Sancho Garcie III

With a close friendship with Castile began the conquest of Leon 970 - 1035, followed by his son, Fernando I of Castile who finished the job 1035 - 1065. Count of Aragón and King of Navarre from 1000 or 1004 until his death and Count of Castile from 1029 to his death. During his lifetime, he was the most important Christian monarch of Spain. Having gone further than any of his predecessors in uniting the divided kingdoms of Spain, his life's work was undone when he divided his domains shortly before his death to provide for each of his sons.

Sancho was born around 985 (some sources give 970 or even 992 or later) to García IV the Tremulous and Jimena Fernández, daughter of the count of Cea on the Galician frontier. He was raised in Leyra. He became king in 1000 or 1004 (he was perhaps under a regent until 1004), inheriting the kingdom of Pamplona (or Navarre, as it was variously called) and the county of Aragón. He later profited from the internal difficulties of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, and annexed those counties between 1016 and 1019 by using his rights as a descendant of Dadildis of Pallars. He also forced Berengar Raymond I, count of Barcelona, to become his vassal though he was already a vassal of the French king. Berengar met Sancho in Zaragoza and Navarre many times to confer on a mutual policy against the counts of Toulouse.

With his nephew, Alfonso V of León, he led a combined attack against al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir, conquering further territories in the south. After the crisis in the Caliphate of Córdoba, initiated by the death of al-Mansur in the 1002 Battle of Calatañazor and leading to fragmented principalities, the so-called taifa kingdoms, Sancho aspired to unify the Christian principalities.

In 1017, he became the protector of Castile for the young Count García II. However, relations between the three Christian entities soured after the assassination of Count García of Castile in 1027. He had been bethrothed to Sancha of León, daughter of Alfonso V, who was set thus to gain from Castile lands between rivers Cea and Pisuerga as the price for approving the marital pact. As García arrived in León for his wedding, he was killed by the sons of a noble he had expelled from his lands.

Sancho III had opposed the wedding — and the ensuing Leonese expansion — and received a chance to act upon García's death. As the late count's brother-in-law he immediately occupied Castile and was soon engaged in a full-scale war with Leonese forces under the new King Bermudo III. The combined Castilian and Navarrese armies quickly overran Bermudo's kingdom, occupying Astorga. By March 1033, he was king from Zamora to the borders of Barcelona.

In 1034, even the city of León, the imperiale culmen (imperial capital, as Sancho saw it) itself, fell, and there Sancho had himself crowned again. This was the height of Sancho's rule which now extended from the borders of Galicia in the west to the county of Barcelona in the east and he styled himself rex Dei gratia Hispaniarum, or "By the grace of God, king of the Spains", and minted coins with the legend Imperator totius Hispaniae.

In 1035, he refounded the diocese of Palencia, which had been laid waste by the Moors. He gave the see and its several abbacies to Bernard, of French or Navarrese origin, to whom he also gave the secular lordship (as a feudum), which included many castles in the region.

Taking residence in Nájera instead of the traditional capital of Pamplona, as his realm grew larger, he considered himself a European monarch, establishing relations on the other side of the Pyrenees with the duchy of Gascony. He died on 18 October 1035 and was buried in the monastery of Oña, an enclave in Burgos, under the inscription Sancius, Gratia Dei, Hispaniarum Rex.

Sancho was married to Muña Mayor Sánchez, daughter of count Sancho I of Castile. Besides four legitimate sons he also fathered one, by his mistress Sancha de Aybar, named Ramiro, who was the eldest of his sons but, as a bastard, not entitled to succeed. Before his death in 1035, Sancho divided his possessions among his sons. García received Navarre and the Basque country with a certain seniority over his brothers (a "high kingship"), Ferdinand received Castile as a kingdom, and Gonzalo got Sobrarbe and Ribagorza, also raised to kingdom status. The illegitimate son obtained the county of Aragón, which was elevated to a kingdom, small as it was at the time (Ramiro was known as "the petty king").

He introduced French feudal theories and ecclesiastic and intellectual currents into Spain. The division of his realm upon his death, the concepts of vassalage and suzerainty, and the use of the phrase "by the grace of God" after his title were imported from France, with which he tried to maintain relations. For this he has been called the "first Europeaniser of Spain." His most obvious legacy, however, was the temporary union of all Christian Spain. At least nominally, he ruled over León, the ancient capital of the kingdom won from the Moors in the eighth century, and Barcelona, the greatest of the Catalan cities. Though he divided the realm at his death, thus created the enduring legacy of Castilian and Aragonese kingdoms, he left all his lands in the hands of one dynasty, the Jiménez, which kept the kingdoms allied by blood until the twelfth century. He made the Navarrese pocket kingdom strong, politically stable, and independent, preserving it for the remainder of the Middle Ages. Though, by dividing the realm, he isolated the kingdom and inhibited its ability to gain land at the expense of the Moslems. It is for this that his seal has been appropriated by Basque nationalism. Summed up, his reign defined the political geography of Spain until the union of the peninsula under the Catholic Monarchs.


Sancho I Garces

King of Pamplona from 905 to 925. He was a son of García Jiménez, who was regent of Pamplona from 870 to 880 while Fortún Garcés was held captive and apparently co-king of Pamplona from 860 to his death in 882, and Dadildis de Pallars. Sancho may also have been a co-king during the reign of Fortún. The elderly Sancho (already 45 years old) succeeded King Fortún when the latter was deposed by a coalition of enemies: the Banu Qasi under Lope ibn Mohammed, King Alfonso III of Asturias, and the count of Pallars.

