According to the Chronica latina regum Castellae, the year 1217 was one of great tension, "such as never had been before in Castile".
In March 1217, Álvaro, accompanied by his brothers Counts Fernando and Gonzalo, Martín Muñoz de Hinojosa, García Ordóñez, Guillermo González de Mendoza, and other nobles, invaded Tierra de Campos, where the Girón and Meneses families held inherited lands, causing much destruction in the valley of Trigueros.