Guzmán

The House of Guzmán was a noble dynasty of Castile, named for the village of Guzmán in Burgos where Rodrigo Muñoz de Guzmán held lands in the twelfth century. Its men served the crown in the Reconquest.

Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, called Guzmán the Good, defended Tarifa in 1296 against rebels and Marinid besiegers, throwing down his own dagger when his captive son was threatened rather than surrender. Eleanor de Guzmán, favourite of Alfonso XI and mother of Henry II, was executed in 1351; her sons' feud with Peter I opened the Trastámara civil war.

The senior line became Dukes of Medina Sidonia, while other branches held titles including Marquesses of Toral and, from 1625, Dukes of Medina de las Torres. The senior inheritance passed to the Álvarez de Toledo family in 1779.