Paio Gomes Charinho
Trovador medieval

Biographical Note:

Galician troubadour, active in the last decades of the 13th century. Born to a gentry lineage established in Pontevedra, Paio Gomes Charinho progressively gained importance in the Castillian court, ultimately assuming relevant roles in the court of Sancho IV. Having maybe participated in the conquest of Seville (1248), as the inscription in his grave informs us (although the inscription may be only encomiastic), it’s during the 80’s that his social ascension is most visible, in particular after Dom Sancho’s ascent to the throne, whose party he took in the fighting he kept with his father, Alfonso X, in the last years of his reign. Thus, from 1284, besides becoming his counselor, he assumes the role of Sea Admiral, at leat until 1286. In that year, he accompanies Sancho IV in his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, where he seems to have remained, maybe in consequence of some dispute with the monarch. Be that as it may, in 1290 he gains the title of Meirinho-mor of Galicia. After the death of D. Sancho (1295) he intervenes in the disputes related to the complicated matter of his succession, ultimately being assassinated that same year by Rui Peres Tenoiro (that would be brother of the troubadour Mem Rodrigues Tenoiro).
Resende de Oliveira suggests1 that the social ascension of Paio Gomes Charinho in the Castillian court would also have been favored by the marriage of one of his sisters to João Garcia de Villamayor, mordomo-mor and counselor to Alfonso X. As to the troubadour, he married in an uncertain date with Maria Geraldes Maldonado, with whom he had three children, according to count Dom Pedro’s Book of Lineages (74Q5). Besides the roles assumed, Paio Gomes was also lord of Rianxos, in front of the Arosa estuary. He’s buried in the convent of S. Francisco, in Pontevedra.

References

1 Oliveira, António Resende de (1994), Depois do espectáculo trovadoresco. A estrutura dos cancioneiros peninsulares e as recolhas dos séculos XIII e XIV, Lisboa, Edições Colibri.