The synod appears to have sided with Cluny, for Humbert sent a letter to Peter the Venerable, the abbot of Cluny, claiming that Suero and Alfonso VII were simply slow to comply. Cluny was still laying claim to Cornellana over 160 years later. Control of Asturias Suero was one of the leading magnates of Asturias. He ruled Babia from at least 14 April 1117 and Tineo from at least 26 May 1120. He was still ruling these places as late as 21 May 1136, when he is cited in the same document as also governing the western half of Asturias centred on Oviedo. He was described as count "in Asturias" and Vadabia (Babia) in another private document of the same year. Bernard Reilly has suggested that it was around 1120 that Urraca began extending Suero's authority north out of the province of León and the Bierzo and into western Asturias. After Alfonso VII succeeded Urraca, Suero immediately pledged loyalty to the new king at Zamora on 11 March 1126, three days after the death of the queen. He is the first magnate named when the Chronica Adefonsi imperatoris, a contemporary account of Alfonso's reign, lists those who did homage and fealty to the new king: Suero "came to him [Alfonso VII] with his friends and relatives, namely Alfonso his brother and his [Alfonso's] son Pedro Alfonso, who was later made count by him [the king]." Suero then joined up with the king's ally from across the Pyrenees, Alfonso Jordan, the Count of Toulouse, to take the city of León, which was being held against the king by supporters of the House of Lara. Only then did the remaining Leonese magnates make their way to the city to pledge allegiance to Alfonso. Although Suero was initially one of Alfonso's closest advisers, his increasing age and the consequent difficulty of following the court meant that he confirmed only some forty-three of the 252 charters issued by Alfonso between 1126 and early 1137. At that time, according to the Chronica, the authority of Suero Vermúdez covered "Astorga, Luna, Gordón, with part of the Bierzo, as well as Babia, Laciana and the whole valley as far as the banks of the River Eo and as far as Cabruñana" (Astoricam, Lunam, Gordonem cum Bergidi parte, necnon Vadabiam et Flacianam totumque vallem usque ad ripam fluminis, quod dicitur Oua, et usque ad Cubrunianam). In the words