Background
His father was Ordoño Bermúdez, an illegitimate son of King Bermudo II of León, and his mother was Fronilde Peláez, also a member of the high nobility as the daughter of Count Pelayo Rodríguez and his wife Gotina Fernández de Cea, daughter of Count Fernando Bermúdez de Cea and sister of Jimena, the mother of King Sancho Garcés III the Great, and of Justa Fernández, married to Count Flaín Muñoz. He was named count between 1059 and 1061 when he appears with the title in several family transactions and royal charters, such as one dated 1061 at the Monastery of Samos when he confirms as Sanctius proles Ordonii comes (Sancho, son of Ordoño, count).