DIEGO RODRIGUEZ PORCELOS
DIEGO RODRIGUEZ PORCELOS
COUNT OF CASTILE SPAIN
By: Cedric Purcell, B.Arch., Santiago, Chile.
Origins of the Surname Purcell began in Castilian Spain
It is a belief of Middle Age historians that some important Visigoth Lords battled against the Moors and went ruling the lands they conquered with the authorisation of the Kings of Oviedo and Asturias with the title of Earls or Counts. Originally Earls only ruled for a certain period, after which they were replaced by others that were named by the King. Furthermost the titles were for life, and afterwards hereditary, according to the services Landlords could have rendered to the King.Castile was divided into small states owned by the Counts of Burgos. It is believed that the Lord who founded the County of Castile, withdrawing the moors of that land, was a certain "don Rodrigo" who had a son named Diego Rodriguez named Porcelos who inherited from his father the title of Earl or Count of Castile.Diego Rodriguez Porcelos. In the "Historia General de España" by Modesto Lafuente, we read: "...in Castile there was the Count Rodrigo, of unknown pedigree, and his son Diego Rodriguez Porcelos, founder of the city or fortress of Burgos." All Spanish names ended with an "ez" meaning that the person was son of, in this case Rodrigo.
The place and date of Count Porcelo’s birth are unknown, but most historians agree that his childhood took place at Amaya Patricia, a village located at 20 kms from Villadiego, Province of Burgos. It is not possible that his birth was at Amaya Patricia since Count Rodrigo, his famous father took this town and repeopled it in 860. At that time Count Diego would have been 15 or 20 years old, since he appears wining that Battle of Briviesca in 865. It is unclear why Diego Porcelos was nicknamed so. It is said that he had lands in Asturias where there existed a village named Porcelos, close to Gijón bur it is also possible that the name Porcelo comes from the latin word Porcello, small pigs, since Diego was the son of a sextuple labor. A reference to pigs who usually have six or seven piglets. Porcelos, for some, also means stormy or tempestuous, due to his vigor in battle. Furthermore, according to French historian Louis Moreri, and taken from the Purcell Family History Society web-site, there is a legend associated with the name of Diego Porcelos. … As the legend goes, sometime around 850 A.D., Paterna, the Countess of Castile was walking near her husband's castle when she was approached by a poor, beggar woman. The woman told the Countess that unless she received a donation, she would put a spoken curse onto the Countess' seven children and turn each into piglets. The rest of the legend is unclear, we can assume that the Countess did not give the poor woman any money and that is why, in his day, her first born child, Diego Rodriguez was known by the surname of Porcelos, the Castilian word for piglet….On page 204 of Lafuente’s book we can read "in 882 the Emir of Cordoba attacked and tried to surrender the important fortress of Pancorvo, to the north-west of Burgos, that was succesfully defended by the Count of Castile, who had per nickname Porcelos." On page 205 we read…after a period of peace, King Alfonso the Great entrusted Count Diego Rodriguez to build a fortress and city in the place where Burgos is today. Count Diego Rodriguez Porcelos choose a small hill to the north close to the Arlanza river to build the fortress, surrounding it with six groups of houses dominating the valley. This occurred in 884…It is a fact accepted by historians that Burgos already existed many centuries before this proclamation, and that in 864 another leader named Gundisalviz defended the existing village against the Moors. Count Diego Porcelos wasn’t the founder of Burgos, but he repeople the town and promote the definitive development of it on Second of March,
following an order of Alfonso III, The Great, King of Leon and son of Ordoño I (866–912).
As a summary of Count Porcelos biography we can say:
Appears Count Nuño Nuñez, founder of Brañosera, Province of Palencia, close to Burgos. He is Diego’s grandfather.
852 Count Rodrigo, Diego’s father begins ruling Castile La Vieja till 873.
His father Count Rodrigo repeople Amaya Patricia, capital of Castile
Count Rodrigo (Diego’s father) invest Diego Porcelos with the title of Count of Castilla Vieja.Count
Porcelos begins his plan to recover Burgos.The moors destroy Amaya, Oca, Castile Vieja and the citadel of Burgos defended by Gundisalvo (Gonzalo).
865 – 882 Period of peace. Count Porcelos endows with lands to the Monastery of San Felix de Oca at Villarcayo and River Arlanzon.
Battles of Count Porcelos at Pancorbo and Briviesca against Al Monadir
873 Count Rodrigo’s death (Diego’s father)
Count Porcelos founds Villadiego and Ubierna
882 Count Porcelos defeats Omar Ben Afsun at Pancorbo.
Count Porcelos defeats the moors at Cellorigo protecting the Citadel of Burgos and other villages.
King Alfonso orders the repopulation of Burgos by Count Porcelos
Appears Gonzalo Tellez as Count of Castile
899 Appears Gonzalo Fernández as Count of Burgos
Count Diego Porcelo’s death at the Monastery of San Felix de Oca, north east of Burgos, in a small village named Villafranca Montes de Oca. At Burgos, close to the church of San Lesmes there’s an equestrian monument representative of Count Porcelos on his horse.
