Elvira Pérez

[do%C3%B1a ELVIRA Pérez (-1220).  “Comitissa Gelovira Petri…cum viro meo domno Armengaudo” donated property to León cathedral by charter dated 1182[1037].  Her parentage is also suggested by the charter dated 1228 under which her daughter Aurembiax granted property to “Nuño Pérez fijo del conde don Pedro, mio cormano”[1038].  Although “cormano/congermano” is more often interpreted as cousin, under the suggested reconstruction shown here Nuño Pérez would have been Aurembiax´s maternal uncle, although born from her maternal grandfather´s third marriage and so born around the same time as Aurembiax herself.  Canal Sánchez-Pagín suggests that Elvira, wife of Armengol [VIII], was the daughter of Conde Pedro Alfonso (of the Vela family, see Chapter 25.B below)[1039].  However, Pedro Alfonso´s daughter Elvira is named in her mother´s 1156 testament and was probably born considerably earlier if her parents´ marriage is correctly dated to [1130].  She is therefore unlikely to have been the same person as the wife of Armengol [VIII], whose daughter´s birth is dated towards the end of the 12th century.  Sánchez de Mora suggests a possible explanation for all these apparent inconsistencies: Armengol [VIII] married twice, firstly “Elvira Pérez” (although Sánchez de Mora appears to accept that she was the daughter of Conde Pedro Alfonso), secondly “Elvira Núñez” who would have been the mother of Aurembiax and who Sánchez de Mora suggests could have been the daughter of Nuño Pérez de Lara (see below).  This would mean that “cormano” could be given its usual interpretation in the 1228 charter of Aurembiax, who would have belonged to the same generation as the beneficiary of that document.  It would also explain another document, dated 20 Apr 1228, under which Aurembiax granted property to “Fernando Álvarez, mio cormano, filio del conde don Alvaro”[1040].  In addition, the dating of the birth of Aurembiax herself to [1196] is difficult to understand if she was the daughter of Elvira Pérez, married to her father already in 1182, but would be natural if she was the daughter of a second marriage.  It is recognised that, if Elvira Pérez was the daughter of Conde Pedro Manrique as suggested here, she would only have been about 12 years old at the time of the 1182 charter, presumably recently married, which suggests that this may not be a perfect fit for her parentage.  In conclusion, there appears to remain considerable uncertainty about the identity of the wife of Armengol [VIII] Conde de Urgel.  Elvira gave possession of Urgel to Pedro II King of Aragon in 1209, on the death of her first husband without male heirs, in return for the king’s protection of her daughter’s rights.  The primary source which confirms her second marriage has not yet been identified.   Her second husband defended his step-daughter’s rights to Urgel before Jaime I King of Aragon in 1228.  m firstly ([1178]%29 ARMENGOL [VIII] de Urgel, son of ARMENGOL [VII] "él de Valencia" Conde de Urgel & his wife Dulce de Foix ([1158]-1209).  He succeeded his father in 1184 as Conde de Urgel.  m secondly don GUILLEM de Cervera, son of --- (-after 1228).] 

Sometime before December 1153, Manrique married Ermessinde, daughter of Aimeric II of Narbonne and a cousin of Raymond Berengar IV of Barcelona. She bore him eight children, four sons and four daughters: Aimerico, Ermengarda, Guillermo (William), Manrique, María, Mayor (Amilia), Pedro, Sancha and Elvira. Three of his daughters married among the highest nobility: María married Diego López II de Haro, Mayor to Gómez González de Manzanedo, and Elvira to Ermengol VIII of Urgell, grandson of Ermengol VI, Manrique's fellow envoy of 1146 and the husband of his cousin Elvira Rodríguez.