Álvarez de Albornoz

The Álvarez de Albornoz were a Castilian hidalgo family from the mountains of Cuenca, holders of the lordship of Albornoz. The fourth lord Garci married into the Carrillo family, and their son Gil was born around the end of 1302.

Gil became Archbishop of Toledo in 1338 and fought the Marinid invasion at Río Salado in 1340. Made a cardinal in 1350, he entered papal service. From 1353 Pope Innocent VI sent him to Italy, where his campaigns reconquered most of the Papal States and his Constitutiones Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae regulated their government until 1816.

He founded the College of Saint Clement at Bologna in 1364 and died in 1367. The family lordship passed to later generations, while its fame in this age rested almost entirely on the cardinal.