Gomes Garcia
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

The attributive item that accompanies his two songs informs us that he was the Abbot of Valladolid, putting to rest any doubts regarding his identity. In truth, Dom Gomes Garcia was an important figure in the final years of Alfonso X’s reign and, mostly, in the reign of his heir, Sancho IV. Belonging to the Galician Sottomayor’s lineage, he was natural of Toledo, his mother's hometown. His political career was developed very early in the Castillian court, especially with prince Sancho of Castilla, being attested as his privado in 1283, that is, at a time of open conflict between the prince and his father Alfonso X. After the latter’s death, in 1284, he appears as Abbot of Valladolid (an important position at the time, filled frequently by royal princes), notary of the Kingdom of Leon and heading, the following year, an important embassy to France. Proposed to the bishopric of Mondoñedo in 1286, he seems to have had around that time some problems with the King1 (or, at least, with royal counsellor, the archbishop of de Toledo, Gonzalo Pérez2). He died, anyway, in that same year, on June 29 in Toledo.

References

1 Beltran, Vicenç (1993), "Gomez Garcia, abade de Valadolide", in Dicionário da Literatura Medieval Galega e Portuguesa, Lanciani, Giulia e Tavani, Giuseppe (org.), Lisboa, Editorial Caminho.

2  Hernández, Francisco J. (2016), "Ascenso y caída de Gómez García, abad de Valladolid y privado de Sancho IV de Castilla", in Ecclesiastics and political state building in the Iberian monarchies, 13th-15th centuries, Évora, Publicações do Cidehus.
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