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taf
Mar 3, 2021, 10:10:47 AM3/3/21
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A number of families from around Burgos arose to join the 'new nobility' of the 14th century Castilian realm. One of the surnames that shows up with relative frequency in the pedigrees of these families is that of Rojas. The Ayala and Pardo descend from this family, as do some Velasco, Carrillo, and other notable families of the region.
As would be expected, pedigrees have been invented for the Rojas by early Iberian genealogists. One of the earliest of these by Alonso López de Haro (1622) uses a string of otherwise undocumented people to trace the family back to the 10th century (though he needs a 70-year generation to get there) with a string of marriages to prominent families: Duque, Castro, Haro and Sandoval. Luís de Salazar y Castro, writing a few score years later, did what he typically did with such families, he derived them in the male line from their Haro lords. Again, in so doing he resorts to creative the genealogy of his era. One or the other of these descents is still found in modern genealogies, such as the massive compilation of the brothers García Carraffa and all over the internet.
Fortunately, a new look has now been taken by Ignacio Álvarez Borge in a book dedicated to the early generations of the family, _Ascenso Social y Crisis Política en Castilla c. 1300: en torno a Juan Rodríguez de Rojas y su grupo familiar_, (Estudios Historicos y Geograficos 172, Ediciones Universidad Salamanca, 2019). While the title mentions Juan Rodríguez de Rojas, the work itself is not specifically focused on him, but rather is a genealogical study of those bearing the surname over the first two centuries after it appears to have arisen. While there are a few familial clusters that can not be linked to the main families, he finds that most of the Rojas are the descendants of four contemporaries that each have the same patronymic, extensive progeny of Alfonso Díaz (fl.1192-1242) and Diego Díaz (fl.1208-1223), and smaller clusters descended from Rodrigo Díaz (fl.1202-1243) and García Díaz (fl. 1217-1223). With these all having the same patronymic and in some cases with them or their children beign directly associated, Álvarez Borge makes the reasonable suggestion that they are brothers, sons of the same otherwise unidentified Diego. He identifies two additional prospective siblings, Pedro Díaz (fl. 1223) with no identified descendants, and Teresa, who was ancestress of the Pardo family.
He spends most of the book following the various branches of the family through the mid-14th century, as well as brief mention or pedigrees of allied families such as Pardo, Carrillo, Velasco, Mendoza, etc. This work is an expansion/extension of an article he published a couple of years before, "Poder local y poder central. Servicio al rey y desarrollo patrimonial en Castilla en el siglo XIII. El merino Fernán González de Rojas y sus descendientes", Edad Media: revista de historia, no. 18 (2017), pp. 146-176.
Of particular interest to some here, the main subject of this earlier article shares a name with an ancestor of Sancha de Ayala given in her grandfather's genealogy, but different spouses and so distinct from him. He places Sancha's ancestor Fernán González de Rojas 'Cruçado', as a first-cousin once-removed of the merino, as son of Gonzalo Alfonso de Rojas, son of the apparent eldest of the 'founding brothers', Alfonso Díaz and his wife María Ruiz.
I would recommend that anyone who has Rojas of this period in their pedigree give a look at these Álvarez Borge works.
taf
As would be expected, pedigrees have been invented for the Rojas by early Iberian genealogists. One of the earliest of these by Alonso López de Haro (1622) uses a string of otherwise undocumented people to trace the family back to the 10th century (though he needs a 70-year generation to get there) with a string of marriages to prominent families: Duque, Castro, Haro and Sandoval. Luís de Salazar y Castro, writing a few score years later, did what he typically did with such families, he derived them in the male line from their Haro lords. Again, in so doing he resorts to creative the genealogy of his era. One or the other of these descents is still found in modern genealogies, such as the massive compilation of the brothers García Carraffa and all over the internet.
Fortunately, a new look has now been taken by Ignacio Álvarez Borge in a book dedicated to the early generations of the family, _Ascenso Social y Crisis Política en Castilla c. 1300: en torno a Juan Rodríguez de Rojas y su grupo familiar_, (Estudios Historicos y Geograficos 172, Ediciones Universidad Salamanca, 2019). While the title mentions Juan Rodríguez de Rojas, the work itself is not specifically focused on him, but rather is a genealogical study of those bearing the surname over the first two centuries after it appears to have arisen. While there are a few familial clusters that can not be linked to the main families, he finds that most of the Rojas are the descendants of four contemporaries that each have the same patronymic, extensive progeny of Alfonso Díaz (fl.1192-1242) and Diego Díaz (fl.1208-1223), and smaller clusters descended from Rodrigo Díaz (fl.1202-1243) and García Díaz (fl. 1217-1223). With these all having the same patronymic and in some cases with them or their children beign directly associated, Álvarez Borge makes the reasonable suggestion that they are brothers, sons of the same otherwise unidentified Diego. He identifies two additional prospective siblings, Pedro Díaz (fl. 1223) with no identified descendants, and Teresa, who was ancestress of the Pardo family.
He spends most of the book following the various branches of the family through the mid-14th century, as well as brief mention or pedigrees of allied families such as Pardo, Carrillo, Velasco, Mendoza, etc. This work is an expansion/extension of an article he published a couple of years before, "Poder local y poder central. Servicio al rey y desarrollo patrimonial en Castilla en el siglo XIII. El merino Fernán González de Rojas y sus descendientes", Edad Media: revista de historia, no. 18 (2017), pp. 146-176.
Of particular interest to some here, the main subject of this earlier article shares a name with an ancestor of Sancha de Ayala given in her grandfather's genealogy, but different spouses and so distinct from him. He places Sancha's ancestor Fernán González de Rojas 'Cruçado', as a first-cousin once-removed of the merino, as son of Gonzalo Alfonso de Rojas, son of the apparent eldest of the 'founding brothers', Alfonso Díaz and his wife María Ruiz.
I would recommend that anyone who has Rojas of this period in their pedigree give a look at these Álvarez Borge works.
taf
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