Rodrigo of Castile

Rodrigo (d.873) was the first count of Castile, reigning from about 850 to his death. Some Iberian Muslim writers refer to a brother or brother-in-law of Ordoño I, while others assign the same role to a "Ruderick" without stating a relationship, and the references have been interpreted as referring to the same man. This has been used by authors such as Fernández de Béthencourt, writing in 1897, to suggest that count Rodrigo was a son of Ramiro I of Asturias and his supposed second wife, 'Urraca Paterna' (actually just Paterna, Urraca being the wife of a later prince Ramiro) and half-brother of Ordoño, but Barrau-Dihago dismissed this interpretation for want of evidence.

He was created governor of the eastern march ("marca oriental") of the realm, which would later become the county of Castile, by Ordoño, possibly upon the latter's assumption of the crown. He took part in Ordoño's Repoblación, repopulating Amaya in 860. He was at the side of the king in many battles of the Reconquista, including the siege and sack of Albelda in 859.

In 863, the 'brother of Ordoño' fought Muslim troops, and in 865 Rodrigo was defeated magnificently at Bureba by the troops of the emir of Córdoba, resulting in the sacking of his castles and those of other noblemen in Castile, which brought to a temporary halt the process of reconquest and repopulation of the area. Between 867 and 868, he assisted in the suppression of the Alavés rebellion of the Basque magnate Eglyón. For this service he was made count of Álava. He governed that county until 870, when Vela Jiménez is recorded as count. He last appears in a document dated 18 April 873, and is said to have died 5 November of the same year, being succeeded by his son Diego Rodríguez.

His role as founding count of Castile has led to an amplification of his actual activities, with forged charters pushing his rule in the county a decade earlier than it can reliably be traced, and this process has also led to the duplication of himself and his son, in the form of an invention of earlier counts Rodrigo (supposed brother of Aurelius and Vermudo I) and Diego.

ources

*Barrau-Dihigo, L. Recherches sur l'histoire politique du royaume Asturien (718-910). "Revue Hispanique". 52: 1-360 (1921).
*Pérez de Urbel, Justo. "Los Primeros Siglos de la Reconquista (Años 711-1038)" in "España Christiana: Comienzo de la Reconquista (711-1038)", vol. 6 of "Historia de España [dirigida por Don Ramón Menéndez Pidal] " (1964), 204-210.