García Ramírez of Navarre

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"García Ramírez" redirects here. For the king of Viguera, see García Ramírez of Viguera. For the bishop, see García Ramírez (bishop).
García Ramírez
Yerri
Spouses
​
​
(m. 1130; died 1141)​
​
(m. 1144)​
Issue
HouseHouse of Jiménez
FatherRamiro Sánchez
MotherCristina Rodríguez

García Ramírez (

King of Navarre (Pamplona) from 1134. The election of García Ramírez restored the independence of the Navarrese kingdom after 58 years of political union with the Kingdom of Aragon. After some initial conflict he would align himself with king Alfonso VII of León and Castile, and as his ally take part in the Reconquista
.

Biography

García was born to Ramiro Sánchez, lord of Monzón, whose own father Sancho was an illegitimate son of king García Sánchez III of Navarre.[1][2] His mother was Cristina, daughter of the Castilian nobleman Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known as El Cid. He succeeded his father as lord of Monzón and also held Logroño.

In 1134, a succession crisis arose in the united kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon. As a consequence of the 1076 murder of king Sancho IV of Navarre by his siblings, Navarre had been partitioned between Castile and Aragon, with the kings of the latter claiming the Navarrese crown. With the death of the childless warrior-king

Papacy from exercising a role in selecting among the potential candidates. Immediately rejected the will, the nobility of Aragon favored Alfonso's younger brother Ramiro, a monk. The nobility of Navarre, skeptical of Ramiro having the necessary temperament to resist the incursions by their western neighbor, king Alfonso VII of León and Castile, who was another claimant, and perhaps chafing under the continued Aragonese hegemony,[3] initially favored a different candidate, Pedro de Atarés, a grandson of Alfonso's illegitimate uncle, Sancho Ramírez, Count of Ribagorza. A convocation of the bishops and nobility was convened at Pamplona
to decide between Pedro and Ramiro, but were so alienated by Pedro's arrogance that they abandoned him in favor of García Ramírez, Lord of Monzón, a scion of their own dynasty, grandson of a brother of their murdered king Sancho IV. He was duly elected by the nobility and clergy of Navarre, while Ramiro was enthroned by that of Aragon and strongly opposed García's election in Navarre.

In light of this, the

Bishop of Pamplona granted García his church's treasure to fund his government against Ramiro's pretensions.[4] Among García's other early supporters were Lop Ennechones, Martinus de Leit, and Count Latro, who carried out negotiations on the king's behalf with Ramiro.[5] Eventually, however, in January 1135 with the Pact of Vadoluengo the two monarchs reached a mutual accord of "adoption": García was deemed the "son" and Ramiro the "father" in an attempt to maintain both the independence of each kingdom and the de facto supremacy of the Aragonese one. In May 1135, García declared himself a vassal of Alfonso VII. This simultaneously put him under the protection and lordship of Castile and bought recognition of his royal status from Alfonso, who was a claimant to the Battler's succession.[6] García's submission to Castile has been seen as an act of protection for Navarre that had the consequence of putting her in an offensive alliance against Aragon and, now that García had turned to Alfonso, forced Ramiro to marry and to produce an heir and to forge an alliance with Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona.[7] On the other hand, García may have been responding to Ramiro's marriage, which proved beyond a doubt that the king of Aragon was seeking another heir than his distant relative and adopted son.[6]

 Family tree of candidates for the crowns of Navarre and Aragon , 1134
  
 Candidates for the crowns of Navarre and Aragon in 1134
Marriage and legitimate descent
Liaison and illegitimate descent
Muniadona of
Castile		Sancho III
of Pamplona		Sancha
of Aybar
Stephanie
of
Barcelona
Ferdinand I
of León
and Castile
Garsendis
of Foix		Ramiro I
of
Aragon		Amuña
Sancho IV
of
Navarre
Sancho
Garcés of
Uncastillo		Alfonso VI
of León
and Castile		Felicia
of
Roucy		Sancho
Ramírez
of Navarre
and Aragon		Isabella
of
Urgell		Sancho
Ramírez
Count of
Ribagorza
Peter I
of Navarre
and Aragon
García
Sánchez
of Atarés
García
Ramírez
of Navarre		Alfonso VII
of León
and Castile		Petronilla
of
Aragon
 		Ramon
Berenguer IV
Count of
Barcelona		Peter
of
Atarés

Before September 1135, Alfonso VII granted García Zaragoza as a fief.[8] Recently conquered from Aragon, this outpost of Castilian authority in the east was clearly beyond the military capacity of Alfonso to control and provided further reasons for recognition of García in Navarre in return for not only his homage, but his holding Zaragoza on behalf of Castile. In 1136, Alfonso was forced to do homage for Zaragoza to Ramiro and to recognise him as King of Zaragoza. In 1137, Zaragoza was surrendered to Raymond Berengar, though Alfonso retained suzerainty over it. By then, García's reign in Zaragoza had closed.

Sometime after 1130, but before his succession, García married

León, García married Urraca
, called La Asturiana (the Asturian), illegitimate daughter of Alfonso VII, to strengthen his relationship with his overlord.

In 1136, García was obliged to surrender

Alfonso I of Portugal and confronted Alfonso VII. They confirmed a peace between 1139 and 1140. He was thereafter an ally of Castile in the Reconquista and was instrumental in the conquest of Almería in 1147. In 1146, he occupied Tauste
, which belonged to Aragon, and Alfonso VII intervened to mediate a peace between the two kingdoms.

García died on 21 November 1150 in Lorca, near

Gaston V of Béarn and Pedro Manrique de Lara
.

García left, as the primary monument of his reign, the monastery of Santa María de la Oliva in Carcastillo. It is a fine example of Romanesque architecture.

Marriage and family

García Ramírez married Margaret of L'Aigle,[10] granddaughter of Geoffrey II, Count of Perche. They had four children, but only the first three were recognised by García Ramírez:

On 24 June 1144 he married Urraca of Castile, illegitimate daughter of King Alfonso VII of León and Castile and his mistress Gontrodo Pérez.[11] They were the parents of:

Notes

  1. ^ Pamplona 1949.
  2. ^ Salazar y Acha 1994.
  3. ^ Lourie 1975, pp. 642–643.
  4. ^ Lourie 1975, p. 647.
  5. ^ Lourie 1975, p. 649, n. 49.
  6. ^ a b Lourie 1975, p. 650.
  7. ^ Grassotti 1964, p. 60.
  8. ^ Lourie 1975, p. 651.
  9. ^ Norwich 1970, p. 258.
  10. ^ a b c Luscombe & Riley-Smith 2004, p. 759.
  11. ^ Casado Lobato 1979, p. 163.
  12. ^ Torres Sevilla-Quiñones de León 1999, p. 392.

Sources

García Ramírez of Navarre
House of Jiménez
 Died: 21 November 1150
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Alfonso
 King of Navarre
1134–1150 		Succeeded by
  1. ^ Counting García Sánchez I, II, and III
  2. García Íñiguez
  3. ^ Counting García Jiménez of Pamplona
  4. ^ Counting García Ennéguiz I, legendary king of Sobrarbe
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