Sancho VII of Navarre

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Sancho VII
King of Navarre
Reign1194–1234
PredecessorSancho VI
SuccessorTheobald I
Bornc. 1157
Died7 April 1234 (aged 76–77)
Tudela
SpouseConstance of Toulouse
HouseHouse of Jiménez
FatherSancho VI of Navarre
MotherSancha of Castile
Sigil of Sancho VII the Strong

Sancho VII (

King of Navarre from 1194 until his death in 1234. He was the son and heir of Sancho VI, whom he followed as the second king to hold the title of King of Navarre. Sancho VII was the first to use the chains of Navarre as his blazon, a symbol that later would become the main one of Navarre, and the last member of the Jiménez dynasty
, which had ruled since the 9th century.

Youth

Sancho was probably the eldest child of

Alfonso VII of León, born soon after their marriage, probably in Tudela
, their usual residence.

Sancho's younger sister

Plantagenet dominions including Loches. When Richard returned to his continental lands in 1194, the knights of Sancho were besieging the castle for him. As soon as Richard arrived though, Sancho was forced to return to Navarre at the news of the death of his father. He was crowned in Pamplona
on 15 August.

Reign

Kingdom of Navarre during the rule of Sancho VII:[2]
  Kingdom of Navarre
  Territory lost to Castile (1198–1200)
  Vassal territories (1196–1203)

Sancho arrived late at the Battle of Alarcos in 1195 and thus ruined good relations with Alfonso VIII of Castile. The ensuing confrontation resulted in Sancho devastating Soria and Almazán and Alfonso accepted the Peace of Tarazona.

Sancho made expeditions against

Guipúzcoa, and Biscay
to Castile. These conquests were subsequently confirmed by the Treaty of Guadalajara (1207).

Sancho's leadership was decisive in the

Navarrese coat of arms. But others suspect they represented the Basques' star-like Sun of Death seen on their Hilarri
(Basques' Stelae) or houses traditionally for protection, and perhaps painted on their shields too with the same religious purpose, meaning of Life or Death, or the new Imagery used for Jesus or Christianity as for others were the Christi Anagram or plain Cross on the shield.

Sancho's relations with the countries north of the Pyrenees were notably better than his Castilian ones. Several Pyrenean counties declared themselves his vassals and he concluded treaties with John, King of England, and the various Aragonese kings of his time, the aforementioned Peter II and James I. With the latter he signed at Tudela, in 1231, which was never finished, a treaty stating that whoever survived the other would inherit unopposed the other's kingdom.

Sancho continued the construction of a new cathedral in Pamplona, as begun by his father and to be finished by his successor. The construction of a certain Gothic bridge over the Ebro in Tudela has also been attributed to him.

Succession

Statues of Sancho and his wife (Capilla de San Agustín, Roncesvalles)

Sancho VII was married twice. His first wife was

Charles of Viana
, however, he had a son with his second wife, who died in an accident when he was 15 years old.

As the result of prolonged and painful illness, starting with a varicose ulcer on his right leg and ashamed of it and his consequent obesity, Sancho went into retirement at Tudela at some point, when his youngest sister

Theobald IV of Champagne
was recognized as his successor.

Legacy

Statue in Tudela

According to

Alberic de Trois-Fontaines, Sancho left a large library, although the number of 1.7 million books is clearly exaggerated.[4]
The cultural contacts with the Muslim Kingdoms that he visited and battled with, his friendship with his brother-in-law King Richard, and his sister Blanche's court of Troyes, at the time the most refined in Europe, must have left an important influence on the King's personal intellect, bringing to him an advantageous outlook from the one well set already by their father at his youth, full however with peccadilloes and other impetuous extravaganza.

Sancho left the kingdom with a wealthy treasury and improved communications was in his day one of the most advanced in human rights, and its Jewish community enjoyed the best standing in Christian Europe, which after all had been the work and result of the Jimenez royal house for centuries. He was originally interred in the church of San Nicolás, but was later moved to Roncesvalles after much resistance from the local Clergy. His remains have since been exhumed for study and examined by the physician Luis del Campo, also the king's biographer, who measured him at 2.20 metres tall (7'3"), probably the basis for his "strength" epitaph.[5]

Notes

  1. .
  2. .
  3. ^ Guggenberger, Anthony, A General History of the Christian Era: The Papacy and the Empire, Vol.1, (B. Herder, 1913), 372.
  4. ^ Élie Berger, Histoire de Blanche de Castille: reine de France (Paris, 1895), p. 213n.
  5. ^ Del Campo, Luis (1952). "La estatura de Sancho el Fuerte". Príncipe de Viana. 13 (48–49): 481–494.

External links

Sancho VII of Navarre
House of Jiménez
Born: 17 Apr 1154 Died: 7 Apr 1234
Regnal titles
Preceded by
King of Navarre

1194–1234
Succeeded by