Rodrigo Martínez was a Leonese nobleman, landowner, courtier, military leader, governor, and diplomat, "the most powerful lay figure in the region of the western Tierra de Campos," who "emerges as far and away the most regular visitor to the court of Alfonso VII between 1127 and 1138." He was a member of the Flagínez family, rose to the highest rank in the kingdom and met his end on the battlefield.
Portraits of count Rodrigo Martínez and his wife Urraca Fernández from his carta de arras.
The castle of Aguilar de Campoo, one of Rodrigo's most important and longest-held fiefs.
The Torre del Homenaje, all that remains of the castle at Castroverde, controlled by Rodrigo in 1117, his first tenencia.
Alfonso VII of León and Castile
Alfonso VII, called the Emperor, became the King of Galicia in 1111 and King of León and Castile in 1126. Alfonso, born Alfonso Raimúndez, first used the title Emperor of All Spain, alongside his mother Urraca, once she vested him with the direct rule of Toledo in 1116. Alfonso later held another investiture in 1135 in a grand ceremony reasserting his claims to the imperial title. He was the son of Urraca of León and Raymond of Burgundy, the first of the House of Ivrea to rule in the Iberian peninsula.
Alfonso as emperor, from a Privilegium Imperatoris issued by him.
13th-century miniature of Alfonso VII of León from the codex Tumbo A. Santiago de Compostela Cathedral