Count of Plasencia

The Count of Plasencia is a Spanish nobility title, created in 1611 by King Philip III, in favor of Pedro Lanuza y Ximénez de Urrea.
The title was granted in memory of the ancient dominion that the Lanuza family had exercised in the 16th century on Plasencia de Jalón, until it was dispossessed of it by Philip [II of Spain|Philip II], when his brother Juan de Lanuza was beheaded, for having supported Antonio Pérez, his secretary, who had invoked the Fueros of Aragon, to avoid being tried for the murder in El Escorial of Escobedo. Granted the Grandee of Spain on August 18, 1707.
Its denomination, of the current title in force, refers to the town of Plasencia de Jalón, in the province of Zaragoza.

Background

The title of Count of Plasencia, had been created for the first time in 1442, by John II of Castile, referring to Plasencia for Pedro de Zúñiga y Leiva, in exchange for the lordship of Trujillo, who transmitted it to his son Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán who was the II and last Count of Plasencia, of this first concession.
The primitive county of Plasencia was extinguished in 1476, when the Catholic Monarchs elevated this county to a duchy with the same denomination, in favor of Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, in compensation for the loss of the Duchy of Arévalo, which reverted to the Crown.