# Adelantado mayor of Castile

The adelantado mayor of Castile (Spanish: adelantado mayor de Castilla) was an officer in service to the Crown of Castile who was entrusted with some judicial and military powers in the Kingdom of Castile.

## History

Lamingueiro Fernández stated that since the 10th and 11th centuries, the Leonese monarchs tried to make their presence effective throughout their jurisdiction, for which reason they created the greater and lesser merinos, the tenants-in-chief, the alfoces and later, in the mid-13th-century reign of Alfonso X of Castile, the adelantados, in order to enforce their policies.
By the reign of Ferdinand III of Castile the jurisdictions of the greater and lesser merinos were already fully defined. The first were high-ranking officials of the Crown, with extensive legal-administrative powers, and with powers directly from the king. It was also Ferdinand III who appointed greater merinos for the Kingdom of Castile and later for those of León, Galicia, and Murcia.
After the death of Ferdinand III, his son and heir Alfonso X maintained the same administrative divisions that had existed during his father's reign and thus, all his territories continued to be divided into four major merindades. In 1253 the Greater Adelantado of Andalusia (Spanish: adelantado mayor de la frontera) was created for the territories bordering the Emirate of Granada. In 1258, five years later, the greater merinos of León, Castile, and Murcia were replaced by greater adelantados, and in 1263 the greater adelantado of Galicia was also named to replace its greater merino.
The famous writer and magnate Don Juan Manuel, who was the grandson of King Ferdinand III and would become the Greater Adelantado of Murcia and also of Andalusia, came to affirm in his Book of States and to his father, the Infante Manuel of Castile, that:
   Señor Infante, all of this that I say to you regarding the Adelantados, you must understand the same about the Merinos, because that is the same thing, and there is no other department, but in some lands they are called Adelantados and in others Merinos...
The Greater Adelantado of Castile would end up being inherited in the 15th century by the Padilla family, future counts of Santa Gadea. The heritability of the office caused it to become a more honorary rather than effective title, and from then on the greater adelantados gained more importance. It was an itinerant office that in 1502, due to its size, was divided into two parts: that of Campos and that of Burgos. The archive of Burgos was kept in one of the gates of the wall of Covarrubias that Philip II ordered to be built.

## List of Greater Adelantados of Castile
### Reign of Alfonso X (1252–1284)

* Pedro Núñez de Guzmán or Pedro Guillén de Guzmán (1258–1269), son of Guillén Pérez de Guzmán and María González Girón.

### Reign of Sancho IV (1284–1295)

* Diego López V de Haro (1287), Lord of Biscay, and Alférez and High Steward of Ferdinand IV of Castile. He was the son of Diego López III de Haro and Constanza de Bearne, and the brother of Count Lope Díaz III de Haro, who was also Lord of Biscay and High Steward of Sancho IV of Castile.
* Juan Fernández de Villamayor (1288–1295).

### Reign of Ferdinand IV (1295–1312)

* Juan Fernández de Villamayor (1295–1297/1301)
* Juan Rodríguez de Rojas (1298–1302). He was the greater merino of Castile in 1293. Although Juan Fernández de Villamayor appears in contemporary documents holding the post of greater adelantado of Castile between 1295 and 1301, when handing over the towns of Pedrajas and Poza de la Sal to Juan Rodríguez de Rojas in January 1298, Ferdinand IV mentions Rodríguez as the greater adelantado instead. In the ordinance of the 1301 Cortes of Burgos, Rodríguez also appears as the greater adelantado, as well as in that of the 1302 Cortes of Burgos. He was the son of Ruy Díaz de Rojas and María López de Sánsoles, and was the greater adelantado and merino of Castile, chief bailiff of the king and chief justice of the royal household.
* Garcí Fernández de Villamayor (1302–1304). He was a Castilian ricohombre, and during the minority of Alfonso XI he was one of the most prominent supporters of Infante Juan of Castile, Lord of Valencia, son of Alfonso X.
* Sancho Sánchez de Velasco (1305–1307, 1309–1311). He was the son of Fernán Sánchez de Velasco and Teresa Martínez, and Ferdinand IV gave him the valleys of Ruega and Soba together with two thousand vassals in the town of Arlanzón. He was the greater adelantado of Castile, chief justice of the royal household and greater adelantado of Andalusia. He married Sancha Carrillo, the daughter of Garcí Gómez Carrillo, chief mayor of the nobles of Castile, and Elvira Osorio.
* Fernán Ruiz de Saldaña (1308–1309, 1311), a Castilian ricohombre. Due to the support of Infante Henry of Castile the Senator, son of Ferdinand III and tutor of Ferdinand IV during his minority, and of Lord of Biscay Diego López V de Haro, he managed to get Ferdinand IV to give him the Palencian town of Saldaña around 1298 or 1299. Later, he was one of the most prominent allies of Infante Juan of Castile, Lord of Valencia throughout Ferdinand IV's reign. At the end of 1311, although other authors erroneously claim that it was in 1312, he again occupied the post of adelantado. Braulio Vázquez Campos suggested that perhaps as compensation, his predecessor Sánchez, one of Ferdinand IV's closest advisors, was named greater adelantado of Andalusia.

### Reign of Alfonso XI (1312–1350)

* Fernán Ruiz de Saldaña (1312–1313)
* Pedro González de Sandoval (1314)
* Garci Lasso de la Vega I (1315–1326)
* Juan Martínez de Leyva (1326–1331, 1334–1335)
* Unknown (1336–1349)
* Fernán Pérez Portocarrero (1350).

### Reign of Pedro I (1350–1366, 1367–1369)

* Fernán Pérez Portocarrero (1350)
* Garci Lasso de la Vega II (1350–1351)
* Juan García Manrique (1351–1352)
* Garci Fernández Manrique de Lara II (1352–1353)
* Fernán Pérez Portocarrero (1353)
* Garci Fernández Manrique de Lara II (1354 and 1355). He again held office from 1354 until November and then from April 1355.
* Pedro Ruiz de Villegas II (1354–1355). He was appointed in November 1354 and served until his assassination in April 1355.
* Diego Pérez Sarmiento (1355–1360) Medieval miniature depicting the decapitation of King Peter of Castile after his defeat at the Battle of Montiel in 1369
* Fernando Sánchez de Tovar (1360–1361)
* Garci II Fernández Manrique de Lara (1362)
* Pedro Manrique (1363–1365)
* Pedro González de Mendoza (1365-1366)
* Álvar Rodríguez de Cueto (1366)
* Rodrigo Rodríguez de Torquemada (1367).

### Reign of Enrique II (1366–1367, 1369–1379)

* Pedro Manrique (1366–1379).

### Reign of Juan I (1379–1390)

* Pedro Manrique and Diego Gómez Sarmiento (1379–1380). According to historian Francisco de Paula Cañas Gálvez, between the years 1379 and 1380 the post was held by both of them.
* Diego Gómez Manrique (1380–1385)
* Gómez Manrique (1385–1411)
* Diego Gómez de Sandoval (1411–1449)
* Unknown (1450)
* Fernando de Rojas (1451)
* Juan Pacheco (1451–1456)
* Juan de Padilla (1456–1467)
* Diego de Sandoval (1467)
* Pedro López de Padilla (1468–1471).