Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera

"Count Ponce" (the words above the figure are Poncius comes) as he appears in the Privilegium Imperatoris of Alfonso VII. He is standing to the right of the king, whose majordomo he was at the time. His shield shows a goat (Spanish cabra), which was probably used on the earliest canting arms of the Cabrera family.

Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera (floruit 1105–1162), called Ponç Guerau (or Grau) in Catalan or Pons in Occitan,[a] was a Catalan nobleman, courtier and military leader in the kingdoms of León and Castile.

Ponce came to León in the entourage of Berenguela, daughter of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, when she married King Alfonso VII of León at Saldaña in November 1127.[1][2] Immediately after his arrival, Ponce assumed a position of some importance in the kingdom. By 1143 he held the title of count (Latin comes), the highest rank of the Leonese nobility. By 1145 he had been appointed the king's majordomo, the highest official in the realm.[3]


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  1. ^ Simon Barton, "Two Catalan Magnates in the Courts of the Kings of León-Castile: The Careers of Ponce de Cabrera and Ponce de Minerva Re-Examined", Journal of Medieval History, 18 (1992), 233–66.
  2. ^ Simon Barton, The Aristocracy in León and Castile (Cambridge: 1997), 284–85.
  3. ^ Bernard F. Reilly, The Kingdom of León-Castilla under King Alfonso VII, 1126–1157 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 163.