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Son of Fernán Arias de Saavedra and Leonor Martel de Peraza, he obtained the lordship of his house due to the premature death of his brother Fernán or Hernán in 1410. He was appointed mayor of Jimena de la Frontera in 1431 and, in March 1434, took the neighbor Castellar whose mayor’s office he also assumed.
Known as ‘The Famous’, regarding his activities, the chronicler Palencia wrote that his “vigilance and extraordinary courage brought his enemies to despair, defeated a hundred times by him.”
Other rewards that he obtained -between 1439 and 1447- from the trust of King Juan II of Castilla and Álvaro de Luna, were obtaining the largest alfaquería in Castilla, the place of El Viso (despite the protests of Carmona, to whose jurisdiction belonged), the mayor’s office of Seville, a mayor’s office of the land of Seville and the lordship of Castellar -both in 1445-, and the corregimiento of Jerez.
All this gave him great power that allowed him to sign confederations of peace and friendship with great Andalusian magnates. When his star seemed to shine higher, a border swing reduced him to captivity and, in March 1448, his host was annihilated by the enemy army near the Verde River.
He married Juan de Saavedra, as he was also known, to Juana de Avellaneda Delgadillo, with whom he had seven children. He was the founder of the branch of the Saavedra family -called del Castellar- a lordship elevated to county in 1539.
On March 23, 1456, he founded an estate with El Viso and with the main houses that he inhabited in the collación de San Martín, in Seville. He was, therefore, the first lord of El Viso of the branch of the Arias de Saavedra.
He also collaborated with King Enrique IV’s Granada campaigns, making possible the recovery of Jimena, lost in 1451, and organizing several entries into enemy lands from Castellar. He died in 1458, shortly after receiving the order to demolish the Estepona fortress, which he was unable to carry out.
Magazine of the Festivities of the Holy Cross. Cultural Association “Friends of El Viso”. No. 3, May 1991.