In search of the owner of the tomb of the Andrade line in Fenem

Who owns the 15th-century Galician tombstone placed next to the church of Perlío, in Fene? Fellow of the IEGPS-CSIC (Institute for Galician Studies Padre Sarmiento of the High Council for Scientific Research), Fernando Dopico He admits that he is faced with an “enigma”. It provides the following irrefutable information: it is a medieval lauda of the Andrada lineage. From there, assumptions are made. But the researcher points out that the tomb belonged to Pedro Fernández Machado as the most reliable option: “He was a bastard of Pedro Fernández de Andrade and fought alongside Pardo de Cela.”

On the stone, which can deteriorate more when exposed to the elements, the following epigraph can be read in Galician: «Andrade, fillo de Pedro Fernández señor da Casa D’Andrade. Finou no year 14…». Due to the passage of time, the name of the deceased and the exact year of death are missing. Lauda appeared in 2007, but research has been progressing recently. Fernando Dopico, a contributor to the Social History of Power Since the Middle Ages (CSIC) team, considers two hypotheses. The owner would be the son of one Pedro Fernández de Andrade who died in 1406 or another Pedro Fernández de Andrade who died in 1435 (the feudal house had two lords with the same name, who were grandfather and grandson). “According to the epigraph and other indications, it could be another,” says Dopico.

As for the deceased, he could be the bastard of that other Pedro Fernández de Andrade and would be named Pedro Fernández Machado. “A lot of documentation is missing, but it is the best candidate,” says this IEGPS-CSIC associate. What is known about him? “He had properties in Perlío and income in Ortigueira, he died in 1494 and made a will… but he did not appear,” says the researcher. Under the command of Marshal Pardo de Cela, this Fernández Machado will be “the author of the death of the three Díaz Teixeiro brothers in Mondoñedo, two canons and a nobleman.”

The history of this main candidate for the lauda title would be contextualized with the struggles in Galicia at the time. As Fernando Dopico points out, “around 1470 there were wars between the Galician nobility after the rebellion of Irmandiño, there were factions that faced each other, and among them was Marshal Pardo de Cela”.

The chronicler Vasco da Ponte (1470-1535) will write about Pedro Fernández Machado that “he had no vassals, but he had 500 loads of bread and wine rented in the land of Santa Marta, he had several squires and brought many loaves while he was healthy .” The use of the Galician language was common in tombstones from the fifteenth century, “with a font that imitated late Gothic”. The researcher says that “the area had stone workshops in Monfero, Pontedeume or Neda”. In the case of Fene’s tombstone, “it would be normal for it to have had a reclining figure or sculpture with a weapon, but there is none, so there would be a possibility that the sight was never completed by carving”.

Despite Dopic’s research, “in the parish books and other documents, I did not find references to the burial mound, only the archaeological testimony of the stone.” It remains to be clarified what Fernández Machado did in Perlío or what connection Casa de los Andrade had with the church. Unknowns revolving around many characters of the time. Like Marshal Pardo de Cela, “it is not known where he was buried, perhaps in Mondoñedo where they cut his throat and then took his remains to Viveiro.”