Royal visits to Villafáfila

ROYAL VISITS TO VILLAFÁFILA

The first documented stay of a king in Villafáfila dates back to the year 1160, when we know that Fernando II of León, who was probably directing the tasks of repopulating and organizing the town, grants various favors to the nobleman Gonzalo Muñoz, and dates the letter " in Villa Fafilam 14 kalendas septembris sub era MCCLXXXXVIII" (August 19, 1160).

Medieval miniature representing King Ferdinand II of León

Seal of Ferdinand II

His son, the Zamoran Alfonso IX, last king of León, was prodigal in visits to these lands, where he owned estates and several salt mines, from whose income he makes various donations to the monasteries of Moreruela, Roncesvalles, to the abbey of Císter and to his wife , Queen Doña Berenguela. Precisely from Villafáfila, where he is on August 11, 1201, the king goes back to Valparaíso, in search of the queen, who had given birth to the heir to Castile and León, Fernando III.

Alfonso IX according to a miniature of Tomb A of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela

Alfonso X confirms to the monastery of Santa María de Melón the letters granted by Fernando II in Tui, on March 1170, and by Alfonso IX in Villafáfila, on August 11, 1201, referring to the toll exemption.

We once again have documented evidence of the presence of Alfonso IX in Villafáfila, the last week of September 1220, when the king, accompanied by his curia, including the archbishop of Santiago, the bishops of Astorga, Zamora, León and Oviedo and various counts and "tenentes" , witness an agreement between the master of the Order of Pereiro and Alcántara and the master of the Templars of "trium regrnorum Hispanie, videlicet Legionis, Castelle et Portugalie" , and restores the land of Alba to the latter order of Aliste that he had previously taken from them.

Seal of Alfonso IX

In November 1224, the king met again in Villafáfila, where he granted various favors to the church of Astorga, and acted as an intermediary in the agreement signed by the council of Villafáfila with the bishop of Astorga regarding the tithes and first fruits of the salt.

Astorga Cathedral

The last visit of a king to Villafáfila took place in the year 1506. This year the queen Doña Juana "La Loca" had returned from Flanders, heir to the Crown of Castile due to the death of Isabel "La Católica", and her husband Don Felipe " The beautiful". Given the inability of the queen to exercise her position, both her husband and her father, Don Fernando "El Católico", wanted to take over the regency of Castile. After several attempts to meet and reconcile between son-in-law and father-in-law, and the latter being abandoned by the most important of the Castilian nobility, one of whose most powerful members, the Count of Benavente, manages to close the doors of the town and forbid him to be welcomed. in none of the towns of their manors, the first interview took place in Remesal de Sanabria, where don Fernando came from Rionegro unarmed, and don Felipe fully armed and accompanied by almost a thousand flamingos from Puebla. Faced with the failure of the interview and the open hostility, the "Catholic" king retired to Villafáfila and the archduke headed for Benavente. The choice of Villafáfila as a refuge for the King of Aragon, despite not having good defenses, was due to the fact that it was then the most important town of the Military Order of Santiago"over there the ports", whose perpetual administrator was Mr. Fernando. This, in the year 1497, had taken it from Don Pedro Pimentel, brother of the Count of Benavente, who had held it illegally for thirty years, to return it to the commander of Castrotorafe at the time Don Fernando de Vega. The Commander was one of the few entourage that accompanied the King on such fateful days during his stay in Villafáfila, where they remained for more than a week. Here they would stay in the house of some rich neighbors, because in those years the castle and the house that was built on it were almost in ruins. After several discussions with Felipe's envoys in the hearings that took place in the church of San Martín, in which they gave such loud voices that they could be heard from the Pimentel house in the square (according to oral tradition), the king agreed. to sign the "

Ferdinand the Catholic

In 1997, Don Felipe Prince of Asturias (today King Felipe VI of Spain), came to Villafáfila to see the Interpretation Center and Fauna Park, taking a tour of the center, which reproduces the ecosystems of the Nature Reserve of the Villafáfila lagoons.