Gonzalo Núñez I (fl. 10591106) was an early member of the House of Lara,úñ whom modern historians and genealogists agree is the first clearly identifiable member of this lineage. The House of Lara was a very prominent family of nobility in the kingdoms of Castile and León and several of its members played a prominent role in the history of medieval Spain. Possibly related to the Salvadórez, the sons of Salvador González and, by marriage, to the Alfonsos from Tierra de Campos and Liébana, as well as the Álvarez from Castile, Gonzalo was most probably a descendant of the Counts of Castile.
Debated origins
The filiation proposed by Luis de Salazar y Castro in his work on the House of Lara, has been accepted for centuries although several modern historians question its accuracy. According to Salazar y Castro, Gonzalo was the third member of this lineage with that name and was a descendant of the counts of Castile as the son of a Nuño or Munio González who would have been the son of Gonzalo Fernández, the first-born of count Fernán González. The author, however, confuses several namesakes, assuming that they are the same person, and does not provide any documentary evidence sustaining that filiation. Moreover, according to medieval charters, Gonzalo Fernández, the son of Fernán González, appears for the last time on 29 June 959 and in February 984 his widow, Fronilde Gómez, made a donation for the soul of her deceased husband to the Monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña and only mentions one son named Sancho.
Ramón Menéndez Pidal in La España del Cid (1929) believed that Gonzalo Núñez was the son of a Munio or Nuño Salvadórez who would have been the brother of Gonzalo Salvadórez. The historian María del Carmen Carlé in her work "Gran Propiedad y grandes propietarios" (1973) suggested a relationship with the Salvadórez. According to her hypothesis, the relationship would be through Goto González, a daughter of Gonzalo Salvadórez and wife of Nuño Álvarez, who would have been the parents of Gonzalo Núñez de Lara. Nevertheless, according to several charters, Goto González Salvadórez was married to the Asturian count Fernando Díaz, brother of Jimena Díaz the wife of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. Nuño Álvarez, who died in 1065, was the tenente in Amaya and Carazo and his family owned properties in the land between the Arlanzón and the Duero rivers, which would explain the "power of the Lara in the region".
The historian Julia Montenegro in her study on the Monastery of Santa María la Real de Piasca documented a relationship with the lineage of the Alfonsos, the origin of the Osorios, Villalobos, and Froilaz. According to her hypothesis, Gutierre Alfonso and his wife Goto were the parents of María Gutiérrez who married the Castilian magnate Nuño Álvarez, and this couple would have been the parents of Gonzalo Núñez.
The medievalist scholar and professor Margarita Torres Sevilla-Quiñones de León agrees that there was in fact a relationship with the Alfonsos, nevertheless, she proves that María Gutiérrez and Nuño Álvarez were not Gonzalo's parents, but rather those of his wife Goto Núñez, as evidenced in a donation made in 1087 by Gonzalo, his wife Goto, and his sister-in-law Urraca to the Monastery of San Martín de Marmellar. A year later, the same Urraca mentioned in the previous charter made a donation to the same monastery of some properties that had belonged to her uncle Munio Álvarez and her mother María, daughter of Count Gutierre Alfonso. Urraca appears again in 1097 donating other properties to the Monasterio Real de San Benito in Sahagún, which was confirmed by Gonzalo Núñez, and, in 1088, jointly with her mother María Gutiérrez, she made another donation to the Monastery of San Millán de Suso of a property in Villa Fitero.
Another hypothesis on the filiation of Gonzalo Núñez de Lara is proposed by Margarita Torres who suggests that Gonzalo would be the son of a Munio González, son of Gonzalo García who, in turn, was the son of count García Fernández of Castile. Munio González, probably the count in Álava in the year 1030 was the brother of Salvador González, tenente in La Bureba, and this would explain the relationship between the Lara and the Salvadórez. Both brothers were vassals of king Sancho III of Navarre and Munio appears often in charters with his nephews Gonzalo and Álvaro Salvadórez.