay patrons of the new foundation were supported by the lord of the region (dominus terrae), Gomez at the time. Also in 1138 Gomez made a donation to Celanova, a large and influential Benedictine house in Galicia, and his wealth and power at the time are indicated by the presence of three clerici (clerics) at his court, serving as chaplains and secretaries.

Gomez had been a loyal supporter, though only an occasional courtier, of Alfonso VII from 1126, but sometime between 1138 and 1140 he changed his allegiance to Afonso Henriques, the son of Henry of Portugal. In 1141 Gomez supported the Portuguese invasion of Galicia and was forced into exile, taking refuge in Cluny. A partiality for Benedictine monasticism seems evident, although in 1128 Gomez had made a donation to the Knights Templar, whose rule and organisation was based on that of the Cistercians.