Fruela (or Froila) Díaz (died 1119), known in contemporary sources as Froila Didaci or Didaz, was a nobleman in the Kingdom of León, the dominant figure in the centre of the realm during the late reign of Alfonso VI and the early reign of Urraca. A man of great private wealth who expanded his landholdings through numerous purchases, he was able to marry royalty and maintain good terms with his sovereigns of León as well as the rulers of Galicia and Portugal, whose territories lay immediately to the west of his area of influence. He also founded a hospital, a traveller's inn and a settlement that grew into a town. His lands raised some of the most valuable horses in Spain, he was buried in the royal pantheon of the kings of León, and his high rank—highest in the kingdom after the king and the rulers of Galicia and Portugal—is remembered in the most famous of cantares de gesta.
Origins and service to Raymond of Galicia
Fruela's origins lay in the Asturias, although his parentage is nowhere explicitly stated in surviving sources. Ramón Menéndez Pidal believed that Fruela was the brother of Jimena Díaz, wife of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, but this is unlikely. In fact Fruela's wife was the sister of Ramiro Sánchez, husband of Rodrigo's daughter Christina. It has been suggested that Fruela was a son of Diego Ansúrez and thus a nephew of Pedro Ansúrez, but this hypothesis has little to recommend it besides the patronymic Díaz ("son of Diego"). Fruela's father was probably Diego Pérez, a son of Pedro Flaínez and Bronilde. His mother was Mayor (María) Fróilaz, daughter of Froila Múñoz. A charter of the Cathedral of Oviedo, dated 5 April 1078, reads in part: "I, Mayor Fróilaz, known as María, at the same time with my sons named Fruela Díaz and Antonio Díaz, who are sons of Diego Pérez and grandsons of Count Pedro Flaínez ..."
The earliest surviving record of Fruela dates to 1069. His elder brother, Antonio, died young and Fruela, as the only surviving male child, inherited his father's estates. The archives of Fruela's branch of the Flagínez family were preserved in the monastery of Santa María de Oteros de las Dueñas, the only such case of a noble family's records being preserved from the Spanish high Middle Ages. On top of this is conserved in the tumbo of the Cathedral of Santa María in León (doc. 11, fol. 83) a brief genealogy of Antonio and Fruela, then children, as part of a diploma whereby their mother donated the monastery of San Pedro de Valdoré to the cathedral in December 1073.
Fruela served Count Raymond of Galicia as majordomo, the highest court official, from 1094 to 1096 at least, and perhaps as late as 1106. He may have held the post throughout Raymond's countship (1090–1107), but insufficient surviving documentation does not allow the case to be proven. An analysis of the charters he confirmed for Count Raymond shows that he "was a regular member ... of the entourage that gathered around [Raymond] during the latter's circuit of Galicia in the late springs and early summers", but not a fixture at Raymond's court. In the count's disputes with the king, Fruela openly took Raymond's side. Fruela was prominent enough at the royal court, however, confirming a third of all royal charters given during the latter part of Alfonso's reign.
Fiefs of the crown
Both of Fruela's grandfathers were counts and by 14 May 1087 he also held that rank. Not long thereafter, in 1091, he was granted the fief (tenencia) of Valdeorras in Galicia, which he held until 1104. Such tenencias were held ad imperandum, to be governed and could be revoked by the monarch at any time. They were distinct from the count's private holdings, lands ad possidendum, which he owned and which the monarch could not alienate. The only other fiefs he held for more than a year or two were Sarria (1098–1103), Larín (1102–06), and the important episcopal city of Astorga (1107–17). The rule of Astorga probably carried limited rights in the city itself but extensive powers in the surrounding region. It is with Astorga that Fruela is most commonly associated after 1107. On 10 April 1104, according to a royal charter now lost, Fruela and his wife founded a settlement at the foot of the castle called castro Dactonio in the fiefdom of Sarria on land owned by the monastery of San Vicente del Pino. This settlement became the town of Monforte de Lemos, which Fruela held as a tenencia until 1111, when it passed to Rodrigo Vélaz.