GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 1995-09 > 0810456056


From: Nat Taylor < >
Subject: Sancha de Ayala (5K post)
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 1995 06:40:56 GMT


I would like to offer for discussion this provisional descent of SANCHA DE
AYALA from king Alfonso VI of Castile.

[Generations 7-12 are as given by Milton Rubincam, "A Critique of Spanish
Genealogy: the Ancestry of Sancha (de Ayala) Blount," in _Studies in
Genealogy and Family History in Tribute to Charles Evans on the Occasion
of His Eightieth Birthday_, ed. Lindsay L. Brook (Salt Lake City:
Association for the Promotion of Scholarship in Genealogy, Ltd.,
Occasional Publication no. 2, 1989), pp. 263-271.]

1. ALFONSO VI, king of Castile, d. 29 June 1109.

2. SANCHA, illegitimate (?) daughter of Alfonso VI of Castile; she d.
1135; m. c. 1120 to Rodrigo Gonzales de Lara, lord of Liebana, Penalva,
Quintanilla, Ventosa, Cisneros, etc., who died c. 1143. He m. 2dly
Estefania, daughter of Armengol V, count of Urgell. [Schwennicke, ES
II:57, III:132; Bernard F. Reilly, _The Kingdom of Leon-Castilla under the
Reign of Queen Urraca, 1109-1126_ (Princeton, 1982), p. 283. Let's leave
aside here the issue of the maternity of Sancha. I will not name the
Z-name.]

3. RODRIGO RODRIGUEZ DE LARA. Ricohombre. Lord of Penalva, Quintanilla,
and Traspinedo; m. NN. [Alberto Garcia Carraffa and Arturo Garcia
Carraffa, _Enciclopedia heraldica y genealogica hispano-americana_, 88
vols, (Madrid, 1919-1963) (hereinafter cited as GC with article surname
and page ref.), "Lara," p. 170, footnote. Here Sancha (gen. 4) is made
daughter of Rodrigo Rodriguez and granddaughter of Rodrigo Gonzales and
the infanta Sancha. However, in an earlier volume, at "Giron", p. 63,
Garcia Carraffa had cited Luis de Salazar y Castro (_Historia genealogica
de la casa de Lara_, 4 vols. (Madrid, 1694-7)) as showing that the Sancha
Rodriquez de Lara who m. Gonzalo Ruiz Giron was daughter, not
granddaughter, of count Rodrigo Gonzales and the infanta Sancha. However,
as the infanta died before 1135, and Rodrigo Gonzales died in 1143, it is
extremely unlikely that their daughter Sancha would marry circa 1200 and
be able to bear a daughter (Teresa) who could commence a fruitful marriage
in 1222. This would demand two generations of mothers bearing daughters
at age 45 or 50. Unfortunately, GC offers no evidence for the filiation
as given here from "Lara", p. 170.]

4. SANCHA RODRIGUEZ DE LARA, m. before 1200, Gonzalo Ruiz Giron, who died
1231; Ricohombre; Mayordomo of Castile under Alfonso VIII, Enrique I, and
Fernando III. [GC, "Giron," pp. 62-4.]

5. TERESA GONZALES GIRON, m. circa 1222, Ruy Gonzales de Ceballos, who d.
by 1236; Ricohombre, Knight of Order of Santiago (Commendator of the
commandery of Ucles). [GC, "Giron," pp. 44, 63.]

6. DIEGO GONZALES DE CEBALLOS. Fl. c. 1235-1255. First lord of Escalante;
m. Maria Ordonez. [GC, "Giron," p. 45 (pp. 45-47 trace descent from here
all the way down to 11).]

7. GONZALO DIAZ DE CEBALLOS. D. before 1298? Knight, Lord of Escalante,
Camararo Mayor of King Fernan IV (1295-1312); m. Antolina de la Hoz. [GC,
"Giron," p. 45.]

8. RUY GONZALES DE CEBALLOS. Ricohombre. Adelantado Mayor of Murcia;
Alcalde Mayor of Toledo. D. in vita patris; m. by 1275 to Maria Fernandez
de Cabiedes, heiress of Cabiedes, Valdeliga, Lamadriz, la Rivilla, etc.
[GC, "Giron," p. 45.]

9. DIEGO GUTIERREZ DE CEBALLOS. Died 8 April 1330; buried Santa Cruz de
Escalante. Attested 1298. Ricohombre, Almirante Mayor of Castile; m.
Juana Garcia Carrillo. [GC, "Giron," p. 46.]

10. ELVIRA ALVAREZ DE CEBALLOS. Died 1372. Lady of Escalante in 1364
succeeding two brothers who d.s.p.; m. Fernan Perez de Ayala, b. 1305, d.
1385; Ricohombre; Adelantado Mayor of Murcia; Merino Mayor of Guipuzcoa.
Founded Dominican monastery of Quijana; died a monk there. [GC, "Giron,"
pp. 46-7; "Salcedo," p. 203.]

11. INES DE AYALA. Died After 15 June 1395 in Toledo; m. Dma Gomez de
Guzman, lord of Casarrubios, Malpica, and Valdepusa, Alcalde Mayor of
Toledo. [GC, "Guzman," p, 171; "Toledo," p. 195.

12. SANCHA DE AYALA; married Sir Walter Blount (a probable descendant of
king Henri I of France); d. c. 1418. [Milton Rubincam, "The Spanish
Ancestry of American Colonists," _National Genealogical Society
Quarterly_ 51 (1963), 235-238.]

Sancha is an ancestress of early American colonists Anne Marbury
Hutchinson, Katherine Marbury Scott, William Wentworth, Christopher
Lawson, Gabriel and Roger Ludlow and Sarah Ludlow Carter, Lawrence and
John Washington, Governor Thomas Dudley (probably), Robert Abell, Matthew
Clarkson, Elizabeth (Marshall) Lewis, and others. Of these mentioned, all
but William Wentworth and Christopher Lawson have other descent from
Alfonso VI of Castile through the wife of King Edward I of England, so the
forgoing might be of limited interest.

I am fully aware of the limitations of Garcia Carraffa as a source (as
Rubincam pointed out) and would like to hear from anyone who can offer
either (1) additional evidence to document or disprove this line; (3)
another descent from an Iberian king; or (3) a Carolingian descent for
Sancha.

The descents from Louis the Blind of Provence to the Catalonian counts
(including Armengol V of Urgell, probably ancestral to Sancha) which
appear in Schwennicke and other places have been brought into question in
recent works on Catalonian aristocratic genealogy, most notably those of
Martin Aurell, who is quite skeptical of the various links suggested by
Szabolcs de Vajay and Armand de Fluvia based on onomastic
identifications. Any thoughts?

Nat Taylor
< >

This thread: