page_title: Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera
section_title: Prince of Zamora
hierarchical_section_title: Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera / Prince of the empire (1140–1157) / Prince of Zamora
caption_attribution_description: Español: Vista del interior de la nave de la iglesia del Monasterio de Moreruela (Zamora, España).
context_page_description: Ponce Giraldo de Cabrera, called Ponç Guerau in Catalan or Pons in Occitan, was a Catalan nobleman, courtier and military leader in the kingdoms of León and Castile.
  Ponce came to León in the entourage of Berenguela, daughter of Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona, when she married King Alfonso VII of León at Saldaña in November 1127. Immediately after his arrival, Ponce assumed a position of some importance in the kingdom. By 1143 he held the title of count, the highest rank of the Leonese nobility. By 1145 he had been appointed the king's majordomo, the highest official in the realm.
context_section_description: There is a dubious charter dated 12 February 1140 that refers to Ponce as lord of Castrotorafe and Zamora. The former he is not otherwise recorded as ruling; the latter he is known to have ruled between 6 June 1142 and 6 November 1159. There is a charter slightly earlier, dated 5 April 1142, that refers to Ponce as "Ponce, count in Zamora" (Poncius comite in Zamora), but the use of the comital title is anachronistic, as there is no other evidence he held it before June. There is a more ambitious forgery in the purported fuero of Castrotrafe, dated 2 February 1129, which cites Ponce as "ruling Zamora" (mandante Çamora) over a decade before he is otherwise known to have done so. There is no other evidence of Ponce holding Castrotorafe in lordship, but he is known to have had close contact with the town.
  The earliest clear and unambiguous reference to Ponce ruling Zamora and its district is in the list of confirmants (confirmantes) ofAlfonso's grant of the village of Fradejas to the Diocese of Zamora on 6 June 1142. This document, which refers to Ponce as "at this time prince of Zamora" (princeps eo tempore Cemore), was drawn up while Alfonso was besieging Coria and indicates that Ponce participated in that campaign. Zamora had previously been held by Osorio Martínez, the brother of Rodrigo Martínez, who had died at an earlier siege of Coria in 1138. At around the time of the second siege, Osorio became estranged from the emperor and his fiefs, which had previously been held by Rodrigo, were confiscated. Ponce benefited from his fall, for not only Zamora, but Melgar de Abajo in the Tierra de Campos and Malgrat (modern Benavente) between Zamora and León were transferred from Osorio's possession to his, by at the latest 27 April 1146 and 7 February 1148, respectively. Ponce was soon expanding his lordship in the Tierra de Campos: by 1146 he had the tenancy of Villalpando and by 1151 he had received Villafáfila.
  It is possible that Ponce received two other large tenancies in southern León at this time, Salamanca and Castrotorafe. The evidence that Ponce ever held the latter is inconclusive, but he had received that of Salamanca by 21 January 1144 at the latest and possibly at the same time as he was granted nearby Zamora. The Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, a contemporary account of Alfonso VII's reign, relates how the Salamancas were defeated four times in the years 1132–33 before "they offered tithes and their first fruits to God, and [were] favored [with] the gift of valor and prudence while waging war, [for which] reason, subsequent to their prayers, they were a constant threat to the Moors in their own land under the leadership of Count Poncio, [fighting] several battles and [winning] great victories which included great spoils, [t]he city of Salamanca [becoming] famous for its knights and infantry [and growing] very rich from the spoils of war."
  Shortly after the reconquest of Coria, but no earlier than 29 June, Ponce parted from the royal court and probably headed for Zamora. He was there when Alfonso VII visited on 5 October 1143, and gratefully bestowed on him the deserted village of Moreruela de Frades, located about thirty kilometres north of Zamora. There Ponce founded an abbey dedicated to Santa María for some Cistercian monks, probably the first of its kind in Spain. The original charter granting him the village stipulated that he should build a monastery there and "maintain and conserve" (manuteneat et conservet) it. On 28 July 1156, acting for the monks, he procured a "pact of friendship" (pactum amiciciarum) with the townsmen of Castrotorafe, and he endowed the Cistercians with more land, but there is no record of his favouring the monastery much beyond this. It was left to his kin and descendants to endow the monastery with lands throughout Spain and make it "one of the wealthiest houses in the peninsula" in the thirteenth century.
caption: The monastery of Moreruela, founded by Ponce, became one of the richest in Spain by the thirteenth century, although Ponce seems to have paid little attention to it.
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