And more treachery...

Fletcher (St. James' Catapult) doesn't really know what to make of the coronation in Compostela of young Alfonso Raimundez. He suggests that he might have been elevated to the position of "joint ruler" with his mother. Whatever was the case, after Alfonso was made "king" he set out across Galicia with Diego Gelmirez and Pedro Froílez de Traba to meet his mother at Leon.

Along the way the group and their armies beseiged the city of Lugo which was loyal to The Battler. Lugo always seems to have gone its own way. This time it capitulated and it is likely that a garrison was left there while the bishop, the noble, and the young king made their way to Leon.

But they never got there. Along the way they ran in to a rather annoyed Battler who captured Pedro Froílez. Diego Gelmirez with Alfonso Raimundez escaped and fled back to the safety of Compostela. Pedro was eventually ransomed.

Thus begins six years of rather tedious and "labyrinthine" wrangling between all the parties we have so far met during which without a score card you haven't much hope of figuring out who is on the side of whom. Ariás Pérez who had been such an avid supporter of Urraca when there was a castle to be taken turned out to be a turncoat and he and his "Brotherhood" of thugs began to make a lot of trouble in Galicia for Urraca in general, and Diego Gelmirez in particular. At one time we learn that the queen asked Diego Gelmirez to round up Ariás Pérez and in return she made "a handsome grant of lands and privileges to the cathedral church" of Santiago de Compostela.

Urraca herself meantime was on a serious fund-raising mission in her kingdoms to provide the money and resources needed to make war on her husband who seemed to be unable to understand that his presence anywhere west of Burgos was not welcome. In order to convince him of the obvious, a Galician army pursued The Battler across the Galician mountains as far as Carrion de los Condes. While initially Diego had accompanied them, he was forced to turn back at Triacastela to deal with a revolt which had broken out in his absence in Compostela. This was unlikely to have been the first, and as we shall shortly see, it was far from the last. Our bishop was not overly popular with his flock...
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