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Pedro Alfonso de León

Leonese noble and 14th Grand Master of the Order of Santiago

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 1, 2024
Entity authorityQ7159434 ↗
Source-derived summary

Pedro Alfonso de León (c. 1196 – 1226) was a Leonese Spanish noble of the House of Burgundy. He was, according to many historians, the illegitimate son of Alfonso IX of León. He was elected Grand Master of the Order of Santiago in 1225, succeeding Fernán Pérez Chacín in the role.

Biography

His exact date of birth is not known, but is estimated to be around 1196. There is also controversy amongst historians surrounding his true identity. Some chroniclers hold that he was the illegitimate son of Alfonso IX of León and an unknown woman, while others maintain that his mother was Aldonza Martínez de Silva, daughter of Martín Gómez de Silva and his wife Urraca Ruiz de Cabrera. Still other historians have cast doubt on Pedro Alfonso's status as Alfonso IX's illegitimate son, that he existed at all or that he was a Grand Master of the Order of Santiago.

Marriage and descendancy

The name of his wife is not known, and historians disagree over whether Pedro Alfonso had one or two children. His children were as follows.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pedro Alfonso de León” is leonese noble and 14th Grand Master of the Order of Santiago. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pedro, Alfonso and León, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1196, 1226, 1225—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1196-01-01. For this dossier, Pedro, Alfonso and León is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “leonese noble and 14th Grand Master of the Order of Santiago” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 1, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q7159434. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1196, 1226 and 1225.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pedro Alfonso de León”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pedro Alfonso de León primary sources, Pedro Alfonso de León archive and Pedro research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pedro Alfonso de León”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Pedro Alfonso de León” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.