Sancho III. (Navarre)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sancho III. - Depiction on his tombstone in the Basilica of San Isidoro in León

Sancho III. the Great ( Basque Antso Nagusia , Spanish Sancho el Mayor ; * around 990; † October 18, 1035 ) was King of Navarre from the House of Jiménez from 999 to 1035 . Under his rule, Navarre briefly gained supremacy among the Christian empires of Spain .

Life

Sancho was a son of King García II and Jimena Fernández. He succeeded his father, who died around the turn of the year from 999 to 1000, and was under a guardianship regency until 1004. In his early and hardly documented years of rulership he had to recover his kingdom from the consequences of the devastating raids by the Moors of Al-Andalus under Almansor († 1002). From the year 1017, Sancho began an urgent policy of expansion that gave him and his dynasty hegemony over the Christian empires of Spain. In that year he first annexed the Pyrenees counties of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza , bordering on the east of Navarre , after the ruling and widely related count house there had died out. Both counties originally belonged to the Spanish Mark of the Franconian Empire , as did Aragón, which had been annexed earlier . In the same year, his father-in-law, Count Sancho García , died, after which he was able to exercise a dominant influence on Castile , west of Navarre, as the guardian of his young brother-in-law García Sánchez .

The kingdom of Sanchos III. of Navarre (dark orange) in the early 11th century. In green, the typhoon kingdoms of al-Andalus.

The death of King Alfonso V of León in 1028 decisively promoted Sancho's rise to the hegemon of the Christian empires of Spain, since he was now the only ruler among them. The new King of León , Bermudo III. , was not only a child of eleven, but was also under the tutelage of his stepmother Urraca , who in turn was a sister of Sancho. When García Sánchez of Castile wanted to marry the sister of the new Leonese king, Sancha , in 1029 , he was murdered just before the wedding day. To what extent Sancho was involved in this attack remains unclear; however, he took advantage of the death of his brother-in-law and took control of Castile in the name of his wife. This county should one day fall to his youngest son Ferdinand as heir, for whom Sancho forced the marriage with Infanta Sancha in 1032 and thus secured the claim to the Leonese throne. At the latest from this point on, Sancho took over for Bermudo III. the guardianship government in León, which he considered the “crown of his empire” (imperiali culmine) , as he expressed this in his title in a document from that year. According to his claim, this empire comprised the whole of Spain, as whose king he already described himself in a document dated June 27, 1017, that is, during the lifetime of Alfonso V of León, who was at least his equal. The remarkable thing is not only that the title "King of the Spaniards' first time here at all was used, but that Sancho was also the first ruler south of the Pyrenees , the divine complaining for itself, following the example of the Frankish kings. In addition, he was the first Trans-Pyrenean king who made direct contact with the West Franconian / French court when he met King Robert II and Duke Wilhelm V of Aquitaine in Saint-Jean-d'Angély at an unspecified time met for a diplomatic meeting. At the latest after the death of Alfonso V in 1028, the “Spanish kingship” of Sanchos became a reality, which was expressed through the increased use of this title in his documents. He was recognized in a letter from the abbot Oliba as "King of Iberia". In his coinage, Sancho finally used the title of imperator (IMPERATOR / NAIARA), which until then had only been used by the Leonese kings, to underpin their claim to the legacy of the Visigoth kings ruling over the Iberian peninsula . However, this title was not used in his documents, only in a document from the Abbey of San Juan de la Peña that was exposed as a forgery .

Sancho's extensive power politics must be understood against the background of the simultaneous disintegration of the political unity of al-Andalus, in which the caliphate of Córdoba perished after the death of vizier Almansor in 1002 in a series of devastating battles for the throne and the old differences between Berbers and Arabs . In its place came several sub-kingdoms ( taifa ) , which, due to their rivalries with one another, did not pose a direct threat to the Christian states of Spain. Apart from his expansion of power, Sancho continued to seize the opportunity to carry out structural reforms of the monastic system in his empire by promoting the reorganization of the monastery organization according to the rules of St. Benedict of Nursia . As early as 1022 he suggested the adoption of the Benedictine rule to the monastery of San Salvador de Leire and at the same time he made contact with the Abbey of Cluny under its abbot Odilo , for whose reform movement he opened the Spanish monastery system. During his lifetime, the Abbeys of San Juan de la Peña , San Millán de la Cogolla and San Salvador de Oña were integrated into the Cluniac monastery system.

Until the spring of 1034, Sancho still ruled as guardian for Bermudo III. in León, in whose name he restored the diocese of Palencia and then married him to his daughter Jimena. But in the same year he forced Bermudo III. into exile in Galicia , assumed sole rule in León and thus reached the height of his power. However, he never held the title of King of León. He died just a little over a year later. He was buried in the Abbey of San Salvador de Oña; later his body was transferred to the Abbey of San Isidoro de León .

Family and Hereditary Control

From the marriage with Munia Mayor of Castile († 1066), closed around 1010 , Sancho III. the following children:

With his mistress Sancha of Aibar he had an illegitimate son:

The kingdom of Sanchos III. of Navarre after the division of the inheritance among his sons.

Sancho's Spanish empire came to an end with his death, as here too, following the Frankish model, he considered all of his sons with various territories as their own kingdoms. The oldest legitimately born García received the ancestral land of the dynasty around Navarra including the regions of La Rioja , Álava , Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa . In addition, as an elder, he was supposed to be a kind of senior citizen within the family to which his brothers had to submit. For Ramiro , who was born out of wedlock , the former county of Aragón was now separated from Navarre as a separate kingdom, just as the recently won Sobrarbe and Ribagorza were established as a kingdom for Gonzalo . The youngest son Ferdinand beckoned the maternal inheritance, the county of Castile, as well as the entitlement to the Kingdom of León gained through his marriage, which he won in 1037 through his victory at Tamarón against Bermudo III. eventually won too.

