| Notes |
- BIOGRAPHY
Lope was born about 1105, the eldest son of Diego López, conde y Soberano de Vizcaya, señor de Nájera y Haro, and Maria Sanchez de Navarre. He was the fourth lord of Biscay (from at least 1162). He was an important magnate in Castile during the reign of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, and in the kingdom of his son and grandson. Between 1147 and 1168 he is recorded as governing Old Castile on behalf of the Crown.
On the death of Lope's father Diego, Alfonso I 'the Battler', king of Aragón and Navarre, seized the Basque _señorios_ and the Rioja, annexing them to the kingdom of Navarre. By 17 June 1125 Alfonso the Battler was in the castle of Haro. Diego was succeeded by the Navarrese magnate Ladrón Iñiguez. Lope was at the time probably a young man of about twenty years of age. He is recorded in the _Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris_ among the eleven Castilian noblemen who swore fealty to Alfonso VII upon his succession in 1126.
Lope was appointed Count by 1 February 1135. By the next year (1136) he had been given the rule of Nájera, which was to be the centre of his power until his death. By 1138 he was holding Alava and by 1140 Haro, the castle from which his father took the family name. In that year, however, he rebelled and was dispossessed. He seems to have been reconciled to the king and reinstated by 1143. In 1146 he was with the royal court in September and again in November. There is no record of Lope's participation in the conquest of Almeria (1147), but it is not unlikely.
In 1149 King Alfonso VII made Nájera the capital of a sub-kingdom for his eldest son Sancho III 'el Deseado', but by August 1154 Lope had received the facto control of it again, although he had to wait until August 1155 to be formally reinstated as lord of Nájera. At some point Lope entrusted the government of Nájera to his vassal Lucas López, whom he had knighted himself. After the death of Alfonso VII, Lope served Sancho as _alferez_ (standard bearer) between November 1157 and July 1158, although in December 1157 that post was briefly held by Pedro Fernández, on 29 November 1157 he issued a _fuero_ to the town of Fañuela.
In 1162 Sancho's son and successor Alfonso VIII granted Lope the Trasmiera, the Rioja, and Biscay to govern as _tenencias_ (fiefs). In that year he used the high-sounding title Count of Nájera and Biscay (comes naiarensis atque bizchayensis) for the first time.
Lope founded two religious houses on his lands. In 1162 he established the Premonstatensians in San Juan de la Peña, Begtoña, Arratia and Guernica. The founding charter was drawn up by a scribe named Juan, a chaplain of Santa Maria la Real de Nájera, and the original survives. Lope subscribed the document with his own hand and embellished his signature with a large cross, the rough features of which suggest the count's lack of familiarity with the pen. It leaves open the question of how literate Lope may have been. In 1169 Lope founded a Cistercian convent at Havuela (Favola) in the Rioja. In 1170 it was re-founded at nearby Cañas.
In 1168 Lope gave his brother Sancho his property in the monastery of San Cipriano and in Villamezquina.
Lope does not appear to have had progeny with his first wife Mencia Arias. Sometime before 1162 he married Aldonza Ruiz de Castro, daughter of Rodrigo Fernández de Castro 'El Calvo', señor de Castro Xerez y de Cuéllar, and Eilo Alvarez de Minaya. Beside his heir Diego López, Lope had three sons - Garcia, Lope, and Rodrigo - and eight daughters - Aldonza, Elvira, Estefania, Maria, Mencia, Sancha, Toda, and Urraca, who married Fernando II, king of León, as his final wife. Diego, the younger Lope and Urraca are recorded with progeny.
Lope died on 6 May 1170, a date confirmed by the _Annales compostellani._ By June 1171 his widow had entered the convent at Cañas, where for over thirty years she acted as de facto abbess. She was still living in May 1207, when she made a donation to San Marcos de León.
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Abt 1105 - 1170 (~ 65 years)