Count Porcelos was married to Doña Urraca Paterna, widow of an Asturian Prince that later was King Ramiro (some authors say she was Ramiro’s sister). Their sons were:
Sulla Bella, daughter, married to Nuño Belchudes, a german prince (?), inheriting the title when Porcelos passed away. She was the mother of Nuño Rasura, grandfather of the famous Count Fernan González. Sullabella and Prince Belchudes had two sons Nuño Rasura and Gustios Gonzalez; Belchudes had a son named Gonzalvo Fernandez who is believed to be Porcelos' grandson and Governor of Burgos (but this is not clear). In any case this Gonzalvo Fernandez was the father of the great Count Fernan Gonzalez, and Gustios had per son Gonzalo Gustios, father of "The Seven Infantes de Lara ";
Fernando Díaz, married to Nuña Nuñez, daughter of Nuño Nuñez Rasura Count of Amaya. Fernando Díaz passed away in 912, and his successor was his son Gonzalo Fernández that ruled till 931;
Diego, Count of Saldaña and forefather of the Counts of Carrion;
a daughter named Asura who married Nuño Núñez, Count of Amaya:
a daughter named Mayor who married the Count Suero de Novelas; and Gustios.
The County of Castile remained for several years subordinated to the Kings of Leon becoming finally independent under King Sancho I the Fat, thanks to the bravery and strategic policies of Count Fernan Gonzalez.
The Counts that follow the independence of Castile where:
Count Fernan Gonzalez
Count Garci Fernandez, his son
Count Sancho Garcia, Garci's son
Doña Mayor, Sancho's sister who married King Sancho of Navarra.
The County of Castile changed to Kingdom and joined the one of Leon.
Sancho Count of Castile had two daughters and a son, who’s names were Mayor and Gimena the girls and Garcia the boy.
Mayor married Sancho King of Navarra
Gimena married Bermudo III King of Leon
Garcia married Sancha, sister of Bermudo III
Those marriages unified the three main Spanish Kingdoms at that time.Garcia was assassinated and so the Lordship of Castile was transferred to his sister Mayor, wife of King Sancho of Navarra. This King wanted more land, so he declared a war against his brother-in-law Bermudo III King of Leon. To end this war they signed a pact consisting in the marriage of Sancha, widow of Garcia, with Fernando second son of King Sancho. When King Sancho and his Queen Mayor passed away, the situation was as follows:
King of Navarra:Garcia eldest son of Sancho and Mayor.King of Castile: Fernando second son of Mayor who transferred this Lordship with the title of King and not as Count.
As Bermudo III died without heirs, was his sister Sancha married to Fernando King of Castile who inherited the kingdom of Leon, joining for the first time the crowns of Castile and Leon under Fernando I and his wife Sancha. I am exposing this entire story because under certain point of view you can conclude that Fernando and Sancha were descendants of Porcelos. Unfortunately I have to recognise that I couldn’t find again the name Porcelos as part of Spanish genealogy and history. In 899 Count Diego Porcelos was not between the catalogues of Castilla Vieja Counts. Some say that he was killed in 885, but the truth is that he died in 902 at the Monastery of San Felix de Oca.
Appendix: Genealogies;
Male line genealogy of Visigothic Kings from the year 418 A.D.
Theodoric I first Visigothic leader (393 – 419 )
Euric (420 - 484 )
Alaric II (484 - 507 )
Gesaleico (507 - 511 )
Amalarico ( 511 - 531 )
Tendis ( 531 - 548 )
Tendiseo ( 548 - 549 )
Agila ( 549 - 554 )
Atanagildo ( 554 - 567 )
Leovegildo ( 568 - 586 )
Recaredo I ( 586 - 601 )
Liuva II ( 601 - 603 )
Witerico ( 603 - 609 )
Gundemaro ( 609 - 612 )
Sisebuto ( 612 - 620 )
Recaredo II ( 621 )
Swinthila ( 621 - 631 )
Sisenando ( 631 - 636)
Chintila ( 636 - 640)
Tulga ( 640 - 642)
Chindasvinto ( 642 - 649)
Recesvinto ( 649 - 672)
Wamba ( 672 - 680 )
Ervigio ( 680 - 686 )
Egica ( 687 - 701 )
Witiza ( 701 709 )
Achila ( 709 – 711 )
Favila I Duke of Cantabria and father of Pelayo King of Asturias (713-734)
Favila II King of Asturias and Pelayo's son ( 737 - 739 )
Alfonso I The Catholic, King of Asturias, son of Pedro Duke of Cantabria and son in law of Don Pelayo ( 730 – 756 )
Ramiro II King of Asturias ( 931 – 950 )
Fruela I King of Asturias, son of Alfonso I the Catholic ( 759 – 768 )
Aurelio, King of Asturias ( 768 – 774 )
Silo, King of Asturias ( 774 – 783 )
Mauregato, King of Asturias ( 783 – 789 )
Bermudo I, King of Asturias ( 789 – 791 )
Alfonso II The Chaste, King of Asturias and Leon, son of Fruela I (791- 842)
Ramiro I King of Asturias, son of Bermudo ( 842 – 850 )
Ordoño I King of Asturias, son of Ramiro ( 850 – 857 )
Alfonso III The Great, King of Leon (866 – 912). He was the King that entrusted Count Porcelos to reset Burgos in 884.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Spanish Embassy of Santiago
Ministry of Tourism – Turespaña – Burgos
Historia General de España, by Modesto Lafuente
Enciclopedia Espasa – Calpe – España
Instituto Municipal de Cultura – Ayuntamiento de Burgos.
Diego Porcelos - Fundador de Burgos? By José María Codon – Burgos 1994