However, no lasting harmony should be maintained among the brothers. In 1054 Ferdinand emerged victorious from a fratricidal war with García, who was killed, and secured himself and his empire leadership among the Spanish. Gonzalo had been murdered as early as 1045 and his small Pyrenean kingdom had united Ramiro with Aragón. The family quarrel continued among the grandchildren of Sancho, with the result that Sancho IV of Navarre was killed in a palace revolt in 1076 , and the kingdom of Navarre under Alfonso VI. was divided by León-Castile and Sancho Ramírez of Aragón . Although Navarra was able to regain its independence in 1134, from then on it was restricted to the region around Pamplona and excluded from any further expansion. Instead, León-Castile and Aragón were able to establish themselves as the two leading Spanish powers from the legacy of Sancho the Great.

literature

  • Béatrice Leroy: Sancho III. Garcés . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 1356 f.
  • Roldán Jimeno Aranguren, Aitor Pescador Medrano: Colección documental de Sancho Garcés III, el Mayor, rey de Pamplona (1004-1035). Pamplona: Pamiela, 2003 (cited as "CDSancho III").
  • Gonzalo Martínez Díez: Sancho III el Mayor: rey de Pamplona, ​​Rex Ibericus. Marcial Pons, Ediciones de Historia, SA San Sotero, Madrid, 2007.

Web links

Commons : Sancho III.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fragmentum historicum. Ex cartulario Alaonis, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 46 (1836), p. 325.
  2. ↑ “Sancius rex in Aragona, et in Pampilona et in Castella et in Campis vel in Legione imperiali culmine…” see: Colección de privilegios de la corona de Castilla, vol. 6, ed. by Tomás Gonzáles (1833), no. 220, pp. 30–32.
  3. ↑ "Ego Sancius, rex Dei gratia Hyspaniarum ..." see: Colección diplomática de San Salvador de Oña (822-1284), ed. by Juan del Álamo (1950), no.19.
  4. ↑ Ademar von Chabannes , Chronicon, liber tertius, § 56, ed. by Jules Chavanon (1897), p. 180. Sancho also maintained friendly contacts with Duke Wilhelm V of Aquitaine; both exchanged gifts annually, see Chabannes § 41, ibid., pp. 163–165.
  5. ↑ For example on May 14th 1030 “Ego Sancius, gratia Dei Yspaniarum rex, cernens de die in diem totam Yspaniam…” see: Cartulario de San Millán de la Cogolla (759-1076), ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1976), no. 193. Or on June 27, 1033 “Sancius, gratia Dei Hispaniarum rex…” see: Colección diplomática de San Salvador de Oña (822-1284), ed. by Juan del Álamo (1950), no.26.
  6. ↑ "Domino et uenerabili Santio regi iberico" see: CDSancho III, no. 67.
  7. ↑ Rudi Thomsen: Ensayo de sistematización de las monedas navarras y aragonesas de los siglos XI y XII. In: NVMISMA: Revista de la Sociedad Iberoamericana de Estudios Numismáticos, Vol. 20 (1956), p. 46 (online) . The addition NAIARA apparently refers to the city of Nájera as the place of coinage.
  8. ↑ "Ego rex Santius, Imperator in Castella et in Pampilona et in Aragone et in Superarbi et in Ripacurcia ..." see: CDSancho III, No. 79. The Crónica de San Juan de la Peña also names Sancho III. "Emperador". Historia de la Corona de Aragón: Crónica de San Juan de la Peña: Part aragonesa, ed. by T. Ximénez de Embún y Val (1876), § 14, pp. 37-43.
  9. ↑ Colección diplomática de la catedral de Pamplona, ​​Tomo I (829-1243), ed. by José Goñi Gaztambide (1997), No. 7, p. 29. Sancti Odilonis epistolæ III, ed. by Jacques Paul Migne in: Patrologiae cursus completus. Series Latina. Vol. 214, Col. 942. A Spanish delegation mentioned by Rodulfus Glaber , who asked Abbot Odilo to send Cluniac monks to Spain, was probably from Sancho III. instructed. Rodulfi Glabri Cluniacensis Monachi Historiarum III, ibid., Sp. 650-651.
  10. ↑ Chronicon Burgense, ed. by Enríque Flórez, in: España Sagrada. Vol. 23 (1765), p. 308. Annales Complutenses, ibid., P. 313. Historia Silense , ed. by Simon Barton and Richard Fletcher, in: The World of El Cid: Chronicles of the Spanish Reconquest. Manchester University Press, 2000, § 72, pp. 41-42.
  11. ↑ Bernardo is mentioned only once in a document from his father to the Abbey of San Martín de Albelda from December 17, 1024. Cartulario de Albelda, ed. by Antonio Ubieto Arteta (1981), No. 32, p. 43.
predecessor Office successor
García II. King of Navarre
1000-1035 		García III.
García II. Count of Aragon
1000-1035 		Ramiro I.
(Aragon becomes its own kingdom)
Wilhelm Count of Sobrarbe and Ribagorza
1017-1035 		Gonzalo
(Sobrarbe-Ribagorza becomes its own kingdom)
García Sánchez Count of Castile
(until 1032 de iure uxoris with Munia Mayor)
1029–1035 		Ferdinand I.
personal data
SURNAME Sancho III.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sancho the Great; Sancho Garcés; Sancho I of Castile
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Aragon, Navarre and Castile
DATE OF BIRTH around 990
DATE OF DEATH October 18, 1035