A patron of the Monastery of Guimarães,[1] he first appears in the curia regis of King Ferdinand I of León in 1059, and with the title of count for the first time in 1070 when he appears confirming a donation made by King Garcia II.
He married Goncina[2] with whom he appears on 17 February 1071 making a donation to the Monastery of Santo Antonino de Barbudo of some properties in Luivão (Lage, Vila Verde), confirming as Ego comes Nunus Menendiz et uxor mea comitissa domna Goncina ("I, Count Nuno Menéndez and my wife Countess dona Goncina").[3]
On 18 February 1071 he fought in the Battle of Pedroso,[1][4] near the Monastery of São Martinho de Tibães, and his defeat and death led the winning Garcia II to call himself King of Galicia and Portugal. The County of Portugal was then subsumed into the crowns of Galicia and León until regranted by King Alfonso VI of León and Castile a quarter-century later.
He owned properties in Nogueira, Santa Tecla, Dadim, Cerqueda, Gualtar, and Barros, which were probably confiscated after his defeat and given later by King Alfonso VI of León to his son-in-law Sisnando.[2] Although the battle of Pedroso has been mistakenly dated in January of that year, as mentioned in the Chronica Gothorum, this donation proves that the battle took place in February rather than in January.[5]
Marriage and issue
Nuno Mendes married Goncina and had at least one daughter, named Loba "Aurevelido" Nunes. Loba married Sisnando Davides, and with him had Elvira Sisnandes (whose husband Count Martim Moniz succeeded Sisnando as Count of Coimbra).[6][7][2]
Nuno Mendes could also have been the father of Count Gómez Núñez and his brother Count Fernando.[8][9][a]
Notes
^According to Portuguese sources, Count Gómez was the son of Count Nuño Velázquez. Nevertheless, Nuño Velázquez appears in a charter dated 1070 at the Monastery of Sahagún with his wife Fronilde Sánchez and his children, Alfonso, Menendo, Sancho, and Elvira Núñez with no mention of a son named Gómez.[8] Fernando Núñez also appears with his wife Mayor Rodríguez in a charter dated 29 December 1127 making a donation to Ourense Cathedral of his part in the Monastery of Santa María de Porqueira which, as he states, he had inherited from his grandmother Goncina and from his father Nuño Mídiz (perhaps Menéndez). Moreover, Gómez Núñez also appears in 1138 donating a property that he had inherited from Countess Goncina, "my father's mother" and a few years earlier, in 1126, he made another donation to the Cluny Abbey in which he mentions his brother Fernando Núñez.[10]
Mattoso, José (1981). "As famílias condais portucalenses dos séculos X e XI". A nobreza medieval portuguesa, a família e o poder (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Editorial Estampa, Lda. (Imprensa Universitaria). OCLC8242615.
Salazar y Acha, Jaime de (1989). "Los descendientes del conde Ero Fernández, fundador del Monasterio de Santa María de Ferreira de Pallares". El Museo de Pontevedra (in Spanish) (43): 67–86. ISSN0210-7791.
