Count Hermenegildo, the son of count Gutierre and his wife Elvira, appears in medieval documentation starting in 869 — when with his father-in-law, Gatón, count in Astorga and El Bierzo, settled a dispute between the king of Asturias and bishop Mauro — until his last appearance in May 912, when he confirmed a donation made by his son-in-law, king Ordoño II, to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. He was one of the most loyal vassals of King Alfonso III, who named him his mayordomo mayor and compensated his efforts and services to the crown with many properties and tenencias. Hermenegildo played an active role in military operations during the Reconquista. In 878, he defeated the Muslim troops who had attacked Oporto and then Coimbra, repopulating these cities, as well as neighboring Braga, Viseu, and Lamego, with people from Galicia after expelling the Moors. His holdings there would pass to his descendants and come to be called the County of Coimbra, which was retaken again in 987 by Almanzor and it was not until 1064 that the city was permanently reconquered by the Christian armies of Ferdinand I of León. In 895, Hermenegildo defeated and captured the Galician noble Witiza who had taken up arms against the king of Asturias, taking him in chains before the monarch who compensated the count with many of the rebel's estates and tenencias.
Ancestry
It was claimed that Hermenegildo was descended from Count Ardabastus, an individual supposedly descended from the Constantinian, Valentinian, and Theodosian dynasties of the Roman Empire. The line is documented in a controversial and dubious deed, and while some have suggested that the genealogy it contains could still be authentic, the lack of surviving documentation from the period spanned makes independent evaluation impossible. If true, it would be a rare example of Descent from antiquity.
Marriage and issue
He married Ermesenda Gatónez, daughter of count Gatón. She was probably a first cousin of King Alfonso since Gatón is believed to have been the brother of Ordoño I, or perhaps of his wife. This marriage gave rise to one of the most prominent noble families in medieval Galicia and in the County of Portugal. The offspring of this marriage were:
Arias Menéndez count, married to Ermesenda Gundesíndez. He had at least one daughter, Elvira Arias, married to her cousin Munio Gutiérrez.
Gudilona Menéndez, the wife of count Lucidio Vimáraz of Portucale, son of count Vimara Pérez and Trudildi. Her filiation, a hypothesis by Almeida Fernández, is not documented.
