Lope García de Salazar describes the origins of this lineage as follows: "At the time when King Alfonso of Castile reigned, when he won Toledo, a bastard son of the King of Aragon, called D. Vela, came to serve him. And as this king, D. Alfonso, was running over the crags of Mena, he saw the land above where Ayala is now, which was not populated, called Sopeña. As the king stood on the crag of Salvada, the knights asked him why he did not populate that land, and he told them that he would populate it if there were someone to populate it. And that count, D. Vela de Aragón, asked him as a favour to give it to them, and that he would populate it. And some of those who were there, who loved him well, said to him, "Senor Ayala. And the king said ayala, and for this reason the name Ayala came to be Ayala, and he called himself Count D. Vela, Lord of Ayala, and once that land was populated by Basques and Latins, he died, and is buried in Santa María de Respaldiza. And when this Count D. Vela died, D. Vela Velázquez, his son, became lord of the house of Ayala. And when D. Vela Velazquez died, he left a son to D. Galindo Velazquez and D. Sant Velazquez, who settled in Mena, who later settled in Valmaseda. And D. Galindo inherited the lordship of Ayala, and married the daughter of Count D. Rubio de Aranguti de Salcedo, who was the son of the Count of Noreña de Asturias, who had only that daughter, and is buried in Quejana. When D. Galindo Velazquez died, he left as his heir son D. García Galíndez, who was the fourth lord of Ayala and the first of them to take up arms and the name of Salcedo, because he went to live in Salcedo, and inherited that plot and goods from that Count D. Rubio, his grandfather, which were two green salses on a yellow field...". So much for the legend, which is easily refuted because: a) The author is a long time after the events he relates and does not base them on any kind of evidence. b) He considers the land of Ayala to be uninhabited when there are ancient documents which consider it to be populated (see AYALA, Tierra de). c) The etymology of the word Ayala, a well-known Basque toponym attested by the ancient Aialha, is unreliable. d) Lack of historical testimonies about this Vela, bastard son of the King of Aragon. e) Incompatibility of dates; the donation could not have been made by Alfonso VI during the lifetime of Sancho IV of Navarre, but after his assassination in 1076, when D. Lope Sangiz was already listed as lord of Ayala. From a purely historical point of view, it seems that the first lord of Ayala is Lope Sangiz or Lope Sanchiz de Ayala, who appears from 1075 to 1108 signing documents. The second historical lord is García Galíndez de Salcedo, 1118, the fourth lord for Lope García de Salazar. He is followed by: Sancho I García "El Cabezudo"; Fortún Sánchez; Sancho II García "El Negro"; Sancho III Pérez Mutilla or López Mutilla; Pedro I López de Ayala; Sancho IV Pérez de Ayala; Fernán I Pérez de Ayala; Pedro II López de Ayala (Chancellor of Castile); Fernán II Pérez de Ayala; Pedro III López de Ayala; García II de Ayala y Herrera; Pedro IV de Ayala; Atanasio de Ayala; ,Juan López de Ayala. His descendants would continue the dynasty in full decline and soon the nominal lordship of Ayala was inherited by the Dukes of Berwick and Veragua. In 1779, the lord of Ayala was Jacobo Fitz Stuardt Portugal Colón, who was being sued by the council and neighbours of the Orozco valley, the latter wishing to join the crown in order to free themselves from its jurisdiction and vassalage. On the Ayala dynasty, see the work by Pedro de Murga: La Casa de Ayala y Murga (The House of Ayala and Murga) and see also in this encyclopaedia each of the lords separately. Ref. J. Galíndez: "La tierra de Ayala y su Fuero", Edit. "Ekin", Buenos Aires, 19,57, pp. 23-65. Lope García de Salazar: "Las bienandanzas e fortunas", 1955.