Sancho's first wife Urraca, daughter of the count of Aragón, did not have surviving children. So Sancho married a second time to Toda Aznárez in his old age. His children were thus minors upon his death. Queen Toda (born Teuda de Larraun) was a daughter of Aznar Sánchez, lord of Larraun, and Oneca Fortúnez, who herself was a daughter of King Fortún. Thus, Toda's children also descendants of the Arista dynasty of Navarrese monarchs. Sancho fought against the Moors with repeated success and joined Ultra-Puertos, or Basse-Navarre (Baja Navarra), to his own dominions, also extending his territory as far as Nájera. As a thanksgiving offering for his victories, he founded, in 924, the convent of Albelda. Before his death, all the Moors had been driven from the country.

Sancho was succeeded by his brother Jimeno, but his young son García Sánchez also received the royal title, and after Jimeno's death in 931, the young García became the sole king.

Sancho and Toda had eight children, all daughters but one:

Urraca, married Ramiro II of León

Oneca (d.931), married Alfonso IV the Monk of León in 926

Amulina (called Jimena after his marriage), married Alfonso III the Great of Leon.

Sancha, married firstly Ordoño II of León, secondly Count Alvaro Herramélizel of Álava, and thirdly Fernán González, Count of Castile

García, king of Pamplona, married firstly Andregota Galíndez and secondly Teresa de León

Velasquita (or Belasquita), married firstly Nuño (or Mumo), count of Vizcaya, secondly Galindo, count of Ribagorza, and thirdly Fortún Galíndez.

Munia (or Muña), married Ordoño I of Asturias

Orbita

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His parents:

García II Jiménez was the king of Pamplona from 870 to his death in 882. He was the son of Jimeno I of Pamplona, lord of Álava, who was co-king kingdom until 860. It is possible that their branch of the Basque ruling dynasty (Jiménez) was entitled to the position of co-king, thus García II may have been a co-regent already in the lifetime of García I.

When his kinsman, King García I, died in 870 and Fortún Garcés, his son and heir, was imprisoned in Córdoba, García Jiménez became uncontested regent of the kingdom and was at least treated as king. Thus, he is usually called co-king – as were many of his house who reigned thusly.

García zealously defended his country against the encroachments of the Moors and Islam, but was killed at Ayhar (882) in a battle against the Emir of Córdoba. García's kinsman, King Fortún, had been released from captivity in 880 and returned to be king. After the coup against Fortún in 905, Jimeno's house took over the kingship undisputedly.

García Jiménez married firstly a woman named Oneca Rebelle de Sangüesa with whom he had the following issue:

Íñigo, later co-king

Sancha, married her half-nephew García Jiménez (see below)

García Jiménez married secondly a woman named Dadildis de Pallars with whom he had the following issue:

Sancho, later sole king

Jimeno, later co-king of his eldest brother's son, his son García married the aforementioned Sancha

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His grandparents:

Jimeno I Garcés (d. 860) was king of Pamplona from 851 to 860. He was chosen to succeed his kinsman Íñigo Íñiguez Arista as king of Pamplona in 851 or 852. He was apparently the son of García Jiménez, who was probably lord of Álava and possibly a duke of Gascony during the time of King Íñigo. In 860, however, the fickle Navarrese gave the crown to the son of Arista, García Íñiguez. Jimeno's own son, García Jiménez, apparently became co-king of Pamplona sometime during the next reign. In the 10th century, Jimeno's house—the Jiménez—completely displaced the line of Arista and reigned in Navarre until 1234.


Galswintha

Galswintha (540-568) was the daughter of Athanagild, Visigothic king of Spain; the sister of Brunhilda, queen of Austrasia; and the wife of Chilperic I, the Merovingian king of Neustria.

Galswintha and Chilperic were married at Rouen in 567, but soon afterwards she was murdered at the instigation of Chilperic's mistress Fredegund, who then married him.

Her death aroused the enmity of her sister Brunhild against Chilperic, bringing about 40 years of warfare between the Frankish kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galswintha"


Alan de Galloway

Alan Fitz Roland, Lord of Galloway, was the last of the MacFergus dynasty of quasi-independent Lords of Galloway. He was also hereditary Constable of Scotland.

He was the son of Roland, or Lochlann, Lord of Galloway and Helen de Morville. His date of birth is uncertain, but he was considered an adult in 1196. In right of his mother he inherited the de Morville Lordship of Lauderdale. as well as others in that vicinity: West of Blainslie, in Lauderdale, but in the Lordship of Melrose, are the lands of Threepwood, which were granted by Alan, Constable of Scotland, to the monks of Melrose between 1177 and 1204.

With Alan's death his holdings were divided between his three daughters and their husbands. A popular attempt was made within Galloway to establish his illegitimate son, Thomas, as ruler, but this failed, and Galloway's period as an independent political entity came to an end.


Uchtred

Lord of Galloway from 1161 to 1174, ruling jointly with his half-brother Gille Brigte (Gilbert). They were sons of Fergus of Galloway; their mothers' names are unknown, but Uchtred may have been born to one of the many illegitimate daughters of Henry I of England. As a boy he was sent as a hostage to the court of King Máel Coluim IV of Scotland. When his father, Prince Fergus, died in 1161, Uchtred was made co-ruler of Galloway along with Gilla Brigte. They participated in the disastrous invasion of Northumberland under William I of Scotland in 1174. King William was captured, and the Galwegians rebelled, taking the opportunity to slaughter the Norman and Saxon settlers in their land. During this time Uchtred was brutally mutilated, blinded, castrated, and killed by his brother Gille Brigte and Gille Brigte's son, Máel Coluim. Gille Brigte then seized control of Galloway entire. Uchtred had married Gunhilda of Dunbar, and they were the parents of Lochlann and Eve of Galloway, wife of Walter de Berkeley.
from Wikipedia