King Bermudo of León II

  General Notes:

called the Gouty (Spanish: el Gotoso), was the King of Galicia (982\endash 999) and León (984\endash 999). His reign is summed up by Justo Pérez de Urbel's description of him as "el pobre rey atormentado en la vida por la espada de Almanzor y en muerte por la pluma vengadora de un obispo" (the poor king tormented in life by the sword of Almanzor and in death by the vengeful pen of a bishop).

A son of Ordoño III, he was raised by the nobility against the king Ramiro III, a son of Sancho I, in Galicia and Portugal in 982. This usurpation is usually seen in the context of ongoing succession crises since the 950s. When Bermudo succeeded to the throne the two parties were led by Gonzalo Menéndez\emdash supporter of Bermudo\emdash and Rodrigo Velázquez and his son Pelayo Rodríguez\emdash supporters of Ramiro III. Bermudo was crowned in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela on 15 October 982. Opposition from Pelayo, then bishop of Santiago, and by Arias Peláez, Bishop of Mondoñedo, may have caused their exile, to Celanova and San Martín de Lalín respectively, at this same time.

Because his support was limited and regional Bermudo required the protection of the Caliphate of Córdoba. There was much unrest in Castile in his early years and the Cordoban armies of Almanzor came, not as allies, but as conquerors. Between November 991 and September 992 Vermudo was expelled from the kingdom by a revolt led by the magnates Gonzalo Vermúdez, Munio Fernández, and count Pelayo Rodríguez. He was soon restored and reconciled to the discontents. On 8 August 994 Bermudo gave the village of Veiga to the monastery of Celanova, the village having been built by Suario Gundemárez on land illegally appropriated from the monastery. Suario took refuge there during his later rebellion. On 23 August that year the village of Morella was granted to abbot Salvato of Celanova after it was confiscated because the murder of Fortún Velázquez had taken place there.

Bermudo eventually succeeded in recovering Zamora from the Muslims, but did not succeed in expelling them totally until 987. This brought on the reprisals of Almanzor, who set out to destroy Coimbra. After the latter besieged and razed the city of León, Bermudo took refuge in Zamora. The Muslims continued their conquests, taking Astorga (996) and sacking Santiago de Compostela (997).

In 999, the gout from which he suffered was aggravated and it became impossible for him to ride a horse. Military leader of Christians of northwestern Spain, he subsequently travelled by litter. Later that same year he died in Villanueva del Bierzo and was buried in the Monastery of Carracedo. Later, his remains were transferred to the Cathedral of León.

Bermudo married Queen Elvira García of León, daughter of Count García Fernández of Castile and Ava de Ribagorza. (Queen Elvira García of León was born in 965 and died in 1017.)