The lady of Arintero and the García y González lineage

Abstract

This paper examines the origin of the Lady of Arintero, the virgo bellatrix of León. After dismissing some theories that claim that the Lady of Arintero is a historical figure, her story can be divided into two periods. Firstly, a poorly documented archaic Lady who seems to make use of the chivalric tale to embellish a local nobility title with probable origins in the growing transit between Asturias and León. This was followed by the modern Lady, who emerged between the 16th and 17th centuries, as the culmination of a series of processes of hidalguía and privilegio requested by the García y González family of Arintero (León) between 1516 and 1591. To do so, they obtained a forged certificate from Juan de Ortega Muñoz, heir to a former king of arms of Castile, an occupation that had long dealt with genealogical arrangements. Ortega wrote a succinct account in which the Lady of the romance fights in the War of the Castilian Succession, in a document reminiscent of other famous contemporary grants. Subsequently, a process of gradual addition included other  attributes typical of the virgo bellatrix, of traditional Leonese culture and of the Arintero family itself. The link between this lineage with the certificate of Ortega Muñoz and the modern Lady is proved by the heraldic and documentary evidence, in a connection successfully extended to the present day.