Mendo Nunes

Mendo Nunes (Spanish: Menendo Núñez; (1020/1028 – 1050/1054) was a Count of Portugal from the family of Vímara Peres as the son of Nuno Alvites and Ilduara Mendes.

Mendo succeeded his father, who died in 1028, in the governance of the County of Portugal, most probably as a minor under the tutorship of his mother Ilduara. Less than a decade later, in 1037 Ferdinand I acceded to the throne of León after defeating and killing his brother-in-law King Vermudo III in the Battle of Tamarón. By 1050, the new king had reorganized the administration of the kingdom curtailing the power of the nobility and royal appointees. He achieved this mainly by converting counties into non-hereditary tenures and taking advantage of any opportunity that arose to appoint new governors. The king did this gradually, region by region, so as not to alienate the powerful nobility of the kingdom and, in the case of the County of Portugal, by trying not to antagonize the powerful Galician and Portuguese members of the high nobility who were related to Count Mendo Nunes who was also a first cousin of his wife, Queen Sancha of León.

During count Mendo's lifetime, the king started to appoint members of the lower nobility to administrative posts such as Gómez Ectaz, who exercised authority in the region of Guimarães, and Diego Tructesíndez who acted as a judge, both reporting directly to the monarch. This practice became more widespread after Mendo's death with the king naming members of the lower ranks of the nobility to administrative positions, with various titles, such as vicar or governor, for example, Godino Benegas attested in 1062 as governor of Portugal: Gutinus Veniegas, qui tenebat illa terra de Portugale de ille rex (Godino Veniegas as tenant-in-chief of Portugal by appointment of the king). Years later, Mendo's granddaughter, Loba, married Sisnando Davides, a Mozarab of unknown background and certainly not of noble lineage, who was appointed by King Ferdinand governor of the county of Coimbra and who never entitled himself count preferring to use the titles of alvasil (Vizier) or consul.

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