Pedro Alfonso

This article is about the Asturian landholder. For the Jewish converso and writer, see Petrus Alphonsi.
Pulcher ut Absalon, virtute potens quasi Sanson, instructisque bonis, documenta tenet Salomonis.

"[Pedro] is handsome as Absalom, as strong as Samson, and he possesses the wisdom of Solomon."

    —Poema de Almería, vv. 117–18[1]

Pedro Alfonso or Alfónsez (Latin: Petrus Adefonsi; floruit 1126–1173)[2] was an Asturian magnate, dominating the region from 1139 until his death. He had vast landholdings in the Asturias, the region of León, and "kingdom" of Toledo, including in the cities of León and Toledo themselves, the most important cities of the realm.[3] His commercial dealings were extensive, a sign of his economic power, and he loyally served Alfonso VII and his son Ferdinand II as a military commander and diplomat from 1128 until his death.

  1. ^ Glenn Edward Lipskey, ed., The Chronicle of Alfonso the Emperor: A Translation of the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris (PhD dissertation, Northwestern University, 1972) is the translation used throughout, also of the Poema de Almería, published in the same volume.
  2. ^ Simon Barton, The Aristocracy in Twelfth-century León and Castile (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 273 n1. The first documentary record of Pedro is from December 1128 and the last dates to 23 September 1173.
  3. ^ Barton, 70 and 80